The Use Of Adenosine Triphosphate And Anaerobic Exercise

Submitted By hobbit88
Words: 1911
Pages: 8

During short-duration maximal exercise the human body relies on the resynthesize of adenosine triphosphate (ATP) via anaerobic metabolism in order to keep exercising. The maximum amount of ATP that the human body can resynthesize is defined as anaerobic capacity (Green S, 1993). In terms of measuring anaerobic energy turnover/metabolism there are many methods, from muscle biopsies and testing blood lactate levels, to using indirect measures of anaerobic capacity such as correlations between oxygen deficiency and anaerobic capacity. However none of these methods are universally accepted, due to separate issues arising with the use of them all. Muscular biopsies can be used to provide accurate measures anaerobic glycolysis through the measure in concentration levels of ATP and CP as well as local muscular blood lactate accumulation. The issue with the use of this method is that it cannot be used to show directly the participants anaerobic capacity. the Another issue that arises with this method is that the test is very invasive as it involves the removal of muscle tissue from the subject. The same issues reoccur when looking at the use blood lactate measurements following maximal intensity exercise. (Gastin, 1994) A study by Scott, C. B., Roby, F. B., Lohman, T.G. & Bunt, J. C. (1991) Concluded that the potential use of maximally accumulated oxygen deficit (MAOD) was a promising indicator of anaerobic capacity. Within their study they tested four distance and five middle distance runners, three sprinters and four controls. The subjects completed supramaximal running tests of 2-3 minutes running at 125-140% of VO2max until exhaustion followed by post-exercise blood lactate testing, Wingate cycle ergometer tests and runs of 300, 400 and 600 metre runs. Then by comparison of the aerobically and anaerobically trained athletes test results they were able to distinguish if there was a noticeable difference between the two groups. The results indentified that anaerobic capacity was greater in the sprinters and middle distance runners than the long distance runners (Scott, 1991). This is what should be expected and does go some way to providing evidence of a legitimate rationale for the use of indirect measures of anaerobic capacity, as a means to provide information on anaerobic turnover/metabolism.

This study was conducted on 60 voluntary, but randomly selected students. Their ages ranged from 18 years old to 32 years of age, with an average participant age of 20. The training experience of the group was varied going from untrained to elite athlete.
Materials:
The subjects body fat percentage (BF%) was tested twice with two different methods to provide a comparison. The first method used Harpenden Callipers on four different upper body sites. The second was a bio-electrical impedance test using a Bodystat 1500.
Design:
This study used two controlled experiments looking at body fat percentages. All 60 participants completed both experiments, following the same protocol for both. This was done in order to reduce any possible variables that could have occurred within the testing of participants. The reason for this is because the aim of the experiment was to test the difference in results from the different methods.
Procedure:
Firstly the participant’s were subjected to a bio-electrical impedance test using a Bodystat 1500 machine. The participant had two electrodes applied to them. One placed on the back of the hand towards the wrist in line with the middle knuckle, the other placed on the top of the foot again in line with the middle knuckle. The tester then inputted the participant’s data into the machine. Data included the subject’s gender, age, and height and activity level. The Bodystat 1500 works by passing a safe battery generated pulse through the participant’s body from one electrode to the other. To calculate the participants body fat percentage, amongst other data, by measuring the impedance at a fixed