WHY YOU ARE OUT OF BREATH AFTER A COUPLE OF MINUTES OF EXERCISE

Hi all again,

Hope your day has been productive and enjoyable.

Well I was struggling to come up with something for tonight that I thought would be of interest to anybody, until I was doing a bit of Speed Training with one of my mates. It brought to mind a question I was asked the other day by another one of the guys I train with and that question was.

“How come when we do this Speed Work, That while I am in motion and running as hard as I can over 40 meters with a walk back recovery several times, I am not that out of breath? But as soon as I finish, I am sucking in air like you won’t believe.”

This got me thinking about the amount of people that think they will start to train, and go out for their first Jog (not the best thing to do, but the most popular) and then in the first 5 minutes are puffing and panting, they then think it is all too hard and either walk or just pack it in.

It is very important to understand your body and the energy systems that it uses to get you physically performing, if the aforementioned budding athletes understood some simple physiology, they would see that what is happening with regards to their breathing happens to everyone, even the fittest athletes, and this is why!

Your body has three energy systems available to it, to allow you to perform Physical Exercise. Here are some fancy names, you don’t need to remember them, just how they will affect you.

1. The ATP/PC System. (Adenosine Tri Phosphate -  Phospho Creatine) who came up with that mouthful?
2. The Lactic Acid System
3. The Aerobic System

• The ATP/PC system  uses stored energy in your muscles.  Any movement that you make that lasts from between 1-8 seconds (these are rough times) are governed by this system. You will notice that just by moving an arm or leg, you don’t get out of breath and this is why. The energy for you to do this, is already there in the muscle. However it does not last very long as I have explained.

• The Lactic Acid System. Once the immediate energy that is there for us is depleted (around 8 seconds) our body has to work to produce more energy if we are going to carry on. This is where the Lactic Acid system fires in. The Lactic Acid system will produce energy for you from around 8 seconds up to around 3 minutes. The way it gets it’s energy is a Metabolic Process called Anaerobic Glycolsis. However a by product of this is called Lactic Acid. If you are not very fit and you work too hard, Lactic Acid will build up quickly and if you don’t slow down, you will come to a complete halt. This is because your muscles become saturated with Lactic Acid. Imagine a fire. When you burn Wood or coal, you are left with ash (the waste product of the fire) eventually when it is all ash, the fire goes out.  The same thing happens to your muscles when they are full of Lactic Acid they stop working.

The above two systems are called Anaerobic (meaning without Oxygen) meaning they do not need Oxygen as an energy source. They are used when you are Sprinting.  100, 200, 400 and 800 meter runners rely mainly on these 2 energy systems.

• The Aerobic System. (With Oxygen) After around 3 minutes of effort, it is your Aerobic system that starts to supply your energy, by sending Oxygen to your working muscles. (I am trying to keep this all very easy to understand) to convert into fuel. The more efficient this system is, the longer you can go at a steady pace and the faster you will recover between intense bouts of exercise.

Pretty cool hey?

Now think about a situation where you have had to run very fast to catch a bus, you sprint like mad, and because you have the speed of Usain Bolt, you just get to it before it leaves, you get on the bus and you are gulping in large quantities of Oxygen to get your breath back. This is because you used your Anaerobic energy systems(the first two on the list) to supply your World record dash to the bus. But now you have to replenish these energy systems and that is done by Oxygen. Hence being out of breath after you have done the work. This is called Oxygen Debt.

Now let's look at our new trainer and how this Physiological sequence makes them think it is all too much.

Off they go on a jog, the first thing that happens is the body will use the stored energy of the ATP/PC system. As I have already pointed out, after about 8 secs, Glycolsis kicks in, and for around the first 3 minutes of their jog, they are using these systems. Now because they have not used any Oxygen for fuel yet, once the Aerobic system starts to kick in, you have to pay back the Oxygen Debt. That is why, when they start their chosen exercise, they will always be a little out of breath after a couple of minutes. However, if they hang in there for another few minutes, the Aerobic system will start to function efficiently and their breathing will become more normal.

How does this help people who have just started to train?

Simple, if they understood the process that their body was going through,  they would realise that all they need to do is push through this short uncomfortable stage and then breathing, although a little higher than normal would feel much more comfortable.

Well I hope that anyone reading this who is going to start out on an exercise programme or has already started one,  now understands why they are out of breath almost straight away and that this helps them to keep on going toward their Healthy Life.

All the best to everyone, see if you can work this little saying out?

“YOU CAN'T  HOOT WITH THE OWLS IF YOU WANT TO SCREAM WITH THE EAGLES ”

I wish I had, when I was a young man!!!

See you in the next Blog.

Steve