Understanding the ATP-PC System and the Importance of Aerobic Training
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Learn the importance of the ATP-PC system and how to improve your aerobic fitness. SUBSCRIBE: ***Make sure not to miss a single video from Performance Ground!
There are a couple of important components in regards to aerobic fitness or defining aerobic fitness or the way to improve aerobic fitness. So first one looking at is O2 carrying capacity which is the ability of our hemoglobin, our red blood cells in our blood, to carry oxygen and deliver it to where it needs to be delivered. Muscle diffusion capacity which is the ability for this oxygen to diffuse into the muscle, and then cardiac output which is the amount of blood that gets pumped out of the heart in one minute.
And then capillary density which is the number of capillaries that we have around our lungs, our ability to diffuse oxygen and diffuse carbon dioxide to get rid of waste products and which to take in oxygen. All of this ties into the very big picture of VO2 Max, which is the maximum ability to perform aerobic work essentially. The ability to get oxygen to where it needs to be while we’re exercising which is pivotal, the be all end all of the aerobic performance.
The first thing that you’re going to start with is glucose molecule. We’re talking about breaking down carbohydrates for energy; we’re talking about glucose which is the simplest form of carbohydrate. It goes through a couple of processes. So this first one will be glycolysis where the final product of that is pyruvate. And then after pyruvate, in the presence of oxygen, so this is that thing I was talking about above the VO2 Max, the ability to get oxygen in. In the presence of oxygen, it goes through something called Kreb’s cycle. And then the final process it goes through is something called the electron transport chain, ETC.
Now we’re going to be learning a little bit more about performance, about actually training and about how you can utilize it in a sense. Even though some people don’t like to do the long runs, they don’t like to do aerobic training, they much prefer to be at the gym, even people like me, even I don’t enjoy aerobic training, I’m doing a marathon next year. But it’s such an important component, especially when you’re talking about sport and performance. For example, in football, VO2 max is the second biggest determinant of sporting performance or vicinity in a match, obviously besides technical ability which is going to be number one, shows how important it is. And it’s even going to be important in power sports.
So couple of them can be obviously your slow, steady state stuff, you’re thinking like marathon training and things like that, you’re going to be talking about some long runs that people are going to go on and they are going to be working at a slower speed, but they are going to maintain that over a long period of time. There are alternate ways such as intermittent exercise, higher intensity interval training, where you can perform amounts of high-intensity work, interspersed with rest, and if performing this for long enough, you can make it aerobic in a sense.
Yes, so each of these methods is its steady state, or be it intermittent, you will have different ways of going about it, and they’ll train different qualities. In the end, it depends on what your goal is and what you’re chasing. So one of the best things you can do is think about your work to rest ratio. Like for example, like I was speaking about before about how important VO2 Max is, say for example work to rest ratio of 1:3. That means for every 10 seconds of work someone does; there’d be 30 seconds of rest. And you can plan your training by that in terms of aerobic fitness.
