Early Morning Workout

After another successful "boys night out" which consists of a group of four of my closest girlfriends getting together to watch the Bears play and consume endless number of mild wings and drink beer we decided we needed to burn the calories and put the protein we consumed to good use. I'm going to be completely honest I don't work out often. In fact the last time I went to the gym regularly was probably in 2007. Since then it has been whenever there is absolutely and utterly nothing to do. I guess I was inspired by going with one of my friends who was joining a gym and waking up early (and by early I mean 5:00am) to workout with another friend who has been doing that routine for years now.
Waking up was so hard to do, I blame the cold front for making my nice toasty sheets feel like heaven...anyway, after a cup of coffee I'm pumped and on my way to the Rec. We start by warming up on the treadmill. We put it on high incline and worked our way until we were running. After 20 minutes my body was fatigued. My heart was racing. I was breathing heavy, and beginning to sweat. Since I had forgotten to bring my iPod and the music at the gym wasn't of interest my mind (as a nerdy biological student) started thinking of how my body was working to keep up with the high demand of my working muscles.
To get started I would like to review how muscles require ATP for energy. Muscles normally store ATP, but not enough is stored to supply the body with the high demand needed when exercising. There are three ways the body makes ATP to supply your muscles, phosphagen system, glycogen-lactic acid system, and Aerobic respiration. The phosphagen system breaks a phosphate bond called creatine. The creatine phosphate is broken down by a creatine enzyme specialized for this and creates the ATP. (In this process ADP->ATP->ADP->which then turns to ADP confusing, I KNOW!) Through the glycogen-lactic acid system glycogen (a carbohydrate chain) is broken down to glucose. The cell then uses anaerobic metabolism to break down glucose to ATP and lactic acid. Aerobic respiration uses oxygen the body supplies to break down glucose into CO₂ and H₂O. The most important nutrient muscles need to continue is oxygen. This is why my heart is beating fast and my breathing has increased. These are all responses my crazy body is doing in order to keep that oxygen rich blood circulating to my hard working muscles while taking out CO₂. Working muscles release adenosine which account for blood vessels to dilate to be able to move the rapid blood flow. However the sympathetic nervous system overrides the message to dilate all the body’s vessels. Since acytocholine is released by the muscle’s action potential the brain tells the body to constrict other muscles like organs in order to keep as much blood to flow to the muscles to keep up with the oxygen supply needed by aerobic respiration.
Meanwhile when chemical reactions take place heat is released. There’s no mystery as to why our body secrets sweat, and just to remind myself (test coming up) my hypothalamus is getting signals about rising internal temperature which triggers action potentials in the neurons that secrete sweat. The sweat then evaporates in an attempt to keep the body from overheating and cooking up inside.
WOW, amazing how all of this is instantly turned on inside with just a couple of minutes of excursive. Poor body, I will feel the effects of its hard work tomorrow when my legs feel like falling off because I’m sore. (Interesting side note, during the glycogen-lactic acid system if too much lactic acid is produced it is stored in the muscles and is the reason why the muscle feels sore the next day). http://health.howstuffworks.com/wellness/diet-fitness/exercise/sports-physiology.htm