Long term adaptations to exercise - Cardiovascular system

The second assignment we will be doing will be based around the long term adaptations that our 5 body systems go through as a result of regular exercise.

Long term = At least 6 weeks

Adaptations = Responses of the body as a result of a regular stimulus - in this case, exercise.

The 5 body systems we will be analysing are:

Cardiovascular
Muscular
Skeletal
Respiratory
Energy

Week 1 - Cardiovascular

There are lots of adaptations that the cardiovascular system goes through as a result of regular exercise. These adaptations help with better delivery of oxygen, and better removal of carbon dioxide and other metabolic products, such as lactic acid. There are 9 different responses:

1. Cardiac hypertrophy
2. Decreased resting heart rate
3. Decreased resting blood pressure
4. Increased stroke volume
5. Increased cardiac output
6. Increased blood volume
7. Increased capillarisation
8. Increased aerobic capacity
9. Decreased recovery time

I am going to be explaining 3 of these in depth.

1. Cardiac hypertrophy:

Cardiac hypertrophy is the process by which the heart muscle gets stronger as a result of regularly working harder.

As the heart works harder on a regular basis, the muscular walls get thicker (especially the left ventricle wall), and there is an overall increase in the amount of cardiac muscle.

The changes occur as a result of there being a regular increase in the amount of work the cardiac muscle has to do. It responds to this increase in load by increasing the size and number of muscle fibres in order cope with the load better.

This will have a positive effect on performance as it means that the heart muscle doesn’t have to work as hard to deliver the same amount of blood to the working muscles