Oxygen, fat burning and your body

There was an old doctor who practiced unconventional medicine. He was very fit for his eighthy years old. One day, someone asked him what was his secret. He took a deep breath that went on for so long everybody was amazed. He said: "The more oxygen you can breathe, the better you will live because the more you nourish your system." This shows how important is oxygen and breathing while doing exercise.

Exercise should increase your lungs capacity because your lungs are like balloons; it is at the beginning hard to inflate them, but when they are inflated, they keep a larger shape, increasing its capacity with less efforts. That's what aerobics exercise does to your lungs.

So, the more skillful at an exercise, the less oxygen is needed and less energy is depleted.

The body's oxygen requirements increase drastically the moment exercise begins. However, the respiration and circulation transport sytem needs several minutes to produce adequate oxygen muscles need. Thus, when we recover from a quick sprint, our oxygen consumption does not immediately ends, leaving us out of breath. The oxygen debt resulting exists partly to clear the CO2 accumulated in the tissues as by-products of metabolism.

Training helps making oxygen readily available to our metabolism and getting rid of toxins faster. As a result, we have more stamina.

What are the metabolic changes coming from oxygen consumption during exercise?

Increased oxygen consumption (VO2) and carbon dioxide production (VCO2) occur immediately with exercise. During aerobic metabolism, glucose and fats utilize oxygen to form adenosine triphosphate (ATP), the ultimate source of energy.

There is very little oxygen stored in the body, so aerobic metabolism requires continuous delivery of oxygen from the atmosphere to the blood. Without oxygen, glucose is metabolized anaerobically, using up oxygen from cells and generating lactic acid as a by-product.

In other words, aerobics forces oxygen through your body, increasing the number and size of your blood vessels. Blood vessels transport oxygen and nutrients to muscles and carry waste products away for muscular growth, for repair and for recovery. Without aerobics in your training program your body cannot create new delivery systems of oxygen to your newly developed muscles.

Many body builders make this mistake. They think that if they train aerobically, they are going to lose muscle mass. Actually, muscle mass loss comes from a poor diet that cannot compensate for the loss in carbohydrates.

Thus, aerobics is definitely good for everyone, in moderation (3 to 4 times a week), and at moderate levels of intensity (60% of Max. Heart Rate is ideal).