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Practical 4: Cardiorespiratory responses to incremental

exercise

INTRODUCTION.
During exercise, increased oxygen uptake by contracting skeletal muscles requires increased oxygen
delivery that is achieved by increasing ventilation, cardiac output and muscle perfusion (Wasserman
1997). This requires the combined actions of respiratory, cardiovascular and cellular processes that
deliver oxygen to contracting skeletal muscles.

AIM

The aim of this study was to investigate changes in cardiovascular (heart rate and blood pressure)
and respiratory (ventilation and oxygen consumption) variables during incremental cycling exercise.

RESULTS.
In response to submaximal incremental cycling exercise, ventilation and oxygen consumption were
significantly (P<0.05) higher at a power output of 90, 120 and 150 watts compared with when the
power output was 60 watts (Figure 1).

Similarly, heart rate, systolic and diastolic blood pressure and mean arterial pressure were
significantly higher at power outputs of 90, 120 and 150 watts compared with the 60-watt level of
power output (Figure 2).

Figure 1: Mean (±SEM) oxygen consumption and ventilation during incremental cycling exercise.
n=62. * denotes p<0.05 compared with 60 watts.
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Figure 2: Mean (±SEM) blood pressure and heart rate during incremental cycling exercise. n=62.
*denotes p<0.05 compared with 60 watts. SBP = Systolic blood pressure, DBP = diastolic blood
pressure, MAP = mean arterial pressure, HR = heart rate.

DISCUSSION.

According to the practical result, it can be established that fats and carbohydrates are very
vital components for work to be done. One of the vivid observations made from the practical is that
work done is proportional to the input energy. For example, the high oxygen consumption at high
watts in the experiment. In human being, metabolism of fats and carbohydrates form the main
sources of energy used by the other tissue-metabolisms. In the past ten decades, researches show
that metabolism of fats is quite complicated and occurs in a complex manner by involving other
tissues and sites. These sites include the muscle cell, the binding and the cytoplasm. Other sites also
include the mitochondria, which is facilitated by the certain proteins such as adipose triglyceride
lipase. Research done by Mul, Stanford, Hirshman and Goodyear, (2015) added that oxidation of fats
and carbohydrates normally occurs simultaneously in the body, though their utilization depends on
the fuel shift crisis. Fats yield a double amount of energy obtained from the same amount of
carbohydrates. The oxidation of these fats (triglycerides) occurs in the body when the glucose level
goes down and becomes converted into CoA molecules to provide the body with the necessary ATP.
The breakdown of these fats begins in the cytoplasm in which the acyl CoA is formed before being
combined with the carnitine to form fatty acyl carnitine transported by the membrane of
mitochondria and get converted there in to acetyl CoA passed through the Krebs cycle to form ATP.
This means that when one consumes food high in carbohydrates, the body requires a lot of energy
for the complete oxidation to occur while the metabolism of fats remains untriggered. Hence, the
explanation for the downregulation in the presence of high carbohydrates (Lopaschuk and Ussher,
2016). However, this reciprocal relationship existing between the oxidation of fats and
carbohydrates have been influenced by various dietary interventions.
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Carbohydrates and fats are the predominant body substrates oxidized at rest, and are
normally oxidized simultaneously. However, interventions on the type of diets are a key
consideration to the fats and carbohydrate oxidation in the body. This aims at energy production
necessary for basal metabolic processes in the body through the skeletal muscles. Fats and
carbohydrate metabolism processes are because of body allosteric regulations. Whereas both the
metabolism processes have to take place simultaneously, acute food intakes in conjunction to
chronic diet intensify substrate utilization alternatively. This implies that increased rate of
carbohydrate consumption rapidly suppresses metabolism of fats, while correspondingly increasing
the metabolism process of carbohydrates with respect to time factor frame of approximately a
week.

Gessaman and Nagy (1988), argues that metabolism activity is a subject to many factors in
the body that includes body exercise, environmental conditions or precisely body temperatures and
presence of either heat exposure or cold exposure to the body, among many others. With the
insights of body exercises, there is the activation of the metabolic pathways for both fat and
carbohydrate oxidation due to increased metabolic rates and energy requirement in the body. In
connection to this, the interactions between the carbohydrate and fat oxidation, at any given body
factor is dependent on the extracellular and intracellular consideration.

Conclusion

After high carbohydrate consumption into the body, the excess carbohydrate breaks down
into glucose through the digestive system and released into the blood stream to raise the blood
sugar level in the body (Gollnick, 1985). The body responds to this by initiating pancreas to stop the
secretion of glucagon (necessary for burning body fats to energy) and stimulates insulin release.
Insulin hormone necessitates transportation of glucose to the body cells for energy production and
stabilization of the blood sugar. Moreover, initial insulin secretion works on the carbohydrate level
of the prior meal to ensure that blood sugar level is still elevated. Therefore, there is second insulin
secretion and more transportation of glucose to cells for storage in glycogen form. Body cells have
limited storage capacity. Because of this, the insulin transports excess glucose to the liver for storage
in the form of fatty acids.
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Reference

Gessaman, J. A., & Nagy, K. A. (1988). Energy metabolism: errors in gas-exchange conversion factors.
Physiological Zoology, 61(6), 507-513.

Gollnick, P. D. (1985, February). Metabolism of substrates: energy substrate metabolism during

exercise and as modified by training. In Federation proceedings (Vol. 44, No. 2, pp.
353-357).

Lopaschuk, G. D., & Ussher, J. R. (2016). Evolving concepts of myocardial energy metabolism: more
than just fats and carbohydrates. Circulation research, 119(11), 1173-1176.

Mul, J. D., Stanford, K. I., Hirshman, M. F., & Goodyear, L. J. (2015). Exercise and regulation of
carbohydrate metabolism. In Progress in molecular biology and translational science
(Vol. 135, pp. 17-37). Academic Press.