Exercise Physiology

Just as our minds require strengthening to embrace life’s difficult situations and decisions, such as relationships, family, career, and lifestyle, and our spirits need centering and calming to create the internal space to grow as complete individuals, so our bodies also require tuning and development to keep our energy high and build the confidence necessary to reinforce our mental powers.

Our program of structured exercise ties together all the factors necessary to create physical health while promoting mental and spiritual wellness.
As humans we have an amazingly high capacity to expend energy for many hours doing sustained work or exercise. Skeletal muscle burns 90 mg (0.5 mmol) of glucose each minute in continuous activity generating 24 W of mechanical energy. Since muscle energy conversion is only 22-26% efficient we addionally expend 76 W of heat energy. We can harness this process to our advantage.

Resting skeletal muscle has a basal metabolic rate, known as resting energy consumption, of 0.63 W/kg. This makes for a 160 fold difference between the energy consumption of active and inactive muscles. Short muscular exertion can result in energy expenditure that far exceed even these numbers. When jumping up from a squat, for example, an adult human male mechanically generates as much as 314 W/kg.

This energy expenditure is enormous compared to the resting metabolism basal metabolic rate of the adult human body. This varies somewhat with size, gender, and age, but is typically between 45 W and 85 W. Total energy expenditure (TEE) due to muscular expended energy is very much higher and depends upon the average level of physical work and exercise done throughout the day. Thus regular exercise, and particularly if it is sustained for significant periods of time, will dominate the energy metabolism of the body.

 

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