Ages 11 14 Ages 11 14 Knowledge Card On your marks get set breathe Why is breathing so important for sport and movement? Breathing is vital in order to stay alive. But did you know that you can actually train your breathing to help increase how well you do at sport? Fogstock/plainpicture Whatever type of exercise, whether an Olympic sport or a dance class, the way you breathe will affect how well you can perform. Training your breathing Rolf Adlercreutz/Alamy George S de Blonsky/Alamy How your lungs work The function of your lungs is to take oxygen into your blood and remove carbon dioxide. Oxygen is then used by your body to release energy from food. Oxygen that is taken in during breathing is used for respiration, which releases energy. ribs diaphragm muscle air goes in and out Breathing is the way that air is forced in and out of the lungs. muscles contract and relax a. What do you think would happen to your breathing rate when you exercise? How could you find out if your prediction is correct? glucose carbon dioxide Aerobic respiration is a reaction that happens in the cells. oxygen glucose + oxygen energy released carbon dioxide + water b. How could you find out what effect exercise has on the amount of air you expel from your lungs? Hi, I m Professor Alison McConnell from Brunel University s Centre for Sports Medicine and Human Performance. I m researching how sportspeople can train their breathing in order to improve their performance. Breathing rate is a measure of breathing efficiency during exercise and is one of the measurements I make to test the effect of training on breathing. In Experiment A you are going to measure your breathing rate during and after various activities to see how it varies, as well as how it compares between people. Since ancient times, sportspeople have exercised their muscles by lifting weights to help them to jump higher, run or swim faster, and throw further. In the last ten years athletes have found that training their breathing muscles also helps to improve their performance. One of my research studies found that after six weeks of breathing muscle training, cyclists were able to improve the time it took to cycle 40 km by more than 2 minutes (4.6%) 1. So it is worth us finding out more about our breathing. www.powerbreathe.com Athletes train their breathing muscles to help them improve their performance.
Getting in the zone In sports such as archery, accuracy is crucial; any type of movement, including the act of breathing in and out, can affect the archer s aim. Archers get in the zone and regularly perform Zen breathing where they learn slow and deep breathing so that it doesn t affect their shot. Archers get in the zone by performing Zen breathing. Ages 11 14 A psychologist can help sportspeople to relax by slowing their breathing down, and by deep breathing using their diaphragm muscle rather than their chest muscles. You can try this by taking a deep, slow breath but trying to keep your chest still and just using your diaphragm muscle to inhale. c. How do different sportspeople control their breathing? Why does breathing have to be controlled in different ways for different sports? Radius Images/Corbis Overcoming asthma Many athletes have asthma yet still take part in and excel in sport, such as Paula Radcliffe. Although asthma can have many triggers, there is evidence that taking part in sports can actually be of benefit to people with mild asthma. The table below shows just how common exercise-induced asthma is amongst athletes. Prevalence of exercise-induced asthma in the general population is around 10%. Hi, my name is Simon Drane, I m a sports psychologist and spend the majority of my time at the ational Badminton Centre working with the GB Olympic Badminton squad. My main role is to help athletes get stronger mentally so that they can perform at their best when the pressure is on. Sports psychologists help athletes and sportspeople prepare for the psychological demands of competition and help them deal with the intense training that is often required. One of the main areas that I work in is helping athletes to understand how to get in the zone. The zone is the mental state in which athletes best perform the task at hand. For example a snooker player would play a difficult shot best in a calm, relaxed manner. However, a boxer may well need to be a lot more energised and activated prior to a boxing bout. Sport Prevalence of asthma and exercise-induced asthma (%) Athletics 16% Badminton 9% Canoe/kayak 11% Cycling 39% Hockey 31% Rowing 19% Swimming 44% Table 2: Prevalence of asthma and exercise-induced asthma within Team GB at the 2004 Olympic Games 2. 1 L.M. Romer, A.K. McConnell, D.A.Jones, Effects of inspiratory muscle training on time-trial performance in trained cyclists, Journal of Sports Sciences, 2002, 20, pp 547 562. 2 J.W. Dickinson, G. Whyte, A. McConnell, M. Harries, Impact of changes in the IOC-MC asthma criteria: a British perspective, Thorax, 2005, 60: 629 632.
From strength to strength How important are muscles for sporting success? Patrik Giardino/ Stone/Getty Images Is a sprinter born rather than made? We know that muscle size and muscle type are very important for sporting performance. The size and type of a muscle will determine the amount of force that it can generate and for how long it can contract before fatigue sets in. Ages 11 14 My name is Steve Ingham and I am the Head of Physiology for the English Institute of Sport. I work with our very best athletes who are training in the hope of winning Olympic medals. When our team of sport scientists are able to use their understanding of the human body and how it responds to exercise we can really help athletes go faster, be stronger, go higher, and so push forward the boundaries of human achievements. And that is what makes my work so exciting. Ages 14 16 Knowledge Card The strength of your muscles will affect how well you perform. Bertrand Guay/AFP/ Getty Images Chris Hyde/ Getty Images In Experiment A you will investigate the relationship between muscle size and the number of repetitions of various upper body exercises that you can do. Experiment D focuses on the effects of fatigue from exercise and whether fatigue is localised. How muscles work Muscles are attached to our bones by tendons. When muscles contract they get shorter. When they do so they pull the bone they are attached to which acts as a lever to create movement. Muscles work in antagonistic muscle pairs. This means that one muscle pulls the bone to one position, such as the biceps flexing the elbow to pull the forearm up. Then the other muscle pulls on the bone to return it to the original position, in this case the triceps extend the elbow to straighten the arm. Bob Thomas Sports Photography/Getty Images a. Which sorts of sports and activities do you think you could perform well in if you had large upper body muscles? tendon relaxed triceps contracted biceps tendon Bent arm (contracted). contracted triceps Straight arm (relaxed). Muscles work in antagonistic pairs. Muscle fibre types are roughly split into two categories; fast-twitch and slow-twitch. Fast-twitch muscle fibres produce fast movements over short periods of time so are ideal for events such as sprinting. Slow-twitch muscle fibres produce slower contractions but can continue to contract over long periods of time so are ideal for endurance events, such as long distance cycling or running. Tests on retired sprinters have shown that they have very high percentages of fast-twitch muscle fibres. The proportion of the different muscle fibres is determined by removing and analysing a very small section of their muscle fibre, called a muscle biopsy. Most sprinters who are still competing won t agree to undergo muscle biopsies. So, at the moment, we can only estimate what percentage of fast-twitch muscle fibres are in Usain Bolt s legs! In Experiment B you will investigate the relationship between upper and lower body strength whilst Experiment C focuses the investigation on whether people who are good at power sports are also good at endurance sports. tendon relaxed biceps
My name is Odette Hughes and I am Associate Director of Wayne McGregor Random Dance. I am responsible for the everyday artistic supervision of McGregor s Company, overseeing all performances, and directing all rehearsals. For muscle endurance training, wherever possible I would lead a circuit lap, which is purely for stamina and endurance. It normally consists of 20 25 minutes of fastpaced exercises. The lap would have ten exercise posts. Each dancer would have 1 minute on each post. The exercises at each post would consist of squats, planks, press-ups, star jumps or skipping. After a minute on a post, we would run two laps around the studio clockwise stopping at the next post to the left. This would continue until the dancers have completed all posts. The session would finish with sprinting for a further five laps. b. How could you investigate whether you are good at power or endurance sports? c. How could you investigate whether fatigue in one set of muscles will affect the performance of another set of muscles? Ravi Deepres/Wayne McGregor Random Dance Getting in the zone Hi, my name is Ian Gatt. I m a sports physiotherapist and I work as the lead for the GB Boxing programme. My role involves working with boxers, both male and female, to monitor their health and fitness status predominantly through injury management. The experiments you will be carrying out are also used on a regular basis as a conditioning tool for athletes. Press-ups, triceps dips, and pull-ups are good for conditioning the trunk and arms. Vertical jumps are good for conditioning the legs. They are also used regularly in jumping sports like basketball and volleyball to assess the improvement of an athlete in his or her jumping abilities. In physiotherapy we use these experiments as part of exercise rehabilitation to improve the strength of an injured area. Depending on which joint or muscle is involved we would select the appropriate exercise. athan Denette/The Canadian Press/Press Association Images Ages 14 16 I m Simon Drane, I m a sports psychologist and spend the majority of my time at the ational Badminton Centre working with the GB Olympic Badminton squad. My main role is to help athletes get stronger mentally so that they can perform at their best when the pressure is on. The Olympic athletes that I work with spend a lot of time in the gym training the muscles that are important for their sport. It is vital that the exercises that they perform are completed with focus and concentration because the wrong technique could either not work the important muscles or even result in an injury. Before doing a specific exercise physically, I encourage them to rehearse it mentally, by imagining it in their head. They picture themselves doing the exercise, using all their senses including vision, hearing, and also feeling. They try to imagine which muscles will be moving to complete the exercise and this helps get them ready for when they do the exercise physically. Try it for yourself. Phil Walter / Getty Images Resistance training is done to encourage muscle tissue to grow and get stronger. DF-Style Photography/shutterstock.com Training muscles My name is Andy Shaw and I am a personal trainer to both elite and recreational athletes. I have worked with the English Rugby Football Union (RFU) and individual rugby players. More recently I have trained triathletes and distance runners for major events. For all types of muscle tissue to grow and get stronger, they need to be used in strength training exercises. These are exercises where the muscles work to move some form of resistance, for example, lifting dumbbells 1. Unless there is a specific injury, most resistance training is done using free weights and designed to replicate the movement pattern required. As a strength trainer it is necessary to look at the whole picture. It is not just bigger individual muscles that make the difference but the ability to recruit more muscles in the body, for example, a boxer s strength initiates from the legs not the arms. It is important to gradually increase frequency and intensity so as not to place undue stress on the athlete and therefore limit the risk of injury. Andy Shaw 1 K. Baar, Training for endurance and strength: lessons from cell signalling, Medicine and Science in Sports and Exercise, 2006, 38(11), pp 1939 44.
I ve got the power Strength, endurance and stamina All competitors, in any sport, need to be in good health with excellent physical and mental fitness. They will have been coached and trained to increase their strength, endurance and stamina. g Han Guan/AP/Press Association Images Julie Lemberger/ Corbis Michael Debets/ Demotix/Corbis Ages 16 19 Knowledge Card My name is Dr Valerie Gladwell and I am a senior lecturer in Sport and Exercise Science at the University of Essex. My research involves exploring how the cardiovascular system responds following exercise. I am also passionate about the role physical activity can have on health. In Experiment C you will investigate how the amount of carbon dioxide in your breath changes after exercising. You will also investigate whether the type of exercise changes the amount of carbon dioxide in your breath. Most sports events use both types of energy system but in differing proportions. Sports and physical activities are of different durations. aerobic fitness how well the circulatory and respiratory systems transport and the body uses oxygen during aerobic activities. VO 2 max the volume of oxygen that you use while exercising at your highest level can be used as a measure of fitness. This is known as VO 2 max and is the maximum amount of oxygen you can use in one minute and usually takes into account your body mass. The higher the VO 2 max value the fitter a person is. anaerobic threshold (AT) the level of exercise above which the lactic acid produced during anaerobic respiration starts to accumulate in the blood as it cannot be removed quickly enough. anaerobic capacity the maximum amount of energy that can be produced from ATP without oxygen. Some activities are short, such as sprints, jumps and throws but others are long such as dancing, cross-country skiing and marathons. You will investigate fitness and estimate your own VO 2 max in Experiment B using data from a step test. You will also compare various methods of estimating aerobic fitness. H 2 adenine CH O CH 2 O Tara Moore/ Stone+/Getty Images igel Marple / Reuters O O O P O P O P O O O O Energy systems and respiration In Experiment A you will investigate how much power your muscles generate during a stepping exercise. There are two energy systems in the body: long-term energy system uses aerobic respiration. glucose + oxygen carbon dioxide + water short-term energy system uses anaerobic respiration. The lactic acid produced during anaerobic respiration can be recycled and be used as a fuel for aerobic respiration. C 6 H 12 O 6 + 6O 2 6CO 2 + 6H 2 O The universal energy currency For muscles to generate power they must use adenosine triphosphate (ATP) to contract. Muscle cells contain a very small amount of ATP but this can only fuel a very short burst of powered contraction (see graph on the reverse alactic anaerobic respiration). For a sustained effort, more ATP has to be produced via respiration. Anaerobic respiration is used during the first 1 2 minutes of exercise to meet the increased need for ATP. adenine CH ribose OH ribose three phosphate groups P P P ATP is a small soluble molecule found in all types of cells. It releases energy in small manageable amounts that will not damage cells. It is produced during respiration and is therefore the energy currency of the cell.
Ages 16 19 During exercise, the heart rate and breathing rate rise to try and meet the increased demand for oxygen by the muscles and this allows aerobic respiration to be responsible for producing much of the extra ATP that is required. You will investigate the effect of exercise on heart rate in Experiment D. Aerobic respiration makes a lot of ATP for each glucose molecule used, whereas anaerobic respiration makes fewer molecules of ATP per glucose molecule but uses many glucose molecules quickly, partially breaking them down to % of energy supplied alactic anaerobic respiration lactic anaerobic respiration aerobic respiration pyruvate. 10 seconds 1 minute 3 minutes 120 minutes a. Which energy system do you think i) sprinters and ii) long-distance cyclists use predominantly? b. Suggest what kind of training each type of sportsperson from question a) would do. Training Training fine-tunes the balance of an athlete s anaerobic and aerobic energy systems as well as increasing stamina and endurance. All sportspeople need to do strength (resistance) training, such as squats, to increase the strength of leg muscles; press-ups and weightlifting to strengthen arm muscles; as well as aerobic (cardiovascular endurance) training, such as skipping or running, which enables athletes bodies to both use oxygen and deal with lactate more efficiently. All types of athlete train to improve their aerobic capacity or VO 2 max. Reducing the intensity of exercise but increasing its duration improves the efficiency of the aerobic system 1. The graph shows how energy is supplied during exercise by the immediate (alactic anaerobic respiration), short-term (lactic anaerobic respiration) and long-term (aerobic respiration) energy systems. Glow Asia/SuperStock Many athletes and coaches have devised complicated training plans to encompass all parts of fitness including endurance, speed, strength and power. All sportspeople The type of training sportspeople do will depend upon the event do aerobic and they are training for: sprinters need to focus on power and strength anaerobic training. but need a good aerobic base; for long-duration endurance athletes the main training is stamina and endurance so their bodies are able to produce their energy aerobically and can deal with the lactate more efficiently. They also incorporate strength training to help to improve their performance. Many sports however, are not one or the other and require high levels of fitness mixed with speed and strength (for example, rugby). My name is Jay Younger. I am 17 years old. My event is the 400 m sprint. In my first year in athletics (Under 17 level), I became The Scottish Schools Champion and rounded the season off by winning the AAA championships with a personal best. I was also part of the Under 20 Scottish 4 400 m team that broke the Scottish record and I was grateful to be given the award of Young Scottish Athlete of the Year. This year I won the Scottish Championship and have gathered more experience about how to run the 400 m race more effectively. Here are some statistics about me. Height Sitting height Weight 186 cm 37 cm 86 kg Resting blood pressure 153/80 Resting heart rate Peak flow Recovery rate after step test Heart rate after full squats c. How would knowing blood oxygen level, pulse rate, and blood pressure help inform training programmes for athletes? 55 bpm 700 l per minute 120 bpm (1 minute) 104 bpm (2 minutes) 80 bpm (3 minutes) 64 bpm (1 minute) 86 bpm (2 minutes) SS Group d. How could you investigate the effect of exercise on blood oxygen level, pulse rate, and blood pressure? 1 T. Chin, S. Sawamura, H. Fujita, S. akajima, I. Ojima, H. Oyabu, Y. agakura, H. Otsuak, A. akagawa, Effect of endurance training program based on anaerobic threshold (AT) for lower limb amputees, Journal of Rehabilitation Research and Development, 2001, 38(1), pp7 11.