Lesson video

Hello and welcome to today's lesson.

My name is Mr.Swaithes and I'm really looking forward to teaching you today.

So, we're gonna be looking at what some of the long-term training effects and benefits to the body are of, I guess, repeated exercise bouts.

This comes from the unit Anatomy and Physiology, the short and long-term effects of exercise, and the lesson is called Long-term Training Effects and Benefits.

By the end of today's lesson, you're gonna be able to describe the long-term effects of exercise on your body.

And by that, I mean you'll be able to capture and explain what changes happen to your body after a period of training.

And I bet you've got a few ideas on this already, but would be interested to know more about what changes happen long-term to your body, and therefore, why is training regularly good for you? There are a collection of keywords that we'll be exploring through today's lesson, but important that you understand that idea that long-term effects of exercise are those changes that happen to our body after months or even years of regular activity.

We'll be looking at hypertrophy, effects of blood pressure, and capillarization.

So you might wanna take a note of these keywords now, but I'll be revisiting them during the lesson.

The lesson is broken up into three parts.

The first part will be looking at the long-term training effects on the musculoskeletal system.

Then we'll be looking at the long-term training effects on the cardiovascular system, and finally, the long-term training effects on the respiratory system.

And remembering that all those systems combine to enable us to perform better in sport or exercise.

I hope you're ready.

Let's get going.

The human body is amazing, isn't it? So not only can it achieve many things, but also, if we put our bodies under increasing stress or strain or pressure, it adapts and changes and modifies to be able to better cope with those sorts of scenarios in the future.

You've only got to look at perhaps watch the Olympics, or watch premiership football, or rugby, or other elite sport to see how that human body has adapted.

Or maybe you've watched World's Strongest Man, and you can see those adaptations that have taken place where the body has changed in response to the demands being placed on it.

So if you commit to training over a period of time, your body adapts and changes to cope with the demands placed on it.

And Sofia is asking, what adaptations or long-term changes do you think happen following a period of training? And Aisha is wondering, does different training have different effects? What do you think? Okay, let's drill into how training affects our skeletal system then.

And it causes an increase in bone density.

So if you're gonna regularly do training, your bone density will increase and also the strength of your ligaments and tendons will increase.

Well, Andeep is wondering, if ligaments join bone to bone, and, therefore, doing exercise will increase the strength of those ligaments, then surely that improves the strength of your joints.

And yes, Andeep, absolutely it does.

So, why then does bone density increase and what benefit does this have? Well, weight-bearing activities and that's anything where you're on your feet.

So swimming and cycling and rowing don't count.

They are not weight-bearing exercises because you are suspended.

You're not in contact with the ground.

Whereas going for a run, playing rugby, playing tennis, going for a walk, weight training, all of those things are weight-bearing exercises because your feet are on the ground, and, therefore, it puts stress on your bones, and that stimulates extra calcium deposits, which make your bones denser and stronger.

This helps prevent osteoporosis.

So, osteoporosis is a health condition of fragile bones that means they are more likely to break.

Actually, osteoporosis is a big problem for older people and it's why they have many more fractures, or bone breaks in old age because their bones have become more brittle and we definitely wanna try, and fend this off for as long as possible.

So, that's why you might see young people, but also more elderly people doing weight-bearing exercise to try and help keep their bone health.

A good diet is also important in preventing osteoporosis.

So consider always exercise and diet, but also rest and sleep all combined to help improve our bodily systems. So, another factor then is muscular hypertrophy happens if we do regular training.

Well, what does that mean? Well, when we exercise our muscles regularly they will increase in size and also in strength.

And how this happens is there are small muscle tears, or micro tears that help the muscle grow back bigger and stronger.

So within your muscles, if you were to lift some heavy weights, or do some exercise that puts your body under strain, you might find the next day that your muscles are a little bit sore, and that's because of these small micro tears that have happened within your muscle, and as long as you give it good nutrition and good rest, those muscles grow back bigger and stronger.

As I've said, rest is essential to allow for that recovery, and adaptation to take place before your next training session.

So, let's do a quick check.

Which of the following is not a long-term benefit of training on the muscular-skeletal system? Is it A, increased muscle hypertrophy, B, increased bone density, C increased length of bones, or D, increased strength of ligaments? Have a think.

That's right increased length of bones is not something that happens as a benefit of training.

So if you train regularly, it won't make you taller, but it will increase your muscle size and strength, so hypertrophy.

It will increase your bone density, so less likely to break bones, and it will increase the strength of your ligaments, so less likely to sprain an ankle for example.

So, Sofia is saying, I like the sound of all of those benefits, but how long does she need to train for to see an effect? And Aisha says, well surely it depends on how hard you train.

Absolutely it does.

And in fact, it depends on lots of factors including age and fitness level, but you typically need to train a few times a week for six or more weeks before you start to see the long-term effects of training.

And if you're already quite well trained, then you'll need to train even more times per week for even more weeks before you start to see a further benefit.

Let's do a quick check.

True or false? Microscopic tears in your muscles are bad and should always be avoided.

What do you think? That's right, it's false, and can you tell me why? Yeah, so microscopic tears are necessary for muscles to grow back bigger and stronger.

We obviously need to avoid major tears, or training too hard or too fast, and that's why we use the principle of progressive overload, but a certain amount of aching the next day is perfectly normal.

Okay, so training can be tailored to suit the needs, and motivations of individuals.

If you were to lift heavier weights, or work against a higher resistance, so for example running at a faster speed on a treadmill, then if you combine that with lower repetitions, it will train muscular strength.

So, lifting heavy weights close to your one-rep max for a low number of repetitions will increase muscle size, and maximal strength.

Whereas, if you were to lift lighter weights, or work against a lower resistance, then you can do that for more repetitions, and that would result in training of muscular endurance.

What sort of training would you prioritise developing to suit you and your needs? Okay, that brings us nicely into the first task for today's lesson.

So, I'd like you to complete the following table to summarise the musculoskeletal adaptations to training.

You can see some of the adaptations have already been placed in there for you.

A couple of the explanations are already there, and there is one example of a benefit to the performer.

I want you to fill the gaps based on what we've learnt so far today.

Pause the video now whilst you do that, and come back to me when you are ready.

(keypads clicking) Well done, let's take a look at what you came up with compared to mine.

So that first adaptation in the table said an increased bone density.

Well, an explanation of that is that your bones become denser and stronger, and as a consequence, they are less likely to break, so that's the benefit to the performer.

Perhaps you play football or rugby, or any sport and you don't want your bones to break, so you would want increased bone density.

The second line we've completed the adaptation, and the explanation already for you, and we are looking for you to figure out that stronger connective tissues would benefit the performer because you'd be less likely to sprain a joint, or rupture a tendon.

Then the third line talked about how that was about an increased muscle size.

Well, the adaptation and the key word we're really looking for there is that idea of muscular hypertrophy, and as a consequence of that you can contract muscles more forcefully.

So, a benefit is more forceful contractions.

You can lift heavier weights, or push against the harder resistance.

The next one was about increased muscular strength, and therefore a bigger one-rep max, which means you can contract with bigger force.

And finally, we have increased muscular endurance, which means you can contract those muscles for longer before fatigue sets in, so you can contract repeatedly for longer.

How well did you do against that, and fill the gaps that you perhaps got wrong or missed? Well done! Let's move on to the next section.

So, now we're looking at the effects of training on the cardiovascular system.

So, Andeep is wondering, What about the cardiovascular system? What long-term effects or adaptations do you think training will have on it? Well, Sam's reminding us that the cardiovascular system includes the heart, the blood, and the blood vessels.

So, what do you think changes to those body factors as a consequence of training? Well, let's have a look, and actually, some of those things cause an increase, and then there's one that causes a decrease that we definitely want to remember.

So, there is an increase in cardiac hypertrophy, so the heart muscle gets bigger and stronger, and because of that, your resting stroke volume increases i.

e.

, you can pump out more blood per beat.

As a consequence of that bigger, stronger heart, you can also have a bigger maximal stroke volume, and a bigger maximal cardiac output.

So, a bigger amount of blood can get pumped around the body per minute.

There is also an increase in capillarization, which is at the alveoli and at the muscle tissue, and we'll drill into the detail of that in a moment, and an increased red blood cell count, so more haemoglobin in your body.

You can also recover faster from exercise.

And then, I wonder, can you figure out what one thing goes down? So, what decreases in connection with the heart? That's right! You have a decreased resting heart rate, and for a lot of us, we monitor our resting heart rates as a nice indicator of how aerobically fit we are.

So, let's do a quick check before we drill into the detail of those different factors or benefits: Which of the following is not a cardiovascular system benefit of six or more weeks of training? A.

Reduced resting heart rate.

B.

Increased maximum heart rate.

C.

Increased maximum cardiac output, or, D.

Increased stroke volume.

Have a think.

That's right.

Your maximal heart rate does not increase as a consequence of training.

And in fact, your maximum heart rate is decided by your age.

So, as a rule of thumb, we say that your maximum heart rate is 220 beats per minute minus your age, and that's because your heart becomes less elastic as you get older, so your maximum heart rate declines as you get into older age.

Okay, so we know that training puts a strain on the heart and that causes it to get bigger to get stronger, and to get more efficient.

So, very similar to the skeletal muscles that the biceps, triceps, quadriceps, hamstring, your cardiac muscle gets bigger and stronger too, and that's called cardiac hypertrophy.

The heart can contract with more force and hence eject more blood per beat because of this cardiac hypertrophy, so that results in an increased stroke volume amount of blood pumped out of the heart per beat.

And because of that cardiac hypertrophy and the increased stroke volume, your resting heart rate can decrease whilst maintaining the same cardiac output.

So, we have about five litres of blood circulates the body per minute, and because our stroke volume has increased due to training, our resting heart rate can decrease and still maintain that same cardiac output.

Meanwhile, your maximal cardiac output would increase, so because of a bigger stroke volume, you can get a bigger amount of blood circulating the body per minute.

And also, because your cardiac muscle becomes more elastic, it can, I guess, stretch better, that reduces your resting blood pressure.

So, a really good approach to reducing blood pressure and maintaining a healthy heart is to do regular exercise.

Okay, well, endurance exercise is best for cardiac hypertrophy, but let's remember that even weight training will also stimulate cardiac hypertrophy to occur.

In fact, any training that gets us out of breath will do it, so if you'd prefer to chase a ball around than go and pound the streets running, that's absolutely fine, you will still see that cardiovascular and certainly cardiac hypertrophy improvement.

What about the blood, then? What effect does endurance training have on the blood? Well, we grow more red blood cells, and this means more haemoglobin, and hence an improved oxygen-carrying capacity of the blood.

So the blood can carry more oxygen, and as a result of that, endurance athletes like marathon runners are able to run faster and for longer following a training programme.

Let's link that in to the lungs and the capillaries, which is, of course, that blood vessel in between arteries and veins.

And you have capillaries surrounding the alveoli, surrounding the air sacs of the lungs, and if you do regular training, capillarization occurs.

And that means you grow more capillaries, so a bigger capillary network surrounding those alveoli, and that means there's more space for gaseous exchange to occur.

And not only does that happen at the lungs, but it also happens at the muscle sites.

So, more oxygen can diffuse into the muscle cells as well.

So, more gaseous exchange because of that increased capillary network means we're able to deliver more oxygen to the working muscles and remove more carbon dioxide.

So, that further improves your aerobic respiration, which will improve your endurance.

Let's do another quick check, true or false? Unfit individuals have a lower heart rate? Well done, it's false.

Can you tell me why? That's right, so unfit individuals have a higher resting heart rate and an exercising heart rate for any given intensity compared to endurance-trained individuals.

So, if we had someone who is endurance-trained and someone who is unfit on a treadmill next to each other running at the same speed, the unfit person would have a higher heart rate for that same intensity of exercise.

The training results in cardiac hypertrophy, which enables more blood to ejected per beat, so that's why that heart rate can reduce for the endurance-trained person whilst maintaining the same cardiac output.

That brings us nicely into our second task for today's lesson.

So, as we know Emma Raducanu in this picture is a keen tennis player.

I'd like you to explain at least three long-term adaptations that occur in her cardiovascular system as a consequence of rigorous training programmes that include endurance and strength training elements.

Pause the video now whilst you do that and come back to me when you're ready.

Well done.

That was a tough one, wasn't it? So, you might have said the heart walls become bigger and stronger, and this is called cardiac hypertrophy, and means that more blood can be ejected from the heart in each beat.

And we know that the amount of blood ejected by the heart per beat is known as stroke volume.

You might have said that as a consequence of cardiac hypertrophy and a more efficient heart, your resting heart rate decreases.

So, so far, we've got those important words of hypertrophy, a more efficient heart, and a reduced resting heart rate.

And then we've also got more red blood cells that are produced.

And those red blood cells contain haemoglobin, and hence the oxygen carrying capacity of the blood increases to aid aerobic respiration.

Did you also remember that capillarisation, so this is the fourth factor, capillarisation is that denser capillary network, which speeds up gaseous exchange at the alveoli in the lungs and also at the muscle site.

I hope you got all four of those.

Okay, into the third and final part of today's lesson, where we're gonna look at the effects of training on the respiratory system.

So, Izzy's wondering, what about this respiratory system then? What long term effects does training have on it? And Jacob says, well, with the respiratory system, it's the system that helps us breathe in and breathe out.

So, what changes do you think happen to our breathing as a consequence of training? Well, let's unpick them, shall we? So, you actually have an increased strength of your respiratory muscles.

So that's your diaphragm and your external intercostal muscles.

So, they're the ones in between your ribs.

You have an increased vital capacity.

You have an increased maximal minute ventilation.

You have an increased number of alveoli, and you have an increased aerobic capacity.

Interestingly, you also recover faster from exercise.

So it may be that you have a hard training session, or maybe a competition, and the next day you're able to go again.

If you've had some training previously, that leads to you being able to recover faster.

Whereas maybe if you are less fit, you might find that a hard bout of exercise, you're just not ready to compete, or to train again the next day or even later that day.

So, any exercise that gets you out of breath will put strain on the respiratory system in the same way that it puts strain on the cardiovascular system.

Long distance endurance events have the biggest effect on your respiratory system because they put it under the most strain.

So, if you do it regularly, and when we say long distance endurance events, that could be running, cycling, swimming, rowing.

And those things will cause long-term adaptations to help you cope better with an increased demand for oxygen.

Like any muscle though, the diaphragm and the intercostal muscles hypertrophy.

So, they grow in size and strength.

Let's do a quick check.

Which of the following is a respiratory system benefit of endurance training? A.

Increased stroke volume.

B.

Decreased resting heart rate.

C.

Increased strength of diaphragm and intercostals.

Or D.

Increased bone strength.

What do you think? That's right.

The only correct answer is C.

Because in the question we were asking you about the respiratory system.

So, we have an increased strength of the diaphragm and the intercostal muscles.

Whereas although your stroke volume increases and your heart rate at rest decreases.

So, answers A and B are true.

They are part of the cardiovascular system.

So not relevant in this answer.

And whilst you do have an increase in bone strength.

Particularly if you do weight bearing exercise.

Again, that's the musculoskeletal system.

So not relevant in this check.

Okay, so all these factors combined result in increased aerobic capacity.

Delayed crossing of that anaerobic threshold.

So, you can work at higher intensity before you start to build up lactic acid.

And you also can cope better with lactic acid build up before it has that fatiguing effect.

So, if you like, you have an improved resistance to fatigue, you can cope with the pain a little bit better.

And as a consequence of that, you'll have an improved performance, but only if you've also got the tactical and technical aspects of training right.

So, fitness on its own will not always result in winning a race, or a match, or a competition.

And you also get that faster rate of recovery after exercise, don't you? So, you can go again sooner after a hard training session or competition.

So, another quick check.

True or false? Maximal minute ventilation decreases following endurance training.

Is that true or false? That's right, it's false.

And can you tell me why? Well done.

So, training results in an increased lung capacity.

So bigger lung volumes, but also stronger respiratory muscles.

And as a consequence, our tidal volume can increase, but also our breathing frequency increases.

So, we're exchanging more air in our lungs per minute.

So, our maximal minute ventilation increases following training.

That brings us nicely into our last task for today's lesson.

So first of all, to summarise this section of learning.

I'd like you to explain the respiratory system responses to endurance training.

And then to draw together everything we've learnt in today's lesson, I want you to complete this table so that for each of those body systems, you have identified one long term effect of regular training, and how it could benefit the performance in sport.

So, pause the video now whilst you do that last task, and come back to me when you're ready.

Well done.

I wonder what you came up with for question one.

So, you might have said the diaphragm and intercostal muscles hypertrophy, which means they contract more forcefully.

You might have said that this results in the ability to exchange greater volumes of air with each breath.

So, that's known as tidal volume.

And an increased vital capacity due to a bigger thoracic cavity.

So, (Mr.Swaithes inhales) bigger lung volumes that you have.

And that significantly increases your minute ventilation, which means more oxygen is delivered to the body and more carbon dioxide is removed.

Consequently, your aerobic capacity improves, and you can also recover faster from exercise.

So, which of those responses did you get? And if you didn't get all five, perhaps you should note them down to add to your notes.

And then we move into the second part of that question.

So, I wanted you to complete the table with the long-term effect of regular training, and how it could benefit the performer.

So, I provided a couple of examples for most of these.

So, the adaptation of the skeletal system are increased bone density, and the benefit of that is to reduce the risk of breaking a bone, and at the muscular system, sorry, at the skeletal system we've got an increased ligament or tendon strength, and that reduces the risk of joint injury.

Moving on to the muscular system now, I got ahead of myself, didn't I? We've got hypertrophy of the skeletal muscles, and the benefit of that is an increased muscular strength or muscular endurance depending on the type of training you do.

Do you lift heavy weights, or push against a heavy resistance to improve that one rep max in your muscular strength, maximal strength? Or do you do repeated contractions for long or low resistance and high repetitions, in which case you get more endurance? And then we've got cardiovascular system responses.

Well, that cardiac hypertrophy, and also the increased red blood cell count, or increased amount of haemoglobin leads to an increased ability to exercise harder for longer, so an improved cardiovascular endurance if you like.

And then finally, the respiratory system where we have hypertrophy of those respiratory muscles, and that increases gaseous exchange, which means that more oxygen can be made available to your working muscles so they can exercise harder for longer.

Well done if you got all of that, a really nice summary of all of today's lesson.

Which leads us into my summary of today's lesson.

So, the long-term effects of exercise refer to the benefits or changes in health and fitness after a period of regular training.

Regular exercise leads to increased bone density, joint and muscle strength.

Increased heart size and strength and we know this to be called hypertrophy, don't we? Increased oxygen carrying capacity of the blood, reduced resting heart rate.

Increased capillary network or capillarization, which means better gaseous exchange can happen.

Stronger respiratory muscles and increased lung volumes, and then improved ability to recover faster from exercise.

I wonder, have you managed to remember all of those? And well done if you have.

I've really enjoyed today's lesson, and I look forward to seeing you again next time.