ATP, anaerobic, muscle contraction

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joonkimdds

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For muscle contraction, we need ATP.
but weight training is considered anaerobic which only produces 2ATP whereas aerobic can produce around 36 ATP.

to lift heavy weight, don't we need more ATP? and doesn't that mean weight training should require aerobic than anaerobic?

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I can't recall specifics, but it's something to do with turnover rate or speed of ATP production. Using fast twitch muscle fibers (in high intensity activities like weightlifting), anaerobic pathway is preferred because it produces the ATP at a higher rate, but fatigue soon sets in because of lactate build up. Someone correct me if I'm wrong.
 
sad thing is that there are many ways to look at this problem and the second poster was on the right track with turnover of ATP:

physiological standpoint is the best. there are 3 muscle fiber types: fast glycolytic, fast oxidative, and slow oxidative. lets say u want to run a marathon... the muscle fiber best for this activity is slow oxidative bc it is high in mitochondria and capillaries (and myoglobin). thus you would need maximal ATP output for this activity, so aerobic pathway works best.

weight lifting is tricky bc you can do 5 sets of 20 or do 3 sets of 1 repitition. in the later, you would use fast twitch glyolyitic bc your muscle needs a short burst of energy and the creatine phosphate pathway would renew ATP the quickest. aerobic production of ATP takes way too long!
 
Fast glycolytic, slow oxidative. Muscle fibers for powerful, fast movements (Type IIb) have a poor blood supply (no O2 for oxidative phosphorylation), no myoglobin (again, low O2 availability) but have high glycogen stores allowing for glycolysis.
 
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wow, u guys r good~ thank you a lot~
by the way, where was I supposed to learn these info including myoglobin?
 
The answers posted are good, but just to sum it up, basically at rest (very low activity levels), your body is using aerobic respiration (oxygen available), making ATP through the Kreb's Cycle. At high activity levels, you make ATP using anaerobic respiration (not enough oxygen available for aeroboic), through glycolysis.

As for myoglobin, you probably don't need to know anything other than that it's a molecule like hemoglobin, but carries oxygen only in the muscles. There is more of this in slow twitch muscle fibers if i remember correctly.

You could find of all that information in an anatomy textbook. Other than that, maybe an AP bio book?
 
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The answers posted are good, but just to sum it up, basically at rest (very low activity levels), your body is using aerobic respiration, making ATP through the Kreb's Cycle. At high activity levels, you make ATP using anaerobic respiration, through glycolysis.

As for myoglobin, you probably don't need to know anything other than that it's a molecule like hemoglobin, but carries oxygen only in the muscles. There is more of this in slow twitch muscle fibers if i remember correctly.

You could find of all that information in an anatomy textbook. Other than that, maybe an AP bio book?

Thank you :)
I haven't taken anatomy class yet, so I guess that's why I don't know it?

I learned about hemoglobin many times in human phys, biochem...etc. but I never read anything about myoglobin. Maybe I was sleeping in the class or it's covered in anatomy class, too? :)
 
Thank you :)
I haven't taken anatomy class yet, so I guess that's why I don't know it?

I learned about hemoglobin many times in human phys, biochem...etc. but I never read anything about myoglobin. Maybe I was sleeping in the class or it's covered in anatomy class, too? :)

Well, you should have learned the basics aerobic/anaerobic respiration in general bio, but the myoglobin you probably wouldn't find unless you have taken anatomy because it deals strictly with muscle. You will also probably learn the respiration methods more in depth in anatomy.
 
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