How Exercise Affects the Systems of Your Body
Physical Health
 How well your body functions
 Why exercise?
 Can help prevent:




Cardiovascular disease
Certain cancers
Diabetes
High Blood Pressure
 Improves Stamina, Flexibility, and Strength
 Controls Weight
 Improves Quality of Life
 Affects both social and mental health
Physical Health
 Affects every system in your body
 Key systems to be discussed:
 Cardiovascular
 Respiratory
 Muscular
 Skeletal
 Nervous

Brain
Cardiovascular System
 Cardiovascular System – AKA the Circulatory System – is an
organ system that encompasses the heart and blood vessels of
the body
 Function - carries blood, oxygen, and nutrients to organs and
tissues of the body, and carries waste and carbon dioxide from
these tissues for removal from the body
 Heart causes blood to flow away from the heart
 Bodily movement causes blood to efficiently flow back to the heart
 Muscles pressing on veins help push blood back towards the heart
 The heart is a constantly working muscle
The Heart
 Any exercise will strengthen muscle
 More exercise = stronger heart
 Stronger heart = less work to do at rest
 Higher cardiac output – more blood is expelled from the
heart per beat
 Less work to do at rest = lower resting heart rate (RHR)
 More exercise = better blood and oxygen flow
Blood Vessels and Pressure
 Increased exercise will increase cardiac output and
lower heart rate
 Helps regulate fluid and promotes capillary formation
 Amount of fluid in blood greatly determines blood
pressure
 More fluid = more pressure
Respiratory System
 Function - to supply the blood with oxygen in order for
the blood to deliver oxygen to all parts of the body
 Made up of
 Mouth
 Nose
 Trachea
 Lungs
 Diaphragm
Respiratory System
 Improves lung capacity
 Blood flow increases to alveoli
 Allows better Oxygen / CO2 exchange
Respiratory System
 Controls mucus which may settle in the lungs
 Increases endurance of Diaphragm and Intercostals
Muscular System
 Helps with strength and endurance
 Supply and demand
 The more you exercise, the more demand there is on
your muscles which leads to an increase in strength and
endurance
 More exercise = more blood flow = increased muscle
growth
Diagram of a Skeletal Muscle
Muscular System
Increase workload = increased stress on muscles
2. Increased stress result in micro-tears in muscle fibers
3. Natural repair process repairs the tear
1.
a)
b)
Overcompensates by adding bigger cells to build a stronger
fiber.
Over time, this repeated process of teardown and re-build
will result in muscle growth
Hypertrophy – muscle growth

Your body does not actually make more muscle but the muscle fibers
which make up your muscle get larger
Muscular System
An established exercise routine results in an increase in
Mitochondria in muscles
 Mitochondria use oxygen to create energy


Glucose + Pyruvate + NADH = ATP
(adenosine triphosphate)
Process occurs because of the presence of oxygen
Increase in number of blood vessels in muscle tissue
Muscular System
 Skill - a learned ability to bring about the result you
want with maximum certainty and efficiency
 Four components a skill must have:
 It is learned
 Has an end result
 Should be performed under control
 Should use the minimum amount of energy
Muscular System
Learning a new skill…
 Information Processing
 When we are learning a new skill our brains must take
in, process and use a lot of information about the skill
and environment.
Four steps for information processing when learning a
new skill take place…
Muscular System
1.
Input – information your brain receives (what you
see, hear, and feel)
2. Decision Making – brain processes this information
and decides how to react
3. Output – a result of your decision
4. Feedback – shows success or failure
Muscular System
Two types of feedback
 Intrinsic – how performing the skill felt
 Extrinsic – effectiveness of the performance and
judgment by coaches, parents, teammates, etc.


Did the ball land where you wanted it to?
Did your coaches tell you how to perform better?
Muscular System
 Skills are either basic or complex
 Basic Motor Skills
 Most are learned at an early age
 Transferable between different sports and situations
 Must be mastered before moving on to complex skills
 Examples - running, hopping, dodging an opponent
 Complex Motor Skills
 Require more coordination and control
 Tend to be specific to a particular sport (i.e. non-transferable)
 A lot of practice to master
 Examples - smash shot in badminton, a tennis serve,
basketball lay-up
Muscular System
 Skills can be either open or closed
 Open Motor Skills – affected by external factors
 Hitting a pitched baseball will be affected by your
position, the position of your opponents, the type and
speed of pitch, playing conditions, previous at-bats, etc.
 Closed Motor Skills - performance is self-controlled
with very little effect from environment or other
people
 Successfully throwing a dart to a specific target is
completely in the individual’s control.
Muscular System
 Open and closed continuum
 Most skills fall in between open and closed

The more outside factors there are, the more open a skill will
be
Why is goaltending in hockey more closed than competitive
sailing?
Which is a more open skill, hitting a ball off of a tee or hitting a
pitched ball?
 Why?
Muscular System
Neuromuscular effects
 Neuromuscular system is the interaction between your
muscles and the nerves that control them
 Increase in repetitive exercise = more muscle fibers to be
activated and better timing of muscle contractions
 Leads to increased strength and coordination
Muscular System
 Two types of practice
 Blocked and random
 Blocked - a learner performs a single skill over and over,
with repetition being the key

50 free throws, 50 elbow jumpers, 50 baseline jumpers
Muscular System
 Random – a learner works on a number of different
skills in combination with each other, randomly
working trials and patterns of one and then the next
and the next
 One 17-foot jump shot, back pedal to your three-point
line, side-shuffle in defensive stance across the court,
dribble a basketball, make a chest pass, cut to the
basket, box-out for a rebound
Muscular System
Which do you think leads to
better learning?
Muscular System
 Blocked – performing an action over and over again
without break causes the individual to stop thinking
about the solution
 Becomes a mindless activity
 Evidence shows it leads to a false sense of
accomplishment when practicing in controlled, blocked
sessions.
 Used for beginners learning a new, complex motor skill
Muscular System
 Random
 Forces the learner to become more actively engaged in the
learning process by preventing simple repetitions of actions.
 Gives the learner more meaningful and distinguishable
memories of the various tasks, increasing memory strength
and decreasing confusion among tasks.
 Causes the learner to forget the short-term solutions (from
working memory) to the movement problem after each task
change.
 Forgetting the short-term solution forces the learner to
generate the solution again on the task’s next trial, which is
beneficial to learning.
 “Forgetting facilitates learning”
Muscular System
 Major points:
 Physical activity promotes strength, endurance, and
coordination
 Circulatory and nervous system adapt to physical
demands
 Practicing new motor skills places demand on the
neurons in your brain to work harder to learn how to
master the skill
 Basic before complex
 Continuous relearning leads to retention
Skeletal System
 Consists of:
 Bones, ligaments, and cartilage
 Functions - support, movement, protection, blood cell
production, calcium storage and endocrine regulation
Skeletal System
Diagram of a Bone
Skeletal System
 Bones
 Contain marrow that produce blood cells
 Ligaments
 Fibrous connective tissue attached to bones and many
internal organs


Helps limit movements induced by tendons
Keeps internal organs in place
 Cartilage
 Holds some bones together, helps in the formation of
bones in growing children and prevents bones from
rubbing each other.
Skeletal System
 Physical Activity promotes:
 Increased synovial fluid production
 Maintains and increases joint range of movement
 Increased bone density
 Stronger ligaments
Skeletal System
 Synovial Fluid – oil-like fluid produced at joints to
keep cartilage lubricated and nourished
 Production of synovial fluid is an acute (short-term)
response to exercise




More exercise means = more synovial fluid
Joints need regular exercise to stay lubricated, nourished and
healthy.
More fluid = better range of motion
Lack of exercise causes joints to “dry up”
Skeletal System
 Increased Bone Density
 Weight-bearing and cardiovascular exercises put stress
on bones
 Body responds by creating osteoblasts
 Osteoblasts – cells which build new bone and make
bones stronger and denser
 Increased bone density helps prevent osteoporosis
 Osteoporosis – weakening of bone
Skeletal System
 Stronger Ligaments
 Ligaments are exposed to the same stresses of exercise
 Slowly develop strength
Nervous System – The Brain
 More exercise = better blood flow to the brain
 Exercise causes the release of endorphins which make
you feel good
 Studies show consistent exercise = better brain
development in children
 Underuse will result in a decline in function
The Brain
 Exercise seems to slow or reverse the natural
declination of brain function starting in our twenties.
 New studies seem to show that adult brains are
capable of neurogenesis (creation of new brain cells)
 Adults were previously thought to be unable to do this
 Exercise is thought to jumpstart neurogenesis
 Exercise seems to prompt an increase in Brain-Derived
Neurotropic Factor (BDNF)
 Exercise does not have to be exhaustive!
The Brain
BDNF:
 Strengthens brain cells and axons
 Fortifies connections among neurons and sparks
neurogenesis
 Most people have higher levels of BDNF in blood after
exercise
 This does not fully explain all the brain changes
associated with exercise