Thirty-five-year-old Jane recently began \"working out\" and jogs three times a week. After her jog, she...

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Medical Sciences

Thirty-five-year-old Jane recently began \"working out\"and jogs three times a week. After her jog, she is breathless andher muscles ache.

From your understanding of muscle physiology, describewhat has happened inside Maggie's skeletal muscle cells. How do hermuscle cells recover from this?

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As our bodies perform strenuous exercise we begin to breathefaster as we attempt to shuttle more oxygen to our working musclesThe body prefers to generate most of its energy using aerobicmethods meaning with oxygen Some circumstances howeversuch asevading the historical saber tooth tiger or lifting heavyweightsrequire energy production faster than our bodies canadequately deliver oxygen In those cases the working musclesgenerate energy anaerobically This energy comes from glucosethrough a process called glycolysis in whichglucose is broken down or metabolized into a substance calledpyruvate through a series of steps When the body has plenty ofoxygen pyruvate is shuttled to an aerobic pathway to be furtherbroken down for more energy But when oxygen is limited the bodytemporarily converts pyruvate into a substance called lactatewhich allows glucose breakdownand thus energy productiontocontinue The working muscle cells can continue this type ofanaerobic energy production at high rates for one to three minutesduring which time lactate can accumulate to high levelsA side effect of high lactate levels is an increase in theacidity of the muscle cells along with disruptions of othermetabolites The same metabolic pathways that permit the breakdownof glucose to energy perform poorly in this acidic environment Onthe surface it seems counterproductive that a working muscle wouldproduce something that would slow its capacity for more    See Answer
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