100 Meter Dash: Newsletter Challenge (April 2015)

Stored oxygen in the blood....

It interrupts your rhythm.

You don't need to breathe if only running 100 yards.

If you think about breathing, you will just get confused, like a centipede who can't figure out how to walk any more.

It's a robot race?

Power athletes such a short sprints, weight lifters, shot put use protein called creatine. This is a pure muscle energy booster and only lasts a very short time before it forms waste products. These athletes will boost up on creatine supplements or ingest lots of protein to assure they are loaded with creatine. The muscles can operate on such energy because it is the first source of energy burned by muscles The burning or use of creatine is exclusive of the need for oxygen. However once exhausted the need for oxygen grows quickly. Sprinters train hard to get lots of creatine loading.

I would say that adenosine triphosphate (ATP) is the better candidate for being "the first source of energy burned by muscles". ATP breaks down to adenosine diphosphate (ADP), releasing energy, and creatine picks up the phosphate to become phosphocreatine. That reaction can be reversed to generate new ATP. You could say that the creatine represents a buffer for the supply of ATP.

In the approximately 10-12 seconds of the run, oxygen from the lungs will not get to your muscle cells so you use the ATP you have stored to move the body. Then you need to keep moving after the race to burn the lactic acid made in the low oxygen moments. (anaerobic respiration)

There is also a store of oxygen in the blood which can be transferred very rapidly to the exercising muscle, though it is not sufficient for high levels of activity. The "Then you need to keep moving after the race" should read "Then you need to keep breathing after the race".

Impressive. I was never a good sprinter but two of my daughters excelled and won top prizes at a provincial level. One went on to win MVP for all of Canada in varsity soccer. Too bad there was never money to earn a living for women or they would have been pro athletes. Good memories for you and cheers to any woman earning a living in sports. I had my heart attack playing hockey in my 50s. Too old and out of shape. Hockey is a sprinting-like sport.

With regard to the need for oxygen to supply breathing, absolute. But as an energy source creatine is the primary energy that is quickest to be used by muscles. It is direct. That is also the reason many sprinters are very muscular and will rely on creatine. The more direct energy from creatine the less quick fatigue from the lack of oxygen. I harp back to my days studying nutrition but Here is an article about the use of muscle energy that is not oxygen.

Bodybuilding.com - 100 Meter Sprinting Vs A Marathon ...

The essence of the 100-meter sprint is speed, with little oxygen breathed in during its 10-second duration, making the event almost entirely anaerobic (Newsholme, et al., 1994);

I am pretty sure if I tried to sprint all out for 100 meters, I would breathe a lot and probably take a couple breaks....just saying.

I couldn't do it today. I'd end up with a massive heart attack!LOL

I will agree but would need to change the distance from meters to feet to avoid the hospital or worse.

Rich Hurd

The answer is that it is not necessary for some, who have trained to tolerate high levels of lactate in anaerobic exercise. For others it continues to be necessary.

It should be easy enough to hold your breath for the amount of time it would take to sprint the distance. But, can you hold your breath for that amount of time when making a full-out sprint? I have no idea.

The only way I'd try it is if the only way to safety was to sprint through 100 yards of poisonous gas. It's probably been done in the movies dozens of times.

Early in strenuous exercise an anaerobic processes are used. This ATP-CP Phosphegen System doesn't need oxygen but produces Lactic Acic that needs to be processed with oxygen so you slow down and start needing to breath after about 30 sec.

who can run 100m in 10 seconds without breathing?

I believe the point is you aren't getting the oxygen to the muscle cells in 10 seconds so the breathing does not help you do better. It certainly would be more comfortable to breath rather than hold your breath and you would have a quicker recovery from the exercise if you didn't create an oxygen debt by holding your breath for 10 seconds.

What is his pulse (heartbeat) at the end of the sprint - 180?

And there's not 1 oxygen-particle transported to the muscular cell?

Do you believe what you are talking about?

Linford Christie, Olympic gold 1992 (9.96 secs)

But I would need to breath by about 40-m, because my muscle/body proportions are nowhere near world class.

What is his pulse (heartbeat) at the end of the sprint - 180?

And there's not 1 oxygen-particle transported to the muscular cell?

Do you believe what you are talking about?

20-30l/min is nearly 5l in 10 s.

you have calculated the time the complete blood af a body is pushed through the heart, after this time the blood is complete free of oxygen! your statement.

but this meens not that no oxygen is transported to the muscular cells.

short blood ways are faster refilled, longer bloodways are slower refilled.

the head/brain needs no oxygen (its an absolut stupid job the time he runs)? the legs work hard at a sprint (the heart harder), the fingers sleep the time he runs.

need i an attorney?

No, you don't need an attorney, you need to view the human body as a collection of machinery. In this case you need to use the bathtub analogy of the oxygen supply. The oxygen is poured into the circulation continuously from the lungs, like water from the tap, and is poured out into the muscles. There is always a certain level of oxygen in the bloodstream. As for the timing, the red cell obviously travels arteries, capillaries and veins in completing the circuit. As far as the time between lung and muscle is concerned, that is probably about 1/4 of the circulation time.
I'm afraid the brain continues to need oxygen. Not only is the brain the largest consumer of oxygen in the body for its weight, but it is needed to drive the muscles in synchrony.

to look at the human body as an engine is a bad view - i don't like these comparisions, the heart of the human body is not (and not like) the (explosion) engine of a car.

muscles contract and expand - there are no explosions!

just one of these comparisons.

Blood-Flow is nearly continuosly with a speed of the flow defined by the rythm (and hardness) of the heartbeat.

Without breathing there is no need for a heartbeat (even there's not only oxygen transported by the blood-cells).

And if not enough oxygen (for example at hard work) is transported by the blood - the speed of heartbeat and breathing increases rapidly (why if it is not needed)!

Sorry, but I did not say that I looked at the body as an engine. I said I looked on it as a collection of machinery. The bit about the heart you made up yourself.
Muscles do not contract and expand, they contract and relax.
As for And if not enough oxygen (for example at hard work) is transported by the blood - the speed of heartbeat and breathing increases rapidly (why if it is not needed)! the answer is that a raised CO2 from the exercising muscle sends a signal to both the respiratory and cardiovascular centres, leading to an increase in both respiratory and cardiovascular drive. I assure you that this is always needed, even if it is not always completely effective.

is that a raised CO2

oxygen is part of CO2 - where it is created, oxygen is needed.

is stored in the blood (it is not stored there, it will be transported) like the CO2

Any athlete will tell you that your need for oxygen is less at the beginning of an event,and increases as time goes on.

The longer the exertion, the larger the oxygen debt,and the longer it takes to recover.

I raced another student upstairs to the top floor of a 12 story dorm.

We were neck-in-neck all the way up,both of us wide open.

Neither of us could gain on the other.

I was not out of breath until about 1 minute after the top floor,and then the oxygen debt caught up with me,and it took several minutes to resume normal breathing.

Must have been in anaerobic fuel mode all the way.

And yes,you do need to exercise during cool down to prevent cramps from lactic acid being trapped in the muscles.

I got on an exercise bike for about 30 minutes afterwards and was not even sore the next day.

That was nearly 40 years ago(Dang! has it been that long?!)

(On an a side note:You can exercise to the point of death,due to toxic overload of the kidneys.)

Breathing is not necessary? They hyperventilated before starting their race.

http://breakingmuscle.com/strength-conditioning/using-hyperventilation-to-improve-cardiovascular-performance

Breathing is not necessary?

If a person Hyperventilated before a race does that mean that they do not have to breath, or does it mean that it is not necessary to breath to maintain oxygen levels in their body?

It means neither. Hyperventilation does not significantly increase the amount of oxygen in the blood. What it does do is lower the CO2 concentration, which, as I have explained, is a potent stimulus to further breathing. Side-effects of excessive hyperventilation include giddiness, tetany (muscle spasm), and in the worst case death. There have been several deaths as a result of hyperventilating in order to prolong breath-holding under water.

Thank you. Regards JD.

First, to run 100 meters the athlete has enough Oxigen stored in his blood.
Second, to breathe would be another activity. The athlete is concentrating in running and that is a lot.
Finally, the mere activity of breathing would consume energy. The athlete is directing all his energy to the act of running.

First, to run 100 meters the athlete has enough Oxigen stored in his blood.

Not true. There are two metabolic pathways available to translate energy stores into muscle and other activity. One requires oxygen (the aerobic pathway), the other does not (the anaerobic pathway). The aerobic pathway makes the more efficient use of the available substrates, the end products being CO2 and water. The anaerobic process does not result in complete breakdown of substrate, resulting the accumulation of organic acids, notably lactate. Anaerobic exercise capability is linked to the ability to tolerate the high acid environment. Eventually the body can tolerate no more, and the athlete stops. The oxygen intake then is sufficient to clear the extra acid. The brain always requires oxygen, and is not capable of anaerobic metabolism.

The winner of a race of any distance will always have embarked on anaerobic metabolism.

Finally, the mere activity of breathing would consume energy. True, but the work of respiration is small relative to the rest of the athlete's activity. The athlete is directing all his energy to the act of running. Not true in the vast majority of athletes, who find that the rise in acid concentration is a potent drive to breathing harder, even in as short a race as 100m.

Well, in my youth I have been a 100 m Sprint and good at that. That was my experience.

And you might have been even better had you taken a breath. Who's to say?