I read that atp is produced constantly as needed and that you can only store about a minutes worth, so how is exercise supposed to make you tired and sleepy if you’re not using up your energy?
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Exercising produces this goop in your body called lactic acid. This is produced when your body breaks down carbs. Think of it like this: When you need energy you eat bread, but bread makes you also thirsty and you drink some milk. It’s easy to swim in water, but swimming in milk would be hard, so until your body flushes out all the milk you’re tired.
Glycogen in muscles is depleted, metabolic byproducts build up and need to be cleared, muscles form micro tears along with other connective tissues, and all of that needs to be resolved.
You are using energy. Atp and glucose. A good analogy I’ve heard is atp is like a quarter. Good for small amounts of energy. Like using a parking meter or doing laundry. Glucose is like a 10$ bill. It’s easier to transport around than 10$ in quarters, but doesn’t work for paying the meter. During large exercise. You are spending lots of money, and your body needs to recover that, hence you being tired.
ATP is not stored in the body. It is continuously produced in each cell from other storage molecules, like fat or carbohydrates. There are two ways ATP is produced from these storage molecules: oxidation or fermentation. Oxidation is the preferred, more efficient method, producing around 28 ATP from a molecule of glucose. Fermentation only produces 2 ATP. The advantage of fermentation is that it does not require oxygen, and so can be used during very high intensity effort when oxygen is scarce. The trade-off is that it produces a lot of lactic acid, which inhibits fermentation, so high intensity effort can only be maintained for a short amount of time.
Fatigue after exercise occurs because you are depleting your stored energy, you are losing water to sweat, the build-up of waste products, and the general breakdown of tissues after repeated use.
Atp is your short term supply and I think oxygen is your long term. So atp is like a spring that charges up slowly but once you use that all that’s left tis the battery. And the battery strength is determined by you cardio fitness.
ATP can be considered more analogous to electricity instead of energy storage. So it’s like asking why your phone runs out of electricity when it’s constantly being made by your battery.
Your muscles tear down when you excessive and are repaired. Kind of like if they were Lego sets how easy it is to knock down a Lego castle but it takes more time and energy to rebuild.
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