How does exercise boost energy levels?
In: Biology
Your muscles become more conditioned for tasks and simultaneously Glycogen stores increases on the muscle tissues themselves
That’s primarily the nutritional aspect of exercise. To put it simply the more you exercise the more you condition your body to use fat as energy, even when you arent exercising. Fat is a MUCH more efficient energy source than carbs, but you body would rather hold onto it unless you train it to do otherwise.
EDIT: of course when you also factor in how much you build strength and endurance, you now have more energy and use less
Your cells need two things – food and oxygen. When you sit on the couch, you might get energy from food, but the oxygen is blocked. When you even as much as take a light walk, your breathing gets deeper, and your cells get the other “food” – oxygen – so sometimes we get a lot of energy even from a small walk or light housework.
Your body will adjust almost everything based on your circumstances.
If you lift heavy things, your body will add muscle wherever you used it so that next time you are better able to lift things.
If you run or jump or lift heavy enough things it will stress your bones, so your body will strengthen them so that next time you are less likely to break them.
If you run up steep hills a lot at high altitude in the heat, your body will add red blood cells to your blood, add muscle to your heart, add space to your heart, add muscle to your legs, increase how much sweat your skin can make, add blood vessles to your legs, add calcium to the bones in your legs, increase how well your liver produces glycogen, and make your legs better at using glycogen so that next time it’s easier.
The thing is, your body assumes anything you do a lot is normal, so be ready for that thing.
Exercise means your body gets ready for more exercise. If you exercise enough then your body is ready for exercise all the time.
If you are ready for exercise, but not exercising, then sitting around will feel easy. This feels like having more energy.
Exercise boosts a lot of brain chemicals called neurotransmitters which signal your brain to react to certain situations. Endorphins are one which makes you happy and relieves pain for situations like “I need to run away from this bear without my bum knee causing too much pain to run or being too freaked out to run.” Additionally it releases acetylcholine which is the molecule that is important for heightening alertness and arousal. Acetylcholine also increases brain blood flow to deliver more oxygen and sugars to your brain to compensate for it being in a more active state. These neural signals have a residual effect that lasts longer than the exercise itself
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Essentially our body is good at adapting to stresses. When we stress our body physically it makes it produce all kinds of chemicals and hormones that promote growth and repair. Some examples are Human Growth Hormone and Testosterone which not only repair the body from the damage of physical stress but also make us feel more energetic and healthy. Also, an increase in muscle/cardiovascular fitness makes everyday things a little easier to do in contrast to back when you were a couch potato.
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The body responds to stresses. When you exert a lot of energy, your heart rate increases to pump blood through your body faster. Blood is part of how your body transports lots of nutrients, but especially oxygen, which your muscles need to work. This is why you breath harder when running, because you need more oxygen to supply your body with the things it needs to keep going.
When you stop, your body begins a recovery process. It sends nutrients to repair the tiny strains and tears in your muscles. This includes things like your heart and your lungs. Your body actually senses where you need more strength and support. But like a skyscraper, it can’t be built from the ground up over night. So everytimenyou exercise, it’s like telling your body to build another floor on the skyscraper of your physical health.
As this occurs over time, the cumulative strengthening of muscles and systems that support your muscles, circulation, and everything else can be felt. Your body is prepared for another exertion of energy. The increased efficiency in your heart and lungs provides benefits beyond just running long distances, because the brain uses oxygen and energy, and so do all of your regular body processes. Even if you don’t exercise, you still probably burn around 1500-1800 calories (more or less depending on many factors) just from keeping your body alive, digesting, maintaining temperature, and fighting off bacteria and things that could make you sick. A stronger body can handle these things more efficiently as well, so you feel stronger and more energized in your day to day when you are in good shape.
The caveat is that you can over do it. Exercise is stress on the body, and doing too much of it at once, either by going too long beyond your abilities or trying to exert too much at once (maybe lifting too much weight) can cause bigger damage than the small stresses from healthy exercise. This is also why, early on when trying to get in shape, you might feel very, very tired on days when you exercised. If this happens, you are probably pushing yourself a little too hard too fast. Exercise should make you feel very energized and strong after working out, even when your muscles and lungs feel somewhat weaker.
When you exercise to exhaustion your body produced certain chemicals in body that act as signals. One of those signals asks for cells to develop more mitochondrias, which act as energy engines. When you do that over and over you end up being able to run a marathon because your body is able to produce energy very quickly and efficiently
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