I was working out and I felt my chest get pumped up from benching and I wondered what mechanics allow one muscle to accept way more blood than everything else, when all the blood vessels are connected with nothing blocking blood to go anywhere in the body. How does the body just get more blood to the chest, or send more to the stomach when it’s breaking down a big meal?
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Blood vessels, especially the smaller ones near muscles and organs that actually deliver the blood to its “final destination” and allow oxygen to be exchanged, are able to change their diameter. They can “close” and “open up”, as it were. The body can regulate which parts are getting more blood by (further) opening blood vessels in one place and closing them in another (not fully close, as you don’t want any body part to get cut off, but relatively speaking).
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