Welcome to the training expert Q&A section for July 2007. Each month we take a training question from the forum or one recieved via email and answer it in detail here. Would you like to get your question answered in next months issue? Simply register for free at the forum and post it up! All good questions will get answered here. This month's training question is below:

July Training Question:

What are the effects of aerobic training on muscle?

Answer:

The muscle of the body is the motive force and source of many of the good things that are associated with exercise, and is the primary target of your training. The effects of aerobic training on muscle relate to the utilization of oxygen. Oxidative metabolism, the enzymatic breakdown of carbohydrates and fat to produce energy for muscular contractions take place in cellular powerhouses called the mitochondria (Coggan and Williams 1995).

Aerobic training has the following effects on muscle:

• It increases the concentration of aerobic enzymes needed for the metabolic breakdown of carbohydrate and fat to produce energy in the form of ATP (adenosine triphosphate, the cellular energy supply}.
• It increases the size and number (volume) of mitochondria, the cellular powerhouses that produce energy aerobically (with oxygen)
• It increases the muscles ability to use fat as a source of energy.
• It increases the size of the muscle fibres used in training: long-slow training improves the oxidative capabilities of slow oxidative muscle fibres, whereas high intensity training enhances the capabilities of fast oxidative glycolytic muscle fibres.
• It increases the Myoglobin (a compound that carries oxygen from the cell membrane to the mitochondria) content in muscle fibres.
• It increases the number of capillaries serving muscle fibres.

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About Doug Lawrenson:

Doug Lawrenson is our resident diet guru & fitness over on the Muscle&Strength Forum. Doug has had experience as a bodybuilder, coach and judge at national competition level. If you have questions for Doug or need some advice you can chat to Doug on the forum. Doug is on the forum almost every day!

Doug has written some in-depth and informative articles that have been featured on Muscle&Strength.com. To read some of his articles, check out the diet & nutrition articles section of this this website.