The Physiology of Fitness physiology | Page 5

Blood flow increases when you exercise because the blood vessels in your muscles dilate to get as much blood to the working muscles . The red blood cells carry the oxygen towards the muscles that need the need the energy to carry on working . Vasodilation is the increase in the internal diameter of blood vessel , during vasodilation when blood vessels dilate the blood flow is increased due to a decrease in resistance . Vasoconstriction is the opposite so the decrease in the diameter of blood vessels , if a person is exposed to severe cold vasoconstriction can occur , different nervous system processes and hormone signals can also encourage the blood vessels to compress . Exercise causes the blood vessels to constrict and dilate at different moments during the activity , as people age blood vessel flexibility generally reduces . One way to keep them flexible is to get regular exercise this also reduces the risk of vascular disease . When playing basketball the use of many muscles is needed , this will cause the blood vessels to dilate so as much oxygenated blood can travel to the working muscles around the body .
Poor diet and an unhealthy lifestyle causes fat and cholesterol deposits to build up along the inner walls of blood vessels so when vasoconstriction occurs it can have serious effects on the person ’ s health as even less blood can get through .
Energy systems :
In order to extract the energy from the foods we eat and turn it into the chemical energy that our bodies can use , the ones we use in sport are :
Creatine
Basketball plays last up to 24 seconds ; the phosphate system uses adenosine triphosphatecreatine phosphate for energy . This provides quick bursts of immediate energy . While playing accelerating and running up and down the court , changing directions , rebounding and jump shots can be done using this system so an advantage of this energy system is a wide range of movement ’ s