Exercise Physiology: Understanding the Athlete Within with Mark Hargreaves

Key Takeaways

regular physical activity including structured exercise in sport is an important part of a healthy lifestyle and we certainly enjoy the amazing feats of elite sports men and women when they compete on the international stage i'm mark hargraves professor of physiology at the university of melbourne here in australia it's my pleasure to be the instructor for the course exercise physiology understanding the athlete within this is a six-week course with a number of modules that focus on important aspects of exercise physiology we'll look at muscles how they contract during exercise how they adapt to different types of exercise we'll look at the fuels that muscles use during different types of exercise and also how the heart and lungs deliver oxygen to those contracting muscles when muscles are activated during exercise they increase their heat production and that heat has to be removed we'll look at how the body removes heat and the implications for fluid balance and think about the optimal fluids that can be ingested during exercise to replace those fluid losses then we'll examine muscle fatigue and the limits to sports performance and finally given the advances in genetics and molecular biology in recent years we'll look at how exercise affects gene expression and perhaps try and answer the question are athletes born or are they made it would be a good idea to take a basic course in human physiology before taking the exercise physiology subject and there's one in coursera that is ideal for that purpose hopefully at the end of this course you'll have a greater understanding of exercise physiology and the athlete within