Each heart beat is a contraction of your heart muscle. As your heart contracts, it pushes blood out into your circulatory system. As it relaxes, it fills with blood. Your circulatory system circulates eight to 12 pints of blood continuously through your arteries and veins. When you exercise, this process speeds up to meet the demands of your muscles.
Cardiovascular System
Your heart is the pump that circulates oxygenated blood to your cells, tissues and organs. Once the oxygen and nutrients are depleted, blood returns to the heart to get re-oxygenated. Blood returns to the right side of the heart, where it is pumped out to the lungs to eliminate metabolic waste products and pick up fresh oxygen. Then, it flows into the left side of the heart to return to your body.
Exercise and Your Heart
When you are resting, the oxygen supply in your blood is adequate for all the processes in your body. When you start to exercise, your muscles start to call for more oxygen. Oxygen is needed for the muscles to make energy. To meet the increasing demand for more oxygen, your heart speeds up, delivering more oxygenated blood to your muscles.
Extreme Workouts and Your Heart
As you continue to work out, your muscles need more oxygenated blood to create energy. Your circulatory system starts a process called vasodilation. When this occurs, your blood vessels open wider to allow even more oxygenated blood to flow to your muscle tissues. Your heart rate increases as it supplies a larger volume of oxygenated blood to your muscles. As long as your muscles are receiving oxygen, they can continue to work.
Cool Down
When your workout is complete, your heart is still providing maximum amounts of oxygenated blood to your muscles. As your muscles cease calling for more oxygen, the vasodilation process reverses, and your blood vessels return to their normal diameter. Your muscles still require increased oxygen, but slowly the consumption of oxygen returns to baseline. The increase in your heart rate gradually slows to its normal resting rate.
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