respond to their research and discuss another alternative activity that could contribute positively to the body systems they describe.
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Cassie’s post
Engaging in exercise or any type of physical activity is crucial in benefitting our respiratory system. For example, when you are running, your lungs are hard at work. The lungs work with the heart to bring oxygen to the rest of the body so it can help the muscles that are being used. The muscles being used in running are your quadriceps, hamstrings, calf muscles, abdominal muscles and many more. Exercising significantly impacts our lung compliance by increasing our breathing. Since our muscles are working harder, our body uses more oxygen which causes our lungs to expand more and faster. This expansion of our lungs is lung compliance.
In regards to the nervous system, exercise keeps it stimulated. Our body releases chemicals during exercise. These chemicals are called dopamine and endorphins. These are located in our brain and they make us feel happy. During exercise, our brain also gets rid of all the chemicals that make us feel stressed and anxious. Exercise stimulates our sympathetic nervous system and creates a unified response with the rest of our body to main homeostasis. This is because our body is working harder in keeping up with the demand exercise gives.
The autonomous nervous system is made up of two divisions: the sympathetic division and the parasympathetic division (Thompson, G.S. 2019). Exercise increases sympathetic activity by increasing our heart rate, dilating blood vessels of our skeletal muscles to increase blood flow, stimulates the sweat glands and much more. In the parasympathetic division, physical exercise decreases parasympathetic activity. The parasympathetic division is where the dopamine and endorphins are released during exercise due to it being known for having a calming effect on our body.
According to the Mayo Clinic, getting at least 150 minutes of moderate physical activity or 75 minutes of vigorous physical activity per week is strongly recommended for healthy adults. This would be around 21 minutes each day for moderate activity or 10 minutes each day for vigorous activity. Getting your body moving for just a short amount of time each day strengthens our heart and improves circulation. The blood flow raises oxygen levels within our body which helps lover the risk of many different heart diseases. As I have pointed out, the respiratory system and the nervous system play huge factors in this helping us stay healthy!
