The Importance Of Aerobic Respiration

Hypothesis Justification

It is hypothesized that with an increased speed of a treadmill, the heart rate and breathing rate will increase. The reasons for these body processes increasing is linked to elements such as homeostasis, cellular respiration, the respiratory system and the circulatory system.

For muscles to be able to obtain the benefits of exercise, the heart and breathing rates must increase (Meg Brannagan, 2017). As the muscles are in use, the blood flow pushes blood back up to the heart faster than when at rest, thus increasing the heart rate to match it (Meg Brannagan, 2017). During high-intensity activities, muscles require more oxygen to keep moving because oxygen is needed to perform cellular respiration, which makes energy

This is when cellular respiration occurs and it can be aerobic respiration or anaerobic respiration (BBC Science, 2014). Aerobic respiration takes place in the mitochondria and produces carbon dioxide (CO2), water (H2O) and energy (Katy C, 2015). Each needs oxygen and glucose to be created and the energy that has been produced helps the muscles to work because cellular respiration has taken place and provided energy in the cells (Katy C, 2015). Anaerobic respiration takes place in the cell cytoplasm and like aerobic respiration produces energy and uses glucose, however unlike aerobic respiration it does not involve oxygen and in turn creates less energy and produces lactic acid (Katy C, 2015). The oxygen left in the cells is used to break down the lactic acid into CO2 and H2O so that lactic acid does not build up (Katy C,

The ventricles will pump faster during exercise because the oxygen demand is greater and the breathing rate is higher so therefore with more oxygen coming into the body, the heart must pump faster to move it around in sync with the breathing, making the pulse faster. The demand for oxygen is higher because the muscles are working tirelessly and are continuously using up energy and need to restore energy by using cellular respiration, which uses O2 and glucose to produce CO2 and energy. The circulatory system will flow faster during exercise as a result of the increased heart rate, which pumps oxygenated blood around the body. The faster the heart is beating, the faster the blood flow. Blood is made up of red and white blood cells. The red blood cells carry oxygen around the body through veins and arteries. The blood from the heart travels through the arteries such as the aorta to the lungs to pick up oxygen – this is a process called gas exchange - and then travels through the body to spread the oxygen (Pearson Science, 2017). When the oxygenated blood reaches cells it drops off the oxygen (another gas exchange) and ends up as deoxygenated blood (carbon dioxide) as it travels through veins back to the heart. We then breathe out carbon dioxide and inhale oxygen to restart the system (Pearson Science, 2012). Gas exchange is the diffusion of