The physiology of muscular exercise / by F.A. Bainbridge.

  • Bainbridge, F. A. (Francis Arthur), 1874-1921.
Date:
1919
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: The physiology of muscular exercise / by F.A. Bainbridge. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    powers to their full extent, it is absolutely essential that the movements of the muscles on the one hand, and the activities of the circulatory and respiratory systems on the other hand, should be co-ordinated and integrated into a harmonious whole. Perfect co-ordination brings about the maximum of work with the minimum of effort Incomplete co-ordination, on the contrary, inevitably spells inefficiency. An exaggerated response on the part of the respiratory and circulatory systems involves a useless expenditure of energy ; a deficient response rapidly throws out of gear the controlling influence of the nervous system, cripples the energies of the skeletal muscles, and renders exercise ineffec¬ tive or even impossible. In order to realise the completeness to which this co-ordination can attain, and the effects of even the slightest disturbance of the balance between the activities of the muscles and of the rest of the body, it is only necessary to watch a trained and an untrained man running in a race or engaged in some other form of exercise. In the former, every organ is working smoothly, and is contributing its proper share towards bringing about the perfect harmony of action which is requisite for efficient exercise. In the latter, the less perfect adjustment of the body is evident, both to the man himself and to others, in the greater sense of effort, in the clumsiness of movement, and in the more severe respiratory and circulatory distress. Muscular exercise thus presents three problems. The first is the changes taking place in the skeletal muscles, whereby the transformation of energy, which constitutes muscular movement, is effected; the second is the nature of the adjustments occurring elsewhere in the body in order to provide the muscles with the oxygen and food-stuffs required for this purpose; and the third is the means by which these are interwoven and bound together to produce the fabric of muscular exercise. The attempt to answer the second and third of these questions is the main thesis of the following chapters, and the first question will only be con¬ sidered in so far as it bears upon the general argument.