Good Example of Muscular Endurance - Essay Example

MUSCULAR ENDURANCE Lab Report: Muscular Endurance Introduction Griffin (2006) defines muscle endurance as theability an individual muscle or a group of muscles to exert power against resistance. Performing several repetitions of vigorous exercises is a good example of muscular endurance. Examples of cases of muscular endurance include swimming, running and aerobic activities. It is of great importance for an individual to have adequate muscular endurance so as to be able to bear out daily actions such as walking, working and exercises. Fundamentally, sports athletes require having huge muscular endurance for them to compete successfully in their respective disciplines. In general, if an individual is able to have their muscles contract in similar patterns for a long period of time is said to be using muscular endurance. Many experiments have been conducted to demonstrate or rather to measure the amount of muscular endurance that an individual possesses. This particular experiment uses some vigorous activities to measure the aspect of muscular endurance. The experiment is important because it will enable a person to conduct similar experiment in order to determine the level of activity that he or she can manage. Method In the lab we performed tests to measure muscular endurance. To test muscular endurance, we performed the modified push-up and squat test. To start with, various bodily aspects were measured in the sample group. The weigh, height, and the age of the participants was determined and recorded. After preliminaries, individuals in the sample started by performing modified push-ups on the bench. The number of complete push-ups per participants was determined and recorder. The participants repeated the push up exercises on the mat and then on a box. In each case, the number of complete push-up was recorded. In addition, all participants took a squat test. In the test, each person carried out repeated squatting and the number of successful squats was determined and recorder. In the extermination, both male and females of different ages, height and mass took part. Results After the exercises, we recorder the participants results as in the table below: Participant/ exercise Age gender weight Height Number of push-ups on a mat Number of push-up on a bench Number of push-up on a box Number of successive squats classification Subject 1 23 Male 62 164 cm 34 30 32 71 good Subject 2 24 Female 50 164 cm 28 25 30 61 fair Subject 3 23 Male 50 160 cm 40 38 36 80 Good Subject 4 24 female 62 160 cm 32 25 28 40 Fair The participants, name with held, were able to complete the task and their result are analyzed as below; Subject 1 is a male aged twenty-three year and his weight is fifty kilograms. He is also 164 centimeters high. Subject 1 was able to perform 34 push-ups on a mat, 30 on the bench and 34 while on a box. In addition, he was able to perform 71 squatting. Subject 2 is a female aged 23 years. She is of equal mass and height with subject 1. She successfully performed 28, 25 and 30 push-ups on the mat, bench and the box respectively. She completed 61 squatting Subject 3 is a male aged 23 years. He is 62 kilograms heavier and shorter than subject 1 and 2 by 2 centimeters. He was able to complete 40, 38 and 36 push-ups in the same order as subject 2. Subject 4 is a female aged 24 years. She is 62 kilograms and 160 centimeters high. She complete 32 push-ups on a mat, 25 on the bench and 28 on the box. In addition, she completed 40 squatting in a row. Discussion According to Alters, Schiff (2013), the above exercises comprise of endurance exercises that can easily tell the level of muscular endurance that a person has. The experts have defined endurance exercises as the cardiovascular exercise such as cycling, cross-country skiing and aerobic exercises that are performed for extensive period of time. In extension, they declare that muscular endurance involves multifaceted integration of numerous physiological functions that is characterized by one simple condition–the ability to maintain recurring muscle contraction. This criterion is primarily fulfilled through two essential functions. They include oxygen consumption and sufficient food substrate availability. In addition, some other factors such genetics and hydration comes in play, (p. 661) For any vigorous activities, the amount of energy that a person possesses will dictate their extent of muscular endurance. Similarly, the level of energy endowment in an individual is as a result of oxygen consumption and food substances available in the body. Subject one is rated good as far as muscular endurance is concerned. He is quite young and hence his physiological processes such as respiration take place at a high rate. In this case, he is able to generate the required energy for the vigorous exercises. Rusko (2003) further declares that males usually have more muscles compared to women. In this case, the large amount of cells in subject 1 is able to cumulatively generate sufficient energy required for muscular endurance. Subject 3 equally performs well in the exercise. His rate is a good. Just like subject 1, his large amount of cellular muscles is able to generate a lot of energy for the activities. However, subject 3 performs better that his counterpart subject1. Rusko (2003) suggests that body weight comes to play when equal amount of energy is engaged in an exercise. In this case, subject 1 exhausted his energy endowment very fast since he was doing more work to lift his body. For subjects 2 and 4, Schiff (2013) argue that women have larger deposit of fats as compared to cells and muscles. In this case, their less number of cells generates relatively less energy. In this case, they will perform poorer that their male counterpart of the same age and size. It is also notable that subject 2 performed better that subject 4 in muscular endurance. In this case, Schiff (2013, p.718) argues that subject 4 required more energy to propel her body. Since it is assumed that the two ladies had equal energy deposits, subject 4 exhausted her energy deposit very fast. Height and body shape plays insignificant role in muscular endurance. Conclusion The examination has identified two main factors that determine an individual muscular endurance. They include the body weight and gender. Other factors that come in to play include the amount of oxygen up taken by an individual and to a small extent the genetic makeup. For the participants to increase their muscular endurance, they require to engage themselves in rigorous activities for longer period of time. This will allow their muscles to acclimatize to both low and high energy deposit. References Alters, S., & Schiff, W. (2013). Essential concepts for healthy living (6th ed.). Burlington, MA: Jones & Bartlett Learning. Top of Form Bottom of Form Griffin, J. (2006). Client-centered exercise prescription (2nd ed.). Champaign, IL: Human Kinetics. Top of Form Bottom of Form Rusko, H. (2003). Cross country skiing. Malden, MA: Blackwell Science Read More