Human Performance Enhancement

Running head: HUMAN PERFORMANCE ENHANCEMENT
Human Performance Enhancement
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Author Note

HUMAN PERFORMANCE ENHANCEMENT
1
Question 1
High altitude training has immense effect on the body of the athletes and thus have
effect on multiple systems in the body of the individuals. An enhancement in the altitude
causes proportional decrease in the barometric pressure and along with this the amount of
atmospheric oxygen also reduces with time. So, the onset of hypobaric hypoxia takes place
which affects the different body system and organs in different degrees as well. In this
context, it can be stated that such exposure to high altitude is an environmental stressor which
is capable of producing various physiological changes in the body of the individuals (Pinilla,
2014). In this case scenario, it is observed that the athlete is highly trained and conducts a
running effort after reaching at La Paz, Bolivia that is at 3700 m height. From the case
scenario, it is stated that the athlete is trained at plain and he has no experience in training at
high altitude. Therefore, running at high altitude region such as La Paz will cause several
physiological changes that can alter the performances of the athlete as well. According to the
study of Wadley, Svendsen and Gleeson (2014), it is stated that the exposure to high altitude
is associated with the exaggerated response related to blood lactate production due to
performance of a specific workload that is the blood lactate accumulation is augmented in
muscle and blood. Moreover, the produced lactate is released from muscles that are
associated with the process of bodily movements. Hence, it can be stated that due to the
sudden exposure to the high altitude the lactate production of the body of the athlete will be
enhanced and so it may possible that the athlete get exhausted in less amount of time due to
high lactate accumulation and hypobaric hypoxia. In order to prepare for such condition, the
athlete should initiate training at high altitude so that the body and other system can be
acclimatized to the environment and along with progression of time the body gets
acclimatized to the condition (Pinilla, 2014).
Question 2

HUMAN PERFORMANCE ENHANCEMENT
2
There are mainly thre system sin our body that are responsible for supplying energy
during the various bodily movements and the selection of the energy system is completely
dependent on the type of the body movements of the individuals. The primary energy systems
of the body are mainly ATP-PCr, Glycolytic or lactic acid system and aerobic metabolism.
The ATP-PCr system is the primary system that supplies energy to the individuals during the
short distance running or short duration high intensity exercise performance. This energy
system is capable of producing a huge amount of power at a less amount of time. Along with
this, it is important to mention that it also does not require oxygen for generating power
during the high intensity exercises by the sports person (Powers et al., 2014).
Like the ATP-PCr system, the mechanism of energy generation in the Lactate system
is also independent of oxygen supply that is this system also does not need oxygen supply to
produce energy. However , the activation of this system is followed by the activation of the
ATP-PCr system. According to the study of Dellagrana et al. (2015), it is stated that the
when the ATP-PCr storage of the body runs out then the lactate energy system comes into
play and supplies energy at a lower rate unlike ATP-PCr system. Unlike, ATP-PCr system
this system is dependent on the glycogen storage of the muscle and breakdown of the
glycogen causes production of lactic acid or blood lactate by the enzyme named lactate
dehydrogenase.
Another energy system is aerobic metabolism and it is completely different in nature
from the previous two energy system as the energy production process is completely
dependent on the oxygen. This energy system is capable of supplying energy for a long
period of time unlike other two systems described above and another major difference is the
fact that the aerobic energy system is capable of producing energy from carbohydrate, protein
and fat molecules unlike the other two systems (Powers et al., 2014).