My favorite aspect of exercise physiology was learning how the muscles work and fuel consumption. I thought the muscle aspect was cool because when you are exercising you really don’t think much about how your muscles are working you jut know they do. I found it interesting to learn the details about how they work and all the different things that contribute to a muscle contraction. I like learning about fuel consumption because I always thought of “carb loading before a big game” was the way to go. It was cool to see why people actually do that and think that can help. I liked learning about what type of fuel sources were used when and how crossover takes place based on intensity and duration. I never really thought that changing your diet to be carb or fat based could really make that much of a difference on endurance. The other part of the course I liked was the Endure book. At first I wasn’t really looking forward to having to read it because reading is not one of my favorite past times, but I don’t think that anymore. Once I actually sat down and read it I couldn’t stop. I actually really enjoyed reading it and learning about the different ways our body works and how it can affect our endurance. My favorite part is the slushy part to cool down your body. I wish I knew that before I was a washed up narp because maybe I would have added it to the game day routines.
Nicole! I’m so glad you found your love of reading in endure. I started liking endure but as the book progresses I began to not enjoy it! I found it repetitive and a lot of the evidence the author provided were extreme trials done by one person which makes it hard to draw conclusions. It was better than reading a textbook but I wished I had enjoyed it as much as you. I also liked learning about diet and exercise. It is always interesting to learn the science behind something you have been taught your whole life, for example carb-loading before games. After this class, while I’m working out, I try to think about what I ate that day and the night before. Often times I have found when I ate carbohydrates or fats compared to protein the night before I have a better workout (may be in my head)!