ATP: Why You Run Out of Energy as a Runner

In the previous episode about Intermittent Fasting, our resident sports biomechanics, athletic, corrective and conditioning expert, Jessica Marie Rose Leggio, touched on the importance of ATP or Adenosine Triphosphate.
In this episode, Coach Jessica dives into what ATP is, its importance to the human body, and why runners need to pay attention to it to achieve great results and better performance.
What is ATP
ATP or Adenosine Triphosphate is considered a molecular currency. Basically, it is the energy currency of the body. It enables the cells to have the energy to go back and forth. It is really important that we have ATP because it is what dictates our energy.

“In order for us to have this happen, there needs to be a neural stimulus. So the muscle has to get stimulated. To move neurologically, there has to be some kind of signal. Then there needs to be calcium in your muscles. So you have to have a storage of calcium in your muscles, and ATP must be available for energy also in your muscles. All those things have to happen. When you don't have any of those things, you can't produce ATP. We have ATP naturally on our own, but only a very little and there's a certain way to create it.” - Coach Jessica Marie Rose Leggio

Ways to Produce ATP 
There are three different systems that produce ATP. The first system is ATP, which is a phosphagen system. Then there is the anaerobic part, which is from your lactate system. The third is the aerobic system, which is using basically using sugar to create energy.

“Anaerobic means no oxygen, aerobic means with oxygen. So anaerobic, think sprinter dancer, baseball player, people that do quick bursts of movement and then stop with nothing. That's anaerobic, even weightlifting is anaerobic.” - Coach Jessica Marie Rose Leggio

Aerobic respiration is the most used way of producing ATP. It is characterized when our bodies need both food and oxygen to create and produce ATP. When the body does that, the more oxygen we have, the more the ATP we can create.
Having a good blood flow
ATP is fueled when there is good blood flow. On a much deeper level, doing activities that encourages more blood flow signals the body that it needs to start creating more energy. 
The more you are moving and creating blood flow, the more there oxygen is delivered to your body, thus more ATP is being produced.

“Foam rolling, pre-workout pre-run send signals to the body and to the muscles that, ‘hey, you're about to do some stuff. Get yourself together by just creating blood flow.’ So just creating blood flow, you're releasing tissue and all of these things to get your joints to work.” - Coach Jessica Marie Rose Leggio

Protein, Carbohydrates, and Fats
Coach Jessica discusses protein, carbohydrates, and fats and how they relate to ATP production. She also talks about why intermittent fasting is not a good idea for the body. She mentions this as well to her previous episode on intermittent fasting.

“When the body is looking for something to use, in order to create energy, it's going to go for the most efficient. Carbohydrates, not only is it the slowest, but it is also the fastest producing ATP. It actually stores the glycogen both in your muscle and your liver, waiting. So this doesn't happen with either of the other two [protein and fat]. Similarly fat is extremely slow, it's inefficient to use it which lends to why the body works so hard to it when it goes into fat reserves and is starting to use fat reserves, why so many systems start to shut down because it's starting to use fat for energy. Protein doesn't give you energy, protein recovers muscle, it's recovery.” - Coach Jessica Marie Rose Leggio

ATP and the Runners Body
You will hear what basically ATP is, in terms of transitioning, how it's created, how our bodies are process oxygen, and therefore, create more ATP. You will also learn that ATP does run out.

“If you run a marathon, you're depleted. This would then go into your lactic state because now you're anaerobic, so you're not fueling it with oxygen. So you start to get the lactic acid buildup. Back in the day, if you had lactic acid buildup, it meant you had really sore muscles the next day. But the real reason is that you went out of the system of ATP of using glycogen and you started to use the lactic acid.” - Coach Jessica Marie Rose Leggio

To hear more about Coach Jessica and ATP and the need for it as an athlete, listen to this episode.
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THIS WEEK'S QUESTION IS:
What aerobic activities do you do to generate more ATP in your body?