What muscle in our bodies never gets tired? The Heart!
Our heart is made up of cardiac muscle that contracts and relaxes continuously to keep our blood moving around our bodies in order to keep us alive.
What do our muscles do for us?
Our muscles are essential for us to move around, to stand and sit, to talk, breathe, move our eyes around to see, and move blood and food throughout our body and to keep our body temperature stable.
What happens when they get tired?
When we exercise, our muscles begin to fatigue. This causes them to feel weaker and stops you from continuing exercise.
This happens when our bodies use energy during exercise. Once our energy stores start to be used up by our muscles they become fatigued, causing them to feel sore, painful, weak, crampy or twitchy.
How can we prevent them from feeling tired?
- Drink plenty of water before, during and after exercise to prevent you from becoming dehydrated and to replace what is lost when we sweat.
- Eating well: eat a light meal an hour or two before and within an hour after exercising to help fuel and refuel the energy sources that you use during exercise.
- Exercise! Exercising more frequently is useful as it helps to improve endurance and allows you to exercise for longer before fatigue hits.
- Follow up exercise with adequate stretching, rest between sets and workouts, and applying heat and cold packs to promote muscle recovery.
- Sleep well! Sleep promotes the release of our natural growth hormone which helps build muscle.
- Massage therapy: massage is a great way to relax and recover our muscles between workouts.
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Sources:
Anthony, K. 2018. What causes muscle fatigue? Healthline. https://www.healthline.com/health/muscle-fatigue
Burgess, L. 2018. What are the main functions of the muscular system? Medical News Today. https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/321617#five-fun-facts
Ranieri, M. 2012. Tips for avoiding muscle fatigue when exercising. HSS. https://www.hss.edu/conditions_avoiding-muscle-fatigue-exercising-tips.asp