Energy for Muscles

Muscles use ATP from aerobic respiration to contract. However, depending on muscle type (below), anaerobic respiration may be carried out to provide energy very quickly. When this is the case, a reaction involving both ATP and PCr (phosphocreatine) occurs. The trick here is that unlike typical anaerobic respiration, no lactate is produced.

Types of Muscle

There are two main kinds of muscle fibre: slow twitch and fast twitch. Hmm, I do wonder what they do. Perhaps they joyously twitch slowly… or fast.

Slow twitch: slow contraction, uses ATP from aerobic respiration, can work for prolonged periods of time e.g. back muscles holding…