The Science of Exercise: Understanding the Mechanics of Movement

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00:30Yo, you guys, what's up? Welcome to The WarriorBabe Show with Nikkie Stott, co-founder of WarriorBabe. And on this podcast, we talk about mindset, methodologies, and tactics that will help you lose body fat, build muscle, be strong, and feel insanely confident. I am your host, Nikkie Stott, and welcome to episode number 85. I am personally so excited to unpack this episode with you guys. So today we're going to talk about the science of exercise, but I'm going to talk about it in a way that you guys will be able to understand it, right?

01:07So I was about to dive into like all of these science terms, all of these big words. I'm like, hold up. My community, my audience may not totally stay with me and be like a deer in headlights if I present it in that manner. So I reworked it, and I'm going to talk to you guys about the science of exercise, understanding the mechanics of movement in a way that you guys will be able to understand it. And I'm going to use a lot of analogies throughout the process of this podcast today because I feel like that's one of my favorite ways to communicate hard concepts in an easy light.

01:45So we're going to dive into talking about like, again, like I said, biomechanics, body movement, exercise, physiology, and neurological aspects of exercise. And so you guys can see like, if I didn't break this down in a way that you would be understood, you guys would be lost. So I'm really excited to present this podcast, you guys. What I want to do is throughout this podcast, basically what we're doing is like we're going behind the scenes of your sweat and effort that you put into your workouts. And I want to first start from the beginning. Okay, I want to first talk about what exactly is exercise science.

02:18Okay. And so exercise science is a study that explores how the human body moves and responds to physical activity. This includes everything from the mechanics of like a single step that you take when you're walking outside all the way to how your muscles grow after lifting heavy weights. And I believe that this is, this is not that I believe this is a fascinating field because it involves all the things in the segments I talked about a second ago. We're going to break it down into how this combines all of these facets into exercise.

02:54And I just want you guys to walk away just realizing that exercise is so freaking good for the human body, for the human mind, for your joints, for longevity, for, you know, the way that your blood is pumping in your body, the way that your cells are responding, the way that oxygen is going in and out, all of these incredible things. Okay, so first and foremost, let's talk about segment one. Let's talk about biomechanics and body movement. And I want to ask you guys is, have you guys ever wondered how your body actually moves?

03:26Like how the muscle and the joints work together? Because what I'm about to unpack with you guys is like, when you understand the biomechanics of your body and how it can enhance performance and prevent injuries, it is such, like I said, like it's just fascinating when you really unpack all of these things. So we're going to unpack it in five ways. We're going to talk about how does your body move? How do the muscle and joints work together? What are joints and how do they work? And then why does understanding this all matter? And then how can it all prevent injuries?

03:56Okay, so these are things to look forward to just within this one segment. And again, there's going to be three segments of this when we're talking about overall physiology, biomechanics, psychology, and so much more. All right. So first and foremost, how does your body move? So your body moves by your muscles pulling on your bones. So I want you to think of your muscles like the strings on a puppet. And when you want to move, the muscles or the strings pull and the bones or the puppet move.

04:28Right? I told you I was going to talk to you guys in terms of analogy. So that's how your body moves. Now, how do the muscles and the joints work together? So your muscles work by contracting. So it's like squeezing a sponge. Right? And when they do this, they pull your bones and that makes your joints move like hinges on a door. Like you're opening and closing a door that hinges on the door. And your muscles and your bones have to work together just right for everything to move smoothly. Okay? Now, let me backstep a second.

05:00What are joints and how do they work? So joints are where the two bones come together. Like where your knee and your elbow bend. Right? How your knee bends and how your elbow bends. And some of those joints move a lot. Like your shoulder and others don't move at all. Like the ones in your skull. Okay? So think of joints like the knots to the puppet strings. They let things bend and twist in the right places. Okay? Just to unpack those three things. I kind of just talked through really, really quick. First of all, think of your muscles like strings on a puppet.

05:32When you want to move, the muscles or the strings pull and the bones or the puppet move. Right? And then think of your muscles, how these all work together. Think of your muscles work by contracting, like squeezing a sponge. And they pull on your bones. That makes your joints move like hinges on a door. Okay? And then think about how some joints move and some joints don't. But think of these joints like knots to the puppet strings. They let things bend and twist in the right places.

06:03Okay? So this is kind of how everything works together. And why? I want you guys to understand why this matters. This matters because knowing how your body moves helps you to use it better. And again, we're on the segment of biomechanics and body movement. If you know how your muscles and joints work, you can train them to be stronger and more flexible. So it's like knowing how to drive a car. If you know how it works, you can make it go faster and handle it better. So I hope this is all making sense so far.

06:34Now, how can you use all of these things that I just said? And how can it prevent injuries? So again, understanding how your body works can help you to avoid hurting yourself. So if you know how things are supposed to move, like I just shared with you and how they all work together, you're less likely to do something wrong and to get hurt. And so this is when we can use it in terms of like proper form when you're working out and making sure that you have good form and knowing when you have bad form, because you might feel something that you shouldn't be feeling and it may pinch something or it may cause you to hurt something, right?

07:05But if you know how your body moves and you're using the joints, the muscles, all of the things together, then you're going to feel less likely that you're going to injure yourself. So think of it like this. Think of it like you following the rules of the road. If you know what to do, you're less likely to crash, right? So if you know how all of these things work together, you're less likely to injure yourself. So that is the segment of biomechanics and body movement, right? How does your body move? It moves your muscle and bones.

07:36How do the muscles and joints work together? I told you like squeezing like a sponge is how the muscle contracts. And then it pulls on your bones and makes the joints move like the hinges on a door. And your muscles and bones have to work together just right for everything to move smoothly. And then I spoke to what joints are and how they work, right? So think about them knots on the puppet strings. And they let everything bend and twist as in the right places. And then all this is so important for you to understand how your body moves, because when you understand it, you just understand your body better

08:08and how the muscles, the bones, the joints all work, right? You can train them to be stronger and more flexible. And then in turn, it helps you to prevent injuries when you understand your body. So that was segment number one. Let's move into... Hey, guys. Love so much that you guys are listening to this podcast. If you ever want to have the video version of this, which usually has more effects and all that good stuff for those of you who are visual learners, check it out, YouTube channel, Warrior Babe, if that's what you like. Either way, keep enjoying the show. Segment number two, exercise physiology.

08:39So I want to talk about what's happening inside your body when you exercise. And what's happening is your muscles are contracting, your blood is pumping, and the cells are working overtime to give you energy. And so I want to unpack each one of those specific things. So I'm going to talk about how do muscles work during exercise? What's going on with your blood? How are your cells working extra hard? What's happening with your breathing? How does your body keep cool?

09:09What's going on with your feelings and your hormones? And then how does your body, with all of this, change over time? So let's unpack each of those things. First, I'm going to start with how... And again, this is segment number two, exercise physiology. So we're going to talk about how do muscles work during exercise? When you exercise, your muscles tighten and relax. So it's like squeezing and releasing a rubber ball. Your muscles use this energy that's stored in your body.

09:40And it's kind of like, you know, using gas in a car, right? So that's what your muscles are doing when you're exercising. Now, second to that, what is going on with your blood? Because we all know the blood moves all over throughout the whole body when you're exercising. When you start moving, your heart pumps more blood to give your muscles the fuel that it needs. So it's like stepping on the gas pedal in the car. The more that you press, the faster your car will go, right? The more that you are working out in terms of intensity, the more blood is going to be pumped through your body.

10:11The heavier the weight that you're using, the more that you're pressing the gas in that arena, the more that the body's blood is going to pump to give your muscles the fuel that they need. This is all making sense. This is all making sense. I'm trying not to go too fast. But again, I was like, I can't bring this to you guys in the way that I was originally going to bring it to you, which was like totally science-based. So this is like the layman version terms of all of the things from the scientific manner, like talked in a way that I know that you guys will understand. And so, okay, so that's what muscles are doing during exercise,

10:42what's going on with the blood during exercise. Now, when you're working out, your cells are working extra hard, right? So how are your cells working extra hard? Where your cells are like tiny factories working to give you energy, right? If you guys don't know what mitochondria is, that is what's going on while you're working out. They're like the powerhouse of your cells. So think of it like that. Your cells are like tiny factories, a mitochondria working to give you energy. They break down food into fuel. And it's kind of like turning wood into a binfire, right? So think that's why it's so important to eat because it's not like, I love to say this.

11:19You can't outwork a bad diet. You have to be eating right for everything to work together, from your nutrition to work together, to your workouts to work together, to your workouts to work together, to your nutrition to work together. Okay, they go together. But nutrition is so important because with all of this going on, these tiny little factories are breaking down food into fuel. So like I said, it's like turning wood into a bonfire. And they do this with or without oxygen. But with oxygen, it's more efficient like using dry wood instead of wet.

11:49Okay, so next to unpack what I just said there, I want to talk about what's happening with your breathing. You breathe faster to get more oxygen into your muscles, right? So the more intense that your exercise is, the more intense that you're lifting, you're breathing faster to get more oxygen to your muscles. And it's like turning on a fan to keep a fire going, right? So you're turning this wood into a bonfire and then you're turning the fan on to keep the fire going, right? You're also at this point, you guys, you're also getting rid of waste, like smoke from a fire. You breathing and having good.

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13:03Look, don't wait anymore. Take charge of your health and join our community of strong, empowered women. Visit warriorbabe.com forward slash apply today to start your transformation. That's warriorbabe.com forward slash apply. All right, let's get back to the show. You know, oxygen consumption to your body and to your muscles and all of the things is also helping you to get rid of toxins from your body. And so with all of this going on, right, this is everything that's happening in terms of like when you're working out.

13:36This is what your body is doing, what your muscles are doing, what your blood is doing, what your cells are doing, what your breathing is doing. And then what I love to unpack is how does your body keep cool, right? And so I really want to break this myth that like people think that in order to have a really strong and effective workout and an intense workout, they have to sweat and they have to be sweating. That's not entirely true. Okay, the way that your body tries to keep cool is actually your sweat by you sweating. So just because you're having an intense workout or not having intense workout by sweating or not doesn't mean, doesn't graze you in the type of workout that you're having.

14:14But the way that your body keeps cool is that you sweat to cool down. And so it's like spraying water on something hot, right? Blood vessels come close to your skin and they get bigger to help get rid of heat. So it's kind of like opening windows to let air out, right? So that's what's happening with your body. The sweat is, that's just your body trying to cool itself down. So again, it doesn't matter. It doesn't grade you on the type of workout that you're having. It's just your body trying. Like I personally barely sweat, but I'm still having an effective freaking workout. But that's what's happening inside of your body that the blood vessels come close to your skin, they get bigger, and they help to get rid of heat.

14:50And so that's what's going on in that term. Now, the feel-good hormones, right? What's going on with these feel-good hormones? You've all heard the thing that people say is that it releases X, Y, and Z. So exercise makes your body release these feel-good hormones, these feel-good chemicals that make you happy. Like you listening to your favorite song. Think about that. Jamming out in your car and you're listening to Unstoppable by Sia and you're releasing these feel-good hormones, right? But at the same time, it also releases stress hormones to help your body handle the workout.

15:25And so think of this like having a strong cup of coffee to wake up, right? So your body here is releasing stress hormones to help your body to handle the intensity that you're putting it under via the exercise that you're doing. And think about if you ever sipped coffee first thing in the morning, like it just like, bam, shot you wide awake, right? That's what's happening here. So think about these feel-good hormones in that respect. It's like listening to your favorite song or it's like the stress hormones that get and release. And it's like having a sip of coffee and waking up is so drastically fast. And then with exercise and with all of this that's going on in your body throughout time, how does your body change and adapt?

16:01So obviously, if you keep exercising, your muscles get bigger and it's like inflating a balloon, right? But your heart also gets better at pumping blood and your body gets better at using oxygen. So all of these things are encompassing. Like it's such a better atmosphere inside of your body by you moving your body and doing some type of exercise that you enjoy doing, right? Whether it's strength training, whether it's going for a run, all of these things are adapting your body to be more resilient, to have bigger muscles, to have better cardiovascular endurance, to have better circulation through your body.

16:41Just unpacking what is going on in your body during exercise. I hope this hits home because it's just so important to, you know, understand the why. Like all of these are happening on the internal side of your body from your body contracting the blood and how your muscles contracting, your blood is pumping, and how the cells are working overtime to give you energy. These are all adapting for the longevity of your life to be able to handle resilience, for your body to be able to handle things in a different way that it wouldn't really be able to handle these things if you weren't exercising, right?

17:13Like your body gets stagnant. Internal things get stagnant. Blood flows slower. The oxygen flows slower. The muscles decrease. Your muscle mass decreases. So it's just vitally important in terms of the physiology of exercise to move your body and to make sure you're getting good, efficient exercise. Let's move into and closing it down, which is segment number three. And this is the neurological aspects of exercise, right? So I was talking about more so the blood, the cell, the muscle, how your body changes over time, the hormones, like all of these things when you're going through exercise.

17:51But there is such an incredible neurological aspect of exercise that really needs to be understood and unpacked here. So this is segment number three. The brain plays an essential role in exercise. It's not just about moving your muscles. It's not just about like, you know, I got to go get my exercise in because I got to, I want to build more muscle. It's about the mind to muscle connection that you are creating. And I'm so big on this. When you have mind to muscle connection, it is a next level type of feeling when you're working out and you can feel the muscles working.

18:28And so the question is, how does your nervous system control your strength and your movement? So I want to explore these answers in a way like how does the nervous system make you strong? What's the mind to muscle connection? Like, what is that? And then how does your brain control the movement? Because when, again, you have alignment with your brain to the muscle, like how is it controlling that? And then like what is mind to muscle connection? And like how does all of this, the whole nervous system, how does it make you strong? So let's start with that one. How does the nervous system make you strong? First and foremost, your brain sends signals to your muscles through nerves.

19:01The more signals means more strength. So again, let me just say that again. Your brain sends signals to your muscle through nerves. The more signals mean more strength. So think of it like turning up the volume on your stereo. The louder it gets, the more powerful the sound, right? So the more signals that your brain sends through nerves, the more strength you have with your body. The more powerful you are.

19:32Now, let's talk about mind to muscle connection. This is really all about focusing on the muscle that you're working. And this is something that I love to preach before when I first started my fitness journey and helping women understand how to engage their lats. Because ladies, we never, I personally never worked out my back before I got into fitness. And so understanding what the latissimus dorsi was in my back and what that muscle did and how big it was and how I had no idea how to create a connection to it mentally. This I want to get across because mind to muscle connection, when you really focus on your muscle and the muscle that you're working,

20:04it's an absolute game changer, okay? So like I said, imagine you're doing a lat pulldown. And I always used to think that, you know, you had a rubber band or, you know, yeah, a rubber band from your elbow to like the side of your body. And basically, you were tightening it when you brought it really close to your body, and then you were letting it expand when you were going back up for another rep. And that really helped me to focus on like, okay, these are the lats back here. And that's the actual emotion that the, that in the way that I'm pulling the weight down.

20:36Or second, you can imagine flexing your bicep and really concentrating on it, right? You might feel it working harder when you really actually pay attention. You have to pay close attention to like that actual physical movement, and not like anything else in the room, right? Because if you're so worried, if this is the thing that I like to use as well, if your mind is going like, what am I supposed to, what am I going to have for dinner? Or, oh my God, did the kids get kicked off from soccer practice? Or like, you know, thinking about all of the things at work that went down that day,

21:07or like the fight that you're having with your husband. I don't know. But think if your mind is on a million different other things, it sure as hell isn't focusing on the actual weight and the movement and the mind to muscle connection that you're supposed to be creating with the muscle that you're actually trying to focus on to work. And so it's really hard sometimes to just tune into your body, right? And actually be in the moment of what you're doing with your workout, and really focusing on the muscle that you are contracting,

21:37and trying to make stronger. When you really focus on, you say, again, the bicep and really focus on contracting it, then you're going to feel it working harder. And it's like paying close attention to one voice in a noisy room. Okay? It's like you are just focused solely on the muscle that you are working, and you are really, really focusing on that muscle working. And that right there, my friend, is mind to muscle connection. Now, let's unpack how your brain, how does your brain control movement?

22:09So your body senses things like stretch and temperature and sends that information to your brain. So your brain then figures out what to do and tells your muscles to move. So it's like, think about it like this. It's like having a conversation where you listen, think, and then respond. How many times does that actually happen? Listen, think, and then respond, right? A lot of people just listen and then respond. But in this essence, your body senses things like stretch and temperature, and it sends that information. So it's sensing the stretch of the muscle.

22:40It's sensing the blood pumping in to the muscle to give it fuel. It senses these things. It senses the temperature. Have you ever touched your muscle after you've done a couple of reps and a couple sets to it and you feel it super warm? That's the blood rushing in to fuel and supply that muscle with the energy that it needs. It's super freaking cool. Next time you go in a workout, touch your muscle and feel that heat. And then it sends the information to your brain and your brain figures out what to do and it tells your muscle to move, okay? And so again, it's like having a conversation of listen, think, and then respond.

23:13So your body is like, okay, it's sensing this thing. It's listening to this thing. Your brain is figuring out what to do and tells your muscle to think. And then your muscles then respond. Again, like I had so much fun being able to conversate these things to you guys in a way that I know that I'm hoping that you will be able to understand and break it down to layman terms in each of those specific segments. But again, this is unpacking the science of exercise and understanding the mechanics of movement from biomechanics to your body movement to exercise physiology to neurological aspects,

23:47how your brain makes everything work when you're exercising too as well, and how they all work together. Which again, it's like behind the scenes of like the sweat effort that you put into your workouts on a daily basis. And like understanding these things, I hope makes you have like a new profound respect for exercise and for working out because adapting your body in this sense, having your brain connect with your muscle, having the understanding of how all the cells work, the blood flows, the oxygen moves,

24:19to how your joints, your muscles, your bones all work together. It's like this is your body, like I said, adapting to resilience of resistance from exercise and being able to be stronger internally and externally to any type of, you know, thing that may come its way later in life down the road. It's really building a strong ass foundation for the longevity of life with you, your body, your muscles, your bones, all of the things, oxygen, cells, brain, neurological development,

24:49X, Y, and Z. It's incredible. It's incredible. So I really hope that you guys enjoyed that podcast. And if you did, please, please, I ask that you guys rate, review this show. That's the only way this show grows. We don't run any ads to it. It's up to you guys if we are in top 20 or top 10 by you just rating and reviewing it and taking a few seconds out of this podcast right now to go and do it. And I appreciate you guys so much if you do it. See you next time. Hey guys, real quick. If you're interested in taking your body to the next level, lose body fat, build more muscle,

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