The surprising reason our muscles get tired - Christian Moro

Why do our muscles get tired and sore after exercise? Explore how our muscles function, and how you can exercise longer without experiencing muscle fatigue.

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You're lifting weights. The first time feels easy, but each lift takes more and more effort until you can’t continue. Inside your arms, the muscles responsible for the lifting have become unable to contract. What’s going on? Christian Moro explains how exactly our muscles operate, and what causes them to become fatigued.

Lesson by Christian Moro, directed by Nichola Latzgo.

Thank you so much to our patrons for your support! Without you this video would not be possible! Felipe Hoff, Kyanta Yap, Lewis Westbury, Ojas Kapoor, Mirzat Turap, Jaime Arriola, Emilia Alvarado, Javid Gozalov, Paul Beard, Deepak Iyer, Markus Goldhacker, Mihai Sandu, Keven Webb, Maurice Castonguay, Kristiyan Bonev, Maryam Dadkhah, Joshua Wasniewski, Michał Friedrich, Arlene Spiegelman, Doug Henry, denison martins fernandes, Hashem Al, Daniel Nester, Richard A Berkley, Benjamin Chan, Dee Wei, Abdallah Absi, Denise A Pitts, Pi Guanghui, Doris , Kurt Almendras, Raymond Lee, Nicolas Silva, Tsz Hin Edmund Chan, Melvin Williams, Tirath Singh Pandher, Athena Grace Franco, Terry Minion, Mauricio Basso, Kelvin Lam, jj5252, Karlee Finch, Chumi Ogbonna, Barthélémy Michalon, Lefty McGoo, Lucas Pincerato, Mohamed Elsayed, Amin Shahril, Mihail Radu Pantilimon and Chris Thompson.

[rugvedk]

These animations are really good. Even kids can understand them.

[-subscriberswithahammerad]

Pain is just weakness leaving the body

- some guy

[muchalucha]

Sodium & Potassium: We're gonna end this man's whole set.

[TheCetarius]

That's the key sentence of muscle fatigue:
"The more regularly you exercise, the longer it takes for muscle fatigue to set in each time. That's because the stronger you are the fewer times the cycle of nerve signal from the brain to contract the muscle has to be repeated, to lift a certain amount of weight. Fewer cycles mean slower ion depletion."
Also bigger muscles can store more ions.

[TheKillerind]

An entire semester of biology explained in one video. Lol.

[scottigt]

I'll never look at pumping "ion" the same way again..

[golightning]

Muscles: *fatigued*

Every "certified" fitness trainer and HS coach: L A C T I C A C I D

[Ranstone]

Slight correction:
Lactic acid isn't a waste product. As of 2018, it's now taught lactic acid is an anaerobic "fuel source." As less athletic people used it less efficiently, more was found in their muscles, leading early physical science to think it was a correlation to waste byproducts.

It was in fact absent from fit people not because they don't produce a mythical byproduct, but because they burnt a higher percentage of the useful, anaerobic lactic acid.

This has been taught for a decade, but it has only been taught mainstream for the past 3 years, so I don't blame you for getting it wrong. Never stop learning!

[ramade]

The more you know:

Our muscle and brain has pair of eyes

[mursol]

Your videos are so informative and they're also fun.

Ps: Your animation is so good

Edit : I ment "but" in a good way I couldn't think of another word, I fixed everything I did wrong.

[theweirdshow]

I don't like school but watching this is so much better and actually makes me want to learn about it! I think its honestly better when a person chooses to learn about something instead of getting forced to learn it.

[azwadahbab]

As a Biology student, I admit, these videos are a very good way to understand and remember the concepts

[deliat]

As a Bio major, I love how simple and entertaining y’all make this process! It can get super complex super fast, but this basic overview is awesome at hitting the big picture points. Thanks for all you do!

[Ashish-erkz]

This looks much like a lucid dream than a informative video.

[alphaq]

Bro I studied all this in a whole semester at my dentistry college
And you here explained it in nearly 5 mins . Amazing

[rodgerbane]

When people lift VERY HEAVY, they are training their nervous system more than their muscle. Lifting real heavy, low rep, won't cause so much size increase, but will greatly increase strength though conditioning the nervous system to work more effectively.

[Vishal-nppe]

Love you for your unrelenting desire to disperse knowledge among people like me who have actually started liking science courtesy to your content.

[izzywang]

The brain sending signals animation is so good :0

[xinquiote]

Muscle gets tired: Na Na Na Na



K, emma head out.

[SuicideBunny]

How to explain a complicate topic in a detailed yet clear and colourful way. Another brilliant TED-Ed video!