Exercise science entails the study of bodily movements that make major contributions to human life, wellness, and longevity (Melton & Murray, 2017). While modern medicine has done a lot to improve the quality of human life, the field of exercise science has been in existence for a long time. Various physiologists have engaged in research in an attempt of making contributions in this field. Claude Bernard and Timothy Noakes are some of the famous physiologists who engaged in research to understand the mechanical, physical, and biochemical functioning of a living organism thus making contributions in exercise science. The objective of this paper is to identify the achievements of Claude Bernard and Timothy Noakes and explain their contributions to the field of exercise science.
According to Holst, (2006) Claude Bernard is mostly known for conducting research and identifying how the pancreas functions during digestion. While in college in France, Bernard conducted research using animals in an attempted of understanding how digestion takes place. In this case, Bernard fed meat to famished animals thus coming up with an important discovery about the role of the pancreas in the digestion process. The idea was that the secretions from the pancreas break down fatty molecules into fatty acids and glycerin thus concluding that digestion takes place in the small intestines but not in the stomach as it was previously suggested (Holst, 2006). His research acted as a foundation for researching the role of the liver in the human body. Bernard’s second discovery was about the liver as he discovered glycogen present in the liver and defined it as a white substance made from the body of sugar and it acted as the storage for carbohydrates that could be broken into sugar whenever needed in the body.
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Bernard’s discoveries laid a foundation for the modern homeostasis by identifying the concept of the internal functioning of a living organism. After identifying the functioning of the internal environment of the human body, Bernard contributed to the exercise science by advocating that like in other sciences; medical knowledge has a chance for conducting systematic experiments (Holst, 2006). From this argument, physiologists engaged in research to identify different experiments and the impacts they would have on human fitness. Through analysis, he identified a principle that is commonly applied today in exercise science where he stated that identical experiments should produce similar results. In this case, whenever fitness consultants experiment, they should ensure that tests that look alike will come up with similar results to the person if conducted in the right way.
Timothy Noakes is also a health science physiologist who has contributed a lot in medicine and sports science. Through research, Noakes has identified a disease disorder that is caused by sodium decrease in the human body. While he was at the University of Cape Town, he researched four athletes in the year 1984 and identified that a decline in sodium in the body would result in hyponatremia. According to Noakes, (2011) endurance athletes stand a high chance of becoming sick because they engage in vigorous activities that result in excessive consumption of fluid during the exercise. Naokes identified the disease as a fluid-electrolyte disorder which originates from the consumption of sodium levels in the body. Though this discovery was related to medicine, it has a lot of impact on men because it provides advice to athletes about the diseases they are likely to get thus making arrangements on how to prevent and seek treatment of such disorders.
Noakes also played a significant role in exercise science as he co-founded the sports science institute of South Africa with the former rugby player of South Africa Morne du Plessis. The objective of this institute was to research the factors that influence the physical performance and health thus promoting education and skills through education to the public. Through his research, Noake created and elaborated a central governor model of exercise that is highly applied in exercise science today. According to Naokes, (2011) the brain is the main organ during exercise that controls and determines how long, how fast, and how hard humans can experiment. Naoke also created a sports science course at the University of Cape Town and became the chair of Bioenergetics of the exercise research unit in the university. Additionally, he began a series of groundbreaking experiments which entail swimming. The objective of this experiment was to identify the various ways in which the body reacts to coldness. Through his contributions, Noakes is one of the famous physiologists believed to have contributed to exercise science.
Noakes and Bernard are some of the physiologists who made essential contributions to the field of exercise science. The primary objective of Bernard was to identify the functioning of internal environment for human beings. He came up with various discoveries such as the functioning of the pancreas and the digestion that takes place and brought the understanding that digestion takes place in the small intestines but not in the stomach as believed by previous scientists. Bernard played an important role in exercise science by creating the principle that medicine as an opportunity to engage in experiment activities. Timothy Noakes depicted an interest in exercise science because his research was based on athletes and groundbreaking activities such as swimming. The idea was to identify how the body reacts in different conditions thus equipping people with such knowledge through the Sports Science Institute of South Africa.
References
Noakes, T. D. (2011). Time to move beyond a brainless exercise physiology: the evidence for complex regulation of human exercise performance. Applied physiology, nutrition, and metabolism , 36 (1), 23-35.
Holst, J. J. (2006). Glucagon-like peptide-1: from extract to agent. The Claude Bernard Lecture, 2005. Diabetologia , 49 (2), 253-260.
Melton, B., & Murray, N. (2017). Introduction to Exercise Science.
