A Discussion About the ATP Molecule

Have you ever wondered when you lift weights what is keeping your muscle contracted and energized? I'd like to discuss a molecule which is extremely important to us in the fitness industry. This molecule, called Adenosine Triphosphate or ATP is the energy molecule and what it does will shock you.

All living things need a continuous supply of energy to function. This energy is used for all the processes, which keep us alive. Many of these processes continuously occur, such as the metabolism of foods and the transport of molecules and ions throughout our bodies. Other processes, however, only occur at specific times, such as when your muscles contract.

Animals get their energy by oxidation of foods and plants get it by trapping the sunlight using chlorophyll. Before the energy can be used, however, it has to first be transformed into a form that the organism can handle easily. This special carrier of energy is the ATP Molecule.

Let me tell you how the ATP Molecule works. Picture two chains interlinked at a center. The center is sugar, called Ribose. One of the chains is the base, called Adenine. The chain on the other side is a chain of Phosphate groups, which is the main key to ATP.

Let's say you are doing bicep curls. At the highest point of contraction, your muscle is squeezed during the up movement of the curl and that is when the ATP molecule will do its magic and pump out the energy you need to sustain that muscular contraction. But how does it do it, you ask?

Remember the chains? How it works is that an enzyme tells the Phosphate chain to break off from the rest of the molecule at the point of muscular contraction and this reaction releases a lot of energy, which the body can then use to build proteins and contract your muscles. The Phosphate chain just attaches itself to another molecule during this time

When you are resting and energy is not immediately needed, however, the reverse reaction takes place and the chain of phosphates is reattached to the molecule using energy you get from food or sunlight. This is incredible because the ATP molecule acts as a chemical 'battery', which stores energy when you don't need it, but is able to release energy instantly when the body requires it.

This amazing molecule is used to build complex molecules, contract muscles, generate electricity in your nerves, and it even lights fireflies.

What the ATP Molecule also teaches us is that, since the key chain in this molecule is Phosphates, then Phosphates are a vital ingredient in our diet in order to maximize the effects of the ATP Molecule. We get Phosphorus from eating plants, which get it from fertilizers that use animal bones. When we die, Phosphorus goes right back into our ecosystem.

Therefore, it is important to eat your vegetables in order to get the Phosphates your body needs to allow the ATP Molecule to work to it utmost capabilities.

There is much more that the ATP Molecule contributes in organisms but for now we can be assured that this wonder molecule is working to help us attain our ultimate fitness goals.