Posted by Juerg (207.194.220.178) on January 15, 2004 at 18:53:06:
Frank Day made a very interesting and very absolute statement in his first point , on which we may be able to have some more indepth discussion.
1. The limitation on performance is N e v e r oxygen uptake in the lungs , it is always oxygen delivery in the tissue.
The question may be : which tissue ?
If we take the fact that between outside world and lung is no tissue at all ,but an empty pipe than thats' true.
When we take the fact that the lungs may be tissue too , rep. the oxygen moves trough tissue on the red blood cells, than we have a oxygen movement , where we very often see some limitation and therefore some limitation on the actual performance.
Ex: EEA ( exercise induced asthma) You may have an athlete today in top shape , and because of some kind of pollutants or allergy the next day the athlete can not perform at all.( Yes the oxygen delivery to the tissue is limited, but it is the tissue in the lungs , resp. the condition of the lungs , the oxygen does not move as easy to the red blood cells.) His muscle tissue is not involved at all , if he would get the oxygen through on his red blood cells he would perform quite well. Body position , possible expansion of the thorax or restriction due to pressure or motion can limit the delivery of Oxygen to the blood.
The limitation in this case could be his lungs. ( Emphysema , O 3 pollution , which we will see in athene and so on. )
Let's see what kind of disussion we get here.
I think absolute statements are always interesting to discuss.