Question

Explain why during peak, exhausting levels of activity glycolysis generates the greater amount of ATP compared to the mitochondria?

Answer 1

Answer:

The answer to this question lies in the number of steps, and substances, that are needed in order to yield ATP from ADP. While in anaerobic glycolysis pyruvic acid and lactic acid will yield their energy so that ADP can be re-synthetized into ATP, producing 2 molecules of ATP from that simple chain of reaction, aerobic glycolysis depends on the presence of oxygen, and several more chemical steps, chemical reactions, in order to finally yield all the ATPs it can yield.

Explanation:

When we are talking about intense training, like a sudden sprint, we are talking about the body needing ATP as fast as it possibly can get it so the muscles can move. Because of this immediacy, the body resorts first to its stores in muscle tissue and in the liver, to feed the anaerobic processes for ATP formation. The other process, called the Lactic Acid system, is the second of the anaerobic processes and its benefit is that while not requiring oxygen to produce ATP, it will use the stores of glycogen in the muscle and the liver, and through the chemical reactions of enzymes, it will produce enough ATP to power the exercise for at least a few minutes, without having to resort to the aerobic system. The number of steps taken to yield ATP are much lesser, and thus much more immediate, than in aerobic glycolysis.