AQA A-Level PE Energy Systems Practice Exam

This question tests understanding of what happens during the slow replenishment stage of EPOC after exercise. In this phase the body keeps consuming more oxygen than at rest to restore internal conditions and rebuild energy stores. It involves clearing metabolic by-products like lactate, keeping breathing and heart rate elevated as the body returns to normal, replenishing glycogen stores, and generating extra heat to bring core temperature back up to baseline. The statement that best describes this stage matches those processes: removing lactate, maintaining elevated breathing and heart rate, replenishing glycogen, and a rise in body temperature as part of restoring homeostasis.

Rapid restoration of phosphocreatine stores is a fast-phase action, not the slow phase. EPOC does not end immediately after exercise; it continues for minutes to hours as recovery processes proceed. And the slow replenishment isn’t limited to high‑intensity intervals; it follows many types of exercise as the body works to recover and return to resting conditions.