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Energy systems explained

So training in energy systems is quite an abstract concept. Most trainers are familiar with the aerobic, anaerobic lactic and alactic systems. But what links the systems and how do they work together? Are they always active at the same time or does your body pick and choose? And why is that if you walk your 3-4 flights of stairs everyday, you still feel out of breath when you reach your appartment?

So a very important concept in explaining your energy systems is the use and recycling of ATP. ATP stands for Adenosine triphosphate. Tri being important pat in the name.
Now when our cells want to create energy they do that by splitting of one phosphate group, leaving you with ADP, Adenosine DIphosphate. This leaves is with a problem because our Adenosine can't infinitely give away phosphate to create energy. So how does the body solve for this?

The body has multiple methods of recycling ADP back to ATP. Let's explore this.

So when your body needs glucose it attaches one of the phosphate groups to a glucose (a carbohydrate) molecule. This ensures that the glucose doesn't escape the cell. The first step is to convert the glucose in to pyruvate. As soon as this happens your body has two options.
Convert the pyruvate in to lactate or convert it into Acetyl-CoA.

The aerobic system.
Your body uses Acetyl-CoA to start the Kreb's cycle. In the Kreb's cycle through a number of chemical reactions NADH and FAD is produced. These molecules are used to go in to the Electron Transport Chain (ETC). For every NADH and FAD a number of ADP gets converted into ATP in the ETC. So you can view the NADH and FAD as the molecules that drive the recycling of the ADP to ATP.

The Anaerobic lactic system.
The anaerobic lactic system is when the body needs a vast conversion of ATP to ADP. It does this by converting Pyruvate to lactate. What this does is create NADH, and also produces a lot of carbon dioxide. This increase of carbon dioxide production could be the cause of the burn you feel in the muscles during exercise.

So what happened to the Alactic Anaerobic system?
Well this system you can view as all the ATP that is readily available in the (muscle) cell. Every time ATP is used it get's replenished through either the anaerobic lactic system and the aerobic system.
Now why have two different pathways?
The answer is basically quick and dirty. The anaerobic lactic system is

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