Excess post-exercise oxygen consumption Excess post-exercise oxygen consumption Excess post-exercise oxygen consumption (EPOC, informally called afterburn) is a measurably increased rate of oxygen intake following strenuous activity. In historical contexts the term "oxygen debt" was popularized to explain or perhaps attempt to quantify anaerobic energy expenditure, particularly as regards lactic acid/lactate metabolism; in fact, the term "oxygen debt" is still widely used to this day. However, direct and indirect calorimeter experiments have definitively disproven any association of lactate metabolism as causal to an elevated oxygen uptake. In recovery, oxygen (EPOC) is used in the processes that restore the body to a resting state and
Oxygen is doubted; a placebo effect is a more likely explanation. Available studies support a performance boost from oxygen enriched mixtures only if it is breathed "during" aerobic exercise. Other recreational uses that do not involve breathing include pyrotechnic applications, such as George Goble's five-second ignition of barbecue grills. Smelting of iron ore into steel consumes 55% of commercially produced oxygen. In this process, is injected through a high-pressure lance into molten iron, which removes sulfur impurities and excess carbon as the respective oxides, and . The reactions are exothermic, so the temperature increases to 1,700 °C. Another 25% of commercially