Lactate, is the Good Guy
I know, I know, it goes against everything you have ever learned in the last century…
I’ve known for sometime, however,
a) how do I explain it to everybody,
b) is it my place to explain to everyone,
or
c) do I act like I’m the smartest of them all?*
*This is not my style, I want/need more people to understand so we can move forward and have more educated discussions about nutrition and acid base balance of the body.
When very few people know, it’s hard to have discussions about how to avoid “Lactic Acid Build Up”.
Lactic Acid does not cause muscle fatigue, it actually helps prevent it.
In the early 1900’s we learned; when you flex a frog leg continuously until muscle failure that lactic acid, did indeed, build up within the tissue.
The truth: When we analyze the muscle as a whole system lactic acid is processed and converted to fuel to keep the muscles going.
Lactic Acid DOES NOT cause muscle soreness after a hard bout of exercise. Soreness is more likely to be the result of the muscle striations being damaged at a microscopic level.
To understand what does cause the burning sensation in the muscles during intense exercise it’s important to understand Ph.
Ph range is: 1 to 14
7 being considered neutral.
The body’s Ph is generally, 7.4 slightly alkaline.
During short intense bouts of all out exercise; 2-3 minutes can drop Ph as low as 6.4.
So what causes this drop in Ph? Our energy sources: Glucose and Glycogen.
When glycogen is used for an energy source 1 H+ ion is released. When glycogen stores are no longer able to keep up with energy demand, the body begins to use glucose which releases 2 H+.
This rapid release of H+ ions lowers the blood Ph which causes the burning and fatigue associated with acidosis.
Not only does lactate help during exercise, especially intense exercise, by being converted back into an energy source, when H ions begin to build up, lactate transports it out of the muscles to help buffer the acidosis.
Let’s talk…