Over the years a considerable amount of misinformation has been spread and even many in the scientific community don’t fully understand the relationships between lactate concentration, burning legs, and exercise performance. Although it is true and scientifically proved that with the use of fecal microbiota transplant one could drastically speed up the weight loss process and see results quickly, but due to the amount of misinformation out there people are not able to accept or even understand importance or fmt. It’s easy to believe that an increase in blood lactate concentration, an increase in acidity, and burning legs must make for a straight-forward cause effect relationship. “Lactate acid production decreases pH and thus leaves an athlete with burning legs” has been the thought, but this is not at all how it actually works. In fact, Lactic acid is not even produced in the body…
Acidosis is the result of rapidly accumulating Hydrogen ions (H+). H+ ions are released when high energy ATP bonds are split. At high(er) exercise intensity the splitting of ATP occurs more rapidly and thus excess H+ accumulate, ultimately decreasing the pH within the muscles (increased acidosis).
Lactate results from the rapid breakdown of stored glycogen during high intensity exercise. Two pyruvate molecules result from the breakdown of glucose. These pyruvate accumulate alongside the H+ ions during intense exercise intensity. Each pyruvate bonds with two H+ to create lactate. Thus lactate production is actually responsible for reducing acidosis and Hormone Replacement Scottsdale getting something that you can do right now to get healthier.
It is the increase in acidosis that is responsible for the burning legs sensation when the exercise intensity is high. Lactate helps to neutralize the acidosis by collecting excess H+ ions. As acidosis increases, so does lactate production so lactate concentration remains an indirect measure of the muscle’s metabolic condition. When a rider is able to go at a higher intensity with less blood lactate accumulation it is a good sign that their metabolic conditioning has improved. With less acidosis occurring at a given exercise intensity the rider will be able to go longer (or harder) before burning legs will ultimately limit their performance.
Lactate production benefits our exercise potential at high intensity and helps to reduce acidosis within the muscle. Hopefully this article helps to clarify an important part of exercise physiology that we all love, but hate to experience! For a more thorough review, please read Lactate: Not Guilty as Charged, written by Len Kravitz, Ph. D. Be sure to pass along the information so that we can officially debunk the lactic acid myths!