Does Lactic Acid In Muscles Hurt Or Help Performance?
If you do any type of strenuous exercising you should know about lactic acid in muscles. Without all the scientific minutia (which I will get into) when you feel the burning sensation from exercising, that is lactic acid kicking in. But from the past to the most recent new studies have came to the surface that lactic acid in muscles may indeed have a positive aspect in terms of performance. I was curious about this so I did some digging around as I do to fill my knowledge gaps and found some useful information. I will also address how this correlates well with bodyweight training. So keep reading about lactic acid in muscles, this will help you in the long run on your fitness journey.
What Is Lactic Acid In Muscles Exactly?
As we exercise we begin to increase our breathing and to supply our body and muscles with more oxygen to keep up with the exercise. But as our exercise and intensity continues our body has a hard time getting enough oxygen to the muscles to supply the fuel. So, our body manufactures energy from another source. The muscles grab glucose through a process called glycolysis, which breaks down the glucose which gets transformed into a substance called pyruvate. When oxygen is low, our body converts pryuvate into lactic acid (that is when you feel your muscles burn). Old research use to suggest that this was a bad thing for performance and also was a main reason why msucles fatigued and people would be sore the following days. But research starting back in 2006 shows otherwise.
New Research Suggest That Lactic Acid In Muscles Actually Helps Fuel Muscles During Exercise
The most recent research shows that the lactic acid in muscles during intense exercise gets used for fuel by mitochondria (the “energy factories” in muscles). Since the lactic acid is being used as fuel it is actually helping with performance and limiting muscle fatigue. But, the bigger obstacle here is if your mitochondria is limited, the lactic acid will build up and cause muscle fatigue during your exercise. So the main thing to catch here is to increase your mitochondria cells to help use lactic acid for fuel during intense exercise. So how on in the heck do you do that?
Building Your Mitochondria Up Through Interval Training To Use Lactic Acid In Muscles For Fuel
If you want to ensure that your lactic acid in muscles is being used due to mitochondria then interval training is the way to go according to a paper in the American Journal of Physiology – Endocrinology and Metabolism, published online in January 2006, Brooks and colleagues Takeshi Hashimoto and Rajaa Hussien in UC Berkeley’s Exercise Physiology Laboratory a quote reads ”The world’s best athletes stay competitive by interval training,” Brooks said, referring to repeated short, but intense, bouts of exercise. “The intense exercise generates big lactate loads, and the body adapts by building up mitochondria to clear lactic acid quickly. If you use it up, it doesn’t accumulate.” The more intense interval and endurance training you do the more “beefier” your mitochondria will become to help use the lactic acid in muscles for fuel versus allow it to fatigue your muscles.
What Does Lactic Acid In Muscles Have to Do With Bodyweight Training?
From my experience, since I have been focusing heavily on bodyweigh training the past several years, the build of of lactic acid in muscles throughout my body takes longer than before. The primary way I can gauge this is by how quick the onset is of the feeling of my muscles being on fire during my bodyweight workouts. I still get the burning, however it takes longer now than it use to, and that means my mitochondria is using the lactic acid in muscles for fuel for longer than before. If you do bodyweight workouts intermittently, you will notice that your muscles quickly fatigue. Both interval training and bodyweight training are two great ways to allow your mitochondria to use the lactic acid in muscles far greater than other forms of exercise.
Final Thoughts On Lactic Acid In Muscles
We all feel it and fight through the burning sensation when exercising, especially with bodyweight workouts. I think the lactic acid in muscles and the burning effect can be more mental than physical and people stop prior towards actually reaching muscles fatigue because they can’t metnal block out the burning sensation. It actually took me some time to mentally overcome that, but now I can fight through it well after countless workouts and hours of training. Lactic acid in muscles is a good thing if you train correctly and allow your mitochondria to do the work
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2 comments
Jake
February 1, 2012 at 7:59 am (UTC -7) Link to this comment
Lactic acid is actually a compound that physically can not exist in the body. The body’s pH levels are maintained at far too high of a level to support the compound as lactic acid. If you know enough chemistry a simple base/acid equilibrium problem using the body’s maintained pH of about 7.4 and the properties of lactate/lactic acid can illustrate this point. However, lactate does exist within the body and acts as a weak form of a buffer to help neutralize muscular acidosis which is a natural product of ATP (the body’s “energy currency”) use and regeneration. Muscular acidosis is caused be the extra protons (H+ ions) that are produced using the various forms to use and regenerate ATP especially the oxidative form. Muscular acidosis is the burn that you feel in your muscles not lactate/lactic acid!
Ryan
February 1, 2012 at 9:09 am (UTC -7) Link to this comment
Jake:
Fantastic comment I learned a lot just reading it. Much appreciated
Ryan