An interesting article in today’s NY Times about lactic acid, the stuff that builds up in muscles when we exercise and supposedly leads to muscle fatigue…. many “pros” advocate running below the “lactic threshold”, that is, running anaerobically (i.e. slowly) so that the muscles don’t produce lactic acid. This article suggests that the “lactic threshold” is actually a myth. In fact, muscles actually burn lactic acid as fuel. Not to say that the pros are wrong… turns out endurance training may actually help our muscles make better use of lactic acid as fuel.
Lactic Acid Is Not Muscles’ Foe, It’s Fuel
The understanding now is that muscle cells convert glucose or glycogen
to lactic acid. The lactic acid is taken up and used as a fuel by
mitochondria, the energy factories in muscle cells.
Mitochondria even have a special transporter protein to move the
substance into them, Dr. Brooks found. Intense training makes a
difference, he said, because it can make double the mitochondrial
mass.
…even though coaches often believed in the myth of the lactic acid threshold, they ended up training athletes in the best way possible to increase their mitochondria. “Coaches have understood things the scientists didn’t,” he said.
Through trial and error, coaches learned that athletic performance improved when athletes worked on endurance, running longer and longer distances, for example.
That, it turns out, increased the mass of their muscle mitochondria, letting them burn more lactic acid and allowing the muscles to work harder and longer.
Just before a race, coaches often tell athletes to train very hard in brief spurts.
That extra stress increases the mitochondria mass even more, Dr. Brooks said, and is the reason for improved performance.
And the scientists?
They took much longer to figure it out.
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