05/05/2008

The removal of lactic acid from muscles and blood

The lactic acid in the muscles and blood, due to intense training with a heart rate values above personal anaerobic threshold value, temporarily causing pain and muscle fatigue, so its removal is essential for a correct recovery post workout or race. Through laboratory tests on athletes committed to cycloergonometer, is seen as a performance at top, until exhaustion of the athlete, leading to a high accumulation of lactic acid which then require more than an hour of time to be completely disposed off by body. This is the time needed to make lactic acid in muscle and liver glycogen, glucose or blood Pyruvic acid (the latter can be used as fuel in the aerobic system), this removal process lactic acid requires energy that is provided by the aerobic system. In laboratory tests the athlete during the recovery, lay down on a bed in conditions of absolute rest, a retrieval system, therefore, not easily repeatable in daily life and also why has experienced a different system to allow all body to remove lactic acid accumulated during training: the "active recovery" or "gradual cooling". In this case the athlete should not abruptly discontinue its provision on cycloergonometer but to continue with a mild workout for about 30 minutes. In this case it was noted that the organism was able to eliminate all the lactic acid accumulated during training in the middle of the time that had occurred, however, stopped training and remained motionless, lying on the bed. Then a bland immediately after an intense workout is not counterproductive, in fact, the opposite is true, because a moderate physical activity, carried out after a hard workout, improves the ability of absorbing the accumulated lactic acid, allowing halved recovery times compared to a mere rest. Now, if it is true that cycling is a sport mainly aerobic, we can not deny that, either during the period of preparation for and during athletic competitions, subject, however, subject anaerobic muscles to efforts resulting in the formation of lactic acid. It seems clear, therefore, the need after an intense workout, to a session of "short run", the duration of which may vary depending on the intensity of training supported. In general, we can quantify a minimum of 15-30 minutes, for intensive training sessions for about 2 hours, up to 30-60 minutes, training for longer time to be committed “short run”; course, training for two or several hours of training sessions with repeated, where, sitting between anaerobic and the other is already a period from 3 to 10 minutes, in which the athlete plays a partial recovery active. In racing, you should analyze your own conduct of the race and the performance in order to understand what we have cycle in lactid acid area, in addition, perhaps, to see whether heart rate. However, a recovery of active 20-30 minutes is more than enough to eliminate 70-80% lactic acid accumulated. In fact, always in the laboratory, it was noted that generally, with an active recovery, lactic acid is always removed after an exhausting, in a time ranging from 30 to 60 minutes, with an absorption curve leading after 15 minutes to eliminate 40-50% lactic acid, to move to 75-80% after about 30 minutes, and arrive at a removal of lact acid by more than 95% after 60 minutes. It will be good to keep in mind these values, the better to plan a recovery program active at the end of the workout or a race, always considering the ability of accumulation and removal of lactic acid are personal factors that vary from individual to individual and in the same subject change on the basis of age, training, lifestyle. 

 

Luca Salvatelli