Posted by Frank Day (63.201.228.13) on January 22, 2004 at 09:50:28:
In Reply to: Triangulation of metabolic factors in training posted by Cris LaBossiere on January 22, 2004 at 08:58:39:
This post and the recent post by Jeurg got me thinking about lactate testing.
Seems to me that the principle we might take from this is lactate testing can be used to assess balance. Any muscle that is under severe anaerobic stress will have a very high local lactate level. However, if the muscle is a relatively small one then the measured lactate level may not be very high as it will be diluted by the time it gets to the finger.
When the measured lactate levels are high when failure occurs, this indicates that a large muscle is the "limiting muscle" and under severe anaerobic stress.
If the measured lactate levels at failure are "very high" this would indicate that the muscles are well balanced and all being effectively utilized such that they are all entering the anaerobic state together so the muscle mass producing lactate is higher.
In the past it has, perhaps, been taken that those who seem to tolerate high blood lactate levels are better able to "gut it out psychologically", something that makes no physiolgical sense, when all it may really mean is they are better trained and balanced from a coordination point of view.
Does this make sense to you?
Frank