The salt of the earth, uh, no, more of sport. And to be precise: the salt of lactic acid. The term lactate is quite familiar to most athletes and also to many non-athletes. But what is it and what does it mean for athletes? We will get to the bottom of these questions below.
What exactly is lactate?
As mentioned above, lactate is the salt of lactic acid and is formed in the muscles through the metabolism of carbohydrates. Since we always consume a certain amount of carbohydrates, lactate is always produced. That’s why we always have a certain lakat level. In most people at rest, this is around 1.0 mmol/liter of blood (physical unit for the amount of substance per liter of blood).
If you start running or moving now, the body will convert more carbohydrates to provide energy and the lactate value will increase. This phenomenon has been used since the 1970s to carry out so-called lactate tests on athletes. For this purpose, the athlete runs for a defined time at a defined pace and at the end of the respective time a drop of blood is taken from the earlobe or fingertip.
Also interesting: How do I determine my maximum heart rate?
What does the lactate value say something about?
The scientists then read the lactate value from this and can, among other things, determine the so-called anaerobic threshold. If the runner reaches this threshold (here the 4 mmol/l threshold is mentioned again and again, but this can vary greatly from person to person), the muscle becomes “overacidified” and the athlete cannot continue running at this pace for much longer. To remain biologically correct, it’s worth mentioning that it’s not lactate that’s directly to blame for muscle fatigue, it’s hydrogen ions. This can be described as a side effect.
Nevertheless, such tests have been used for many decades to determine the performance of endurance athletes and to make appropriate training recommendations.
Are high lactate levels good or bad?
For many years, lactate had a reputation as the «bad guy» in sports. Because it used to be thought that fatigue was caused by lactate, high lactate levels were thought to have both a damaging effect on our mitochondria (small power plants in the muscles where energy is made available) and a major role in so-called muscle soreness.
Both have long since been refuted and one could even call lactate a «good guy». Among other things, it is discussed for energy generation, and even as a stimulus for wound healing or new blood vessel formation, and thus high lactate values could cause a kind of «altitude training».
So if you ever hear someone say that lactate is bad and that you should never do a sprint at the end of an endurance run: teach them better!
Who Benefits from Lactate Testing?
The answer to this question is simple: Endurance athletes! If you want to prepare for a marathon, for example, such a test (performed by a specialist) would make sense. This would not only determine how fit you are at the moment, but also define an appropriate training pace for you and assess your progress when you test again.