Lactate Threshold Report

Anaerobic activities are forms of exercise that consists of brief intense bursts of physical activity where oxygen demand surpasses oxygen supply. Anaerobic activities include lifting heavy weights, running, riding a bicycle, jumping, and any other physical exercise that uses short bursts of high intensity movement of the body. While aerobic physical activities rely on oxygen, anaerobic physical activities are fueled by energy stored in one’s muscles through a process called glycolysis (Ricketts

VO2max can be defined as the maximum oxygen uptake. This entails the maximum rate at which oxygen is readily available in the body to be taken up and used during aerobic exercise. (Fletcher et al.) It is a very important and commonly used indicator of a person or athletes level of cardiovascular fitness. A high VO2max demonstrates a high level of aerobic fitness, where as a low VO2max indicates a low rate of aerobic fitness. There are two factors that are important in determining a persons VO2max, which are the hearts ability to deliver oxygen to the muscles and the muscles ability to extract the oxygen from the blood and use it (Brown, Miller and Eason). This means that when a person has a high VO2max their body is able to deliver oxygen through the blood efficiently to the muscles in order to maintain high levels of aerobic exercise over an extended period of time. VO2max is a valued measurement of cardiovascular fitness in the Sport industry due to its ability to indicate cardiovascular fitness, as well as the pulmonary and muscular systems efficiency throughout the duration of the exercise (Brown, Miller and Eason). There are multiple tests that can measure VO2max

However, the build up of the lactate acid over their short bursts have a cumulative effect and thus impeding on their performance (Zachrich 2008). By implementing endurance-training styles the blood lactate onset can be delayed – beneficial to performance (Ghosh 2004). Trained individuals can perform at a higher percentage of their maximal capacity without causing blood lactate levels to rise than untrained athletes. These particular individuals train for such a performance and train at high-level intensities to replicate the competition lactate levels and their body produces adaptations combating this, e.g. removing lactate faster. Thus anaerobic threshold is the more effective way to predict endurance performance during those specific times as it is about the maintenance of the high intensities for a longer period of time without fatiguing quickly.

This lab report looks how blood lactate levels are affected during an incremental cycle test with an oxygen restriction mask and without an oxygen restriction mask. Blood lactate is lactic acid that appears in the blood due aerobic and anaerobic training. Billat et.al (2003) states that during a moderate cycling exercise performed during 30–50 minutes, 20% of glucose utilisation went to lactate formation, 20% of the blood lactate appearance came from glucose. Furthermore Billat et.al (2003) also states that the net release of lactic acid from muscle to blood is determined by the mass of active muscle and the intensity of the activation of these muscles. Furthermore this occurs because of insufficient oxygen delivery to the muscles, the blood

Lactate threshold test are used to prescribe training so that the coach and the individual know what the max effort an athlete can push is his or her body. Depending on the athlete and what their lactate threshold is where one can see how well they may perform. “Usually lactate threshold concepts use the blood lactate concentration as the only parameter to approximate power in maximal lactate steady state. The maximal lactate steady state is defined as the highest endurance work load that can be maintained” (Adam 2015). For an endurance athlete, such as a cyclist, they would want to be able to cycle as fast as they can for a stretch of time. They should undergo a training program that would increase performing. There should be a delay in there LT1should be maintained for longer period of time form

Lactate threshold and the increase of lactic acid in muscles throughout intense exercise has become a major interest for athletes, coaches and clinicians, it is to be noted that lactate is ‘’the product of, not the cause of muscle contraction’’,(Myers, J et al, 1997).Lacate threshold gives a good insight as to how long an individual can endure a particular intensity. Resting value for amount of lactic acid is 1 mmol/liter. Just over a heart rate of 90% of the maximum gives a good estimate of threshold intensity. This 24 year olds maximal heart rate is about 176 bpm, therefore from observing the two graphs we can note that his threshold intensity occurs approximately at 210 watts.(high performance sports conditioning)

For the participant in this trial to sustain 60rpm, their muscles must produce progressively more force after each increment, as 0.5kg resistance is applied to the flywheel each time, therefore the energy demands of the muscle progressively increase. A deviation from the trend during the middle of the trial was not expected as most sources agree the relationship is linear (Burton, Özyener, Glassford), however Astrand (1961) found a non-linear steeper increase in during the middle stages. Astrand’s non-linear pattern may be explained by production of power increasing to a point beyond the lactate threshold, the point at which lactic acid starts to accumulate in the blood. A slowly developing increase in during constant-work-rate exercise performed above the lactate threshold produces a curvilinear relationship and is known as the slow component of kinetics (Jones et al, 2011). The cause for the steep increase at the final stage of the trial is supported by the research of Bernard et al (1996), who measured the effects of increasing exercise intensities recording oxygen consumption and heart rate simultaneously. Findings revealed a significant correlation with the best predictions of from work rate observed at higher intensities. Bernard’s findings support results in table 1 that

Rowing hurts, but the only way to go faster is to ignore the pain and push through it. Athletes experience a lot of soreness and build up of lactic acid, especially in crew. Rowers can produce more lactic acid than other sports like running because of the fact that they use more than the maximal aerobic capacity. Lactate is measured in millimoles or mmol, for short. While runners have about 4 mmol, Rowers can have Lactate around 15-18, sometimes even higher. The measurement of lactate general but not accurate because it is not the lactate that produces the acid/ drop in PH. The average PH for the human body is a 7.2, but the lactate in the body is producing hydrogen bonds (H+) which causes the PH level to drop down to 6.6.

I believe that the VO2 Max is reasonable way to determine your fitness after doing heavy exercise. Although some people get weird scores according to them (an athletic person gets a poor score or a nonathletic person gets a great score), the majority of people get reasonable scores according to their body type. After trying this technique out, I would not mind using VO2 Max again because it was a simple and easy way to reaching better fitness. In conclusion, physical fitness is vital in everyone’s life and VO2 Max can help reach better fitness

Bessot et al. (2011) aimed to distinguish the effect of time of day on peak power during an exercise test and maximal aerobic power when the subject exercised at their maximal oxygen uptake. Researchers instructed fifteen male competitive endurance cyclists to perform a maximal incremental exercise test at 6:00 and 18:00. The work rate was increased by 30 W per minute until the respiratory exchange ratio reached 1.00 and then in steps of 15 W per minute until exhaustion occurred. Results of this study concluded that there were no significant differences in maximal oxygen uptake and maximal heart rate or biomechanical variables, such as maximal aerobic power and peak

The magnitude of an individual’s peak power, relative power and fatigue index can be directly related to an individuals training status. This can be determined by performing a short duration supramaximal anaerobic test. Peak power output heavily relies on the anaerobic metabolism within the body. Comprising of the adenosine triphosphate - phosphocreatine (ATP-PC) system and glycolytic anaerobic metabolic pathways. When physiological stress is placed on the metabolic, cardiovascular and musculoskeletal system during physical training our body is forced to adapt to cope with it more efficiently. Thus creating the differences in power and fatigue index within trained and untrained individuals.

One controversial but often used measurement technique for measuring the effectiveness of a workout routine is VO2max. Maximal oxygen uptake (VO2 max) is considered one of the most important indicators of endurance capacity (Bosquet et al. 2002). Although it is widely used and well established, its determination is still challenging from a methodological point of view (Scharhag-Rosenberger et al, 2011). VO2max traditionally had trouble being defined as a reliable resource or consistent method of measurement (Scharhag-Rosenberger et al, 2011) Abderrahman et al (2013) help us to define an effectiveness on any given training program. There are various techniques used to gain an accurate VO2max reading, including the 20-m shuttle run test (Leger, 1982) or a 12 minute running test. The test can also be recorded with a participant on a bicycle.

They did fat percentage by using an adipometer through triceps and subscapular skinfolds measurements. Lactate Threshold in the subjects was obtained through in incremental test that was adapted from the protocol developed by Simões et al. It ran for 6 times 500 m at 80%, 83%, 86%, 89%, 92%, and 95% of the average running speed that was obtained during the Cooper’s 12-min track test. In the last 10 secs of each 500-m run, a blood sample was taken from the earlobe and was put into Eppendorf tubes containing sodium fluoride. The concentrations from each sample was used by a blood lactate analyzer. Then the lactate threshold was found as the intensity at the breakpoint in the blood lactate concentration curve occurred.

The first group (n=7) performed training in a normoxic environment (fraction of inspired oxygen = 20.9%) and the second group (n=8) performed the same protocol in a normobaric hypoxic (fraction of inspired oxygen = 14.5%) environment. Following the 6 week training protocol all measures were tested again and a second muscle biopsy was collected. The results of this study showed an increase in VO2max and time to exhaustion. The tested biopsies post training showed an unchanged oxidative capacity, but a shift in mitochondrial regulation occurred. This study suggests that intermittent normobaric training in hypoxia supports a more efficient mitochondrial integration between the supply of Adenosine Triphosphate (ATP) and the demand for it by the skeletal muscle cells. This would suggest improvement in anaerobic performance via an increase in ADP phosphorylation speed within the muscle making ATP more readily available post hypoxic training.

The analysis of the results of the current study demonstrated a significant difference between mean change in pulse rate of subjects able to complete less than and greater than than 25 push ups (p < 0.05). The null hypothesis (H0) is rejected and the alternate hypothesis (Ha) retained. This suggests a correlation between aerobic and anaerobic fitness levels in completing high intensity exercise