What is Lactic Acid?

 

Have you ever gone for a mad sprint? Just gone all out, allowed the needle to enter the red, given it everything you've got? If so, then you know you can only go all out for a short period of time as the burn begins to build in your muscles, as your lungs begin to rasp and you run out of breath, and soon you are staggering to a stop, about to collapse, gasping and with legs cramping. What on earth is going on here? Why can't we just keep on sprinting? One of the most commonly indicated villains in this process is lactate acid, which has been blamed for stopping us mid-sprint. Is lactate acid the cause of our inability to keep sprinting? In this article we are going to look at the biology of the situation and see what is going on!

Lactate acid is also known as milk acid, and is a chemical compound that is formed when pyruvate encounters the enzyme lactated dehydrogenase (LDH) in a process similar to fermentation during normal exercise. Basically we all have lactate in our bodies, and when we begin to up the intensity levels we ferment that substance and cause it to mix with LDH and become lactate acid. Now, we use oxygen to remove lactate acid by turning it into carbon dioxide and water, but when we can't get enough oxygen the concentration begins to build up.

This has been confused with acidosis, the process by which our body becomes more acidic then it likes and is responsible for that burning feeling in our muscles. Instead, the raises amount of lactic acid in our muscles allows us to access increased sources of energy as it allows for the regeneration of NAD so that energy production levels are maintained. Finally, lactic acid is actually not produced inside the muscle, though it is easy to understand why people might confuse the two.

So what happens to all that lactic acid when you stop exercising? Once again you are able to bring oxygen into your cells, and that begins to break down the build-up. This then leads us into EPOC, where our body seeks to balance our the damage done by exercise by bringing in enough oxygen to balance out hormone levels, to repair the cells, and wipe away the build-up in acid.  So there you go, that is what lactic acid is all about!

 

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