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Lactate Threshold
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Lactate Threshold
Introduction
During the metabolic process that takes place in the body, there is energy produced by
our metabolic systems. Metabolism involves all chemical reactions, which leads to the
breakdown of food into small molecules to obtain energy called catabolic reactions. The energy
produced during this process synthesizes larger molecules from small molecules. All these
reactions are essential in maintaining life. This paper mainly focuses on the definition of lactate
threshold and how it is related to aerobic and anaerobic metabolism and factors that influence
how lactate threshold occurs. The journal seeks to answer various questions on threshold training
and two methods used in styles of training and, finally, the data that depicts sthe effect of
threshold training on aerobic performances.
Lactate Threshold connection to Aerobic and Anaerobic Metabolism
Lactate threshold refers to the highest endeavor that athletes can maintain lactate acid that
starts to accumulate in the blood for a longer time with no or little rise in lactate (Green et al.,
2014). During this exercise, lactate acid begins to increase exponentially, and it is limited to at
least 80% of beats and 76% of oxygen inhalation. When an athlete is exercising at the lactate
threshold, lactic acid generated by the fibers gets lead out of the body without it accumulating.
The rise of lactate shows that most of the lactate produced is shifting from the tissues to the
bloodstream.
The lactate threshold has a significant relationship with aerobic and anaerobic processes.
In the aerobic threshold anaerobic threshold, during a vigorous exercise, oxygen is consumed
where aerobic energy is supplemented by anaerobic mechanism, which causes the increase in
lactate. Anaerobic threshold, therefore, occurs when aerobic power occurs, lactate contained in
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the body fluids are developed(Green et al., 2014). In the aerobic threshold, the accumulation of
lactate in body fluids is due to the activity that produces lactate, which leads to its accumulation
in the body fluids and the process that consumes lactate after being excreted from the body
fluids. Therefore, the lactate threshold has a great significance in the aerobic process of
metabolism.
Aerobic metabolism has a relationship with the lactate threshold. During aerobic
exercises, the lactic acid is produced, which usually contribute to the vigorous occurrence of
fatigue training. Lactate in the blood typically rises at the more top aerobic works where the
lactate threshold is almost the same as the velocity in which the activities happens. Aerobic
threshold, therefore, is a stable condition that one can perform for a given period. According to
Green et al. (2014), the aerobic threshold is where the level of lactate in the body fluids increases
with the level of the intensity at which the aerobic energy pathways start working out with
energy production.
Factors influencing VO2max Percentage
Lactate threshold is a specific effort where the rise of lactate in the body fluid above the
baseline levels; various factors impact the percentage of VO2max required for lactate threshold
to occur. Curiously, the VO2max percentage (maximum oxygen intake) that results in lactate
threshold usually increases in the higher exercise of athletes. VO2max is an indicator of exercise
performance, which mostly predicts the returns among the older athletes. Training 4 Endurance
article of 2020 Suggests that the determination of VO2max on exercises prescribes the training
intensity in athletes and how age relates to a decrease in VO2max in age group athletes. The
increase at which the threshold occurs relates to several factors. The first factor is muscle fibers.
During training, some muscle fibers are fast in resisting fatigue more than others. For some
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individuals, the lactate threshold happens at 50% and others at 75%. According to training four
endurance article (2020), this difference is by the ability to resist fatigue. VO2max in slow
muscles increases fatigue resistance over time through training where they become more
effective aerobically. This effort to improve the resistance to fatigue improves the lactate
threshold. An increase in lactate threshold, in turn, drives growth in the ability to sustain a high
percentage of VO2max during exercises. Other factors influencing the lactate threshold are
enzymatic concentrations, the size of mitochondrial, capillary density, and cholesterol in the
body (Training 4 Endurance, 2020). Besides, the limit can be increased by an increase in
intensity over time, for example, walking, jogging, and cycling, and can be reduced by lowintensity exercises.
Lactate Threshold Training
Lactate threshold training is a well-known technique of increasing high-intensity stamina
productions. VO2max usually indicates the potential and ability that an athlete has where their
lactate threshold increases with the right training program. Lactate threshold helps an athlete to
know how to train and what type of speed they can maintain during their endurance
performances (Training 4 Endurance, 2020). Athletes and coaches have come up with
complicated training methods to increase the value of the lactate threshold. A high volume of
low efforts performances appears to be more significant for longer chances of development of
aerobic efficiency. Therefore, the lactate limit can increase while training.
Lactate threshold training has various training methods that appear to be essential in
improving the lactate threshold. The paper will only focus on two ways: High-intensity interval
training and Tempo training. High-intensity interval training is a training which is over the
lactate threshold, which involves more than three minutes of effort where maximum oxygen
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intake operates at around 95-100% with 120 seconds actives recoveries. This training can leads
to an increase in VO2max velocity, which tends to increase in speed at the lactate threshold.
High-intensity training usually makes up more than 6% of the athletes' training volume (Training
4 Endurance, 2020). Most of the athletes complete more than training sessions sufficiently.
However, totaling more than two courses can increase the high chances of overtraining.
Tempo training or lactate threshold training is the second training method. In this
training, athletes usually apply more than fifteen minutes of effort at a vigor equal to or below
the lactate threshold. The significance of this training is that it increases the capability to
maintain workload over consecutive sessions, which substantially increases the maximum
increase in oxygen intake where the lactate threshold happens, which develops cells skills to use
lactate during the aerobic metabolism (Training 4 Endurance, 2020). Therefore, this training
works well when it is above 15 % training volume.
Data Showing how Lactate Threshold Training Affects Aerobic Performances.
Investigations have been made by Santiago's (2011) article to show the data and
information that examine how the lactate threshold training affects aerobic performance in the
various environmental condition, which are cold and hot conditions. To methods are used in this
investigation, which includes a blood-based method and a ventilation-based method. In a bloodbased manner, the lactate threshold has less and bias variances. An increase in aerobic
performances leads to a high lactate threshold in the tropical environment but reduces in cold
climates. Ventilation-based indexes did not perform well in a hot environment but played well in
a cold climate (Lorenzo, Minson, Babb, & Halliwill, 2011). Therefore, threshold training leads to
an increase in aerobic performances to more effective depending on the climate conditions that
an athlete is working.
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Conclusion
In conclusion, the above questions tend to elaborate on various aspects during the process
of metabolism. Lactate threshold is the ability to which an individual exercising can maintain the
lactic acid that starts to build up in the blood for a period of a given time. Aerobic and anaerobic
performances have a relationship with the lactate threshold. Various factors that influence the
maximum oxygen intake at which lactate threshold occurs include; muscle fibers, enzymatic
performances, capillary density, and size of mitochondria. LT training is a method of increasing
the high intensity of stamina production, and it involves two processes, Tempo and highintensity interval training. The data is on how the LT training impacts aerobic performances on
two environmental conditions (cold and hot conditions).
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References
Green, M., Hornsby, J. H., Pritchett, R. C., & Pritchett, K. (2014). Lactate Threshold
Comparison in Anaerobic vs. Aerobic Athletes and Untrained Participants. International
Journal of Exercise Science, 329-338. Retrieved from
https://digitalcommons.wku.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1623&context=ijes
Lorenzo, S., Minson, C. T., Babb, T. G., & Halliwill, J. R. (2011). Lactate threshold predicting
time-trial performance: impact of heat and acclimation. Journal of Applied Physiology,
221-227. doi:10.1152/japplphysiol.00334.2011
Training 4 Endurance. (2020, March). Retrieved from Training 4 Endurance Website:
https://training4endurance.co.uk/physiology-of-endurance/lactate-threshold/