title: Blood lactate during exercise: time course of training adaptation in humans.
abstract: We determined the time course of adaptation in blood lactate concentration ([La]) during constant-load exercise in response to training. Thirteen healthy subjects (11 males, 2 females) exercised on a cycle ergometer for 30 min/day at a work rate calculated to elicit 70% of pre-training VO2max, 6 days/week for 3 weeks. VO2max and blood [La] during constant-load exercise (training work rate) were determined at the end of each week of training. Training increased VO2max 8.5% (from 48.2 +/- 1.5 ml.kg-1.min-1 pre-training to 52.3 +/- 1.4 ml.kg-1.min-1 post-training, P less than 0.01) and decreased constant-load blood [La] 53% (from 7.8 +/- 0.6 mM pre-training to 3.7 +/- 0.3 mM post-training, P less than 0.01). The training-induced reduction in exercise blood [La] was well fit to an exponential (5.5e (-t/2.2) + 2.3, r = 0.99) with a half-time of 10.7 days. However, this was not the case for the time course of VO2max adaptation. The absolute decrease in blood [La] was correlated with the initial blood [La] (r = 0.88, P less than 0.01), but changes in VO2max were not significantly correlated with initial blood [La] (r = -0.14) nor with changes in blood [La] (r = -0.02). We conclude that (1) blood [La] response to constant-load exercise decreases rapidly and exponentially with training, with a t1/2 of 10.7 days, (2) the magnitude of training adaptation is positively related to the initial blood [La], and (3) the time course and extent of the training-induced adaptations of blood [La] and VO2max appear to be independent of one another.
authors.affiliation: Department of Kinesiology, University of California, Los Angeles.
authors.forename: G A
authors.initials: GA
authors.lastname: Gaesser
authors.forename: D C
authors.initials: DC
authors.lastname: Poole
mesh_terms: D000222:Adaptation, Physiological; D000328:Adult; D015444:Exercise; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007773:Lactates / Q000097:blood*; D008297:Male; D010806:Physical Education and Training; D010807:Physical Endurance; D013997:Time Factors
chemical_list: D007773:Lactates