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Blood lactate parameters related to aerobic capacity and endurance performance

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Summary

The relationships among four descriptors of lactate increase: 1) lactate threshold (LT) (the\(\dot V_{{\text{O}}_{\text{2}} } \) at which blood lactate concentration begins to increase above the resting level during an incremental exercise test), 2) LT1 (the\(\dot V_{{\text{O}}_{\text{2}} } \) at which blood lactate increases 1 mM above the resting level), 3) LT2 (the\(\dot V_{{\text{O}}_{\text{2}} } \) at which blood lactate concentration reaches a fixed value of 2 mM), 4) onset of blood lactate accumulation (OBLA; the\(\dot V_{{\text{O}}_{\text{2}} } \) at which blood lactate reaches a concentration of 4 mM), were compared with aerobic capacity (\(\dot V_{{\text{O}}_{{\text{2 max}}} } \)) and 12 min running performance in 19 untrained female students.

The\(\dot V_{{\text{O}}_{\text{2}} } \) (±SD) of LT, LT1, LT2, OBLA, and\(\dot V_{{\text{O}}_{{\text{2 max}}} } \) were 14.5±3.7 ml · kg−1 · min−1, 22.5±4.3 ml · kg−1 · min−1, 22.2±4.5 ml · kg−1 · min−1, 30.3±5.2 ml · kg−1 · min−1 and 36.0±5.1 ml · kg−1 · min−1, respectively. The mean (±SD) distance covered in the 12 min running was 2356±160m. The results were as follows: 1) the lactate parameters (i.e. LT, LT1, LT2, and OBLA) were highly correlated with each other. 2) all the lactate parameters were related to\(\dot V_{{\text{O}}_{{\text{2 max}}} } \) and endurance running performance with a high correlation coefficient. Of the four descriptors of lactate change with exercise, LT correlated best with\(\dot V_{{\text{O}}_{{\text{2 max}}} } \) and endurance running performance compared to LT1, LT2 and OBLA. It is concluded that lactate threshold is the best index for aerobic capacity and endurance running performance.

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Yoshida, T., Chida, M., Ichioka, M. et al. Blood lactate parameters related to aerobic capacity and endurance performance. Europ. J. Appl. Physiol. 56, 7–11 (1987). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00696368

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