Blood lactate parameters related to aerobic capacity and endurance performance

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.