So why does everyone want to check the lactate threshold? And how accurate is it?- At any given moment, the cell produces lactate as part of its energy production process. Part of the lactate remains in the cell and is used to create energy and part of the lactate leaves the cell into the bloodstream and with it reaches other cells in the body. The ability of lactate to leave the cell and enter the blood depends, among other things, on the concentration of lactate in the blood and operates according to a “concentration cascade” – when there is an increase in the intensity of the activity (for example, by increasing speed in running/swimming/riding, etc.) there is also an increase in the rate of lactate production in the cell, and at the same time an increase in the rate The removal of lactate from the cell into the blood, following which the level of lactate in the blood increases. Also, when the gap between the concentration of lactate in the cell and that in the blood decreases, there is also a decrease in the rate of lactate removal from the cell and its level will rise and damage the cell’s ability to control its acidity level. With the increase in the level of acidity in the cell, fatigue will occur and we will have to lower our activity rate. The “lactate threshold” constitutes the highest activity rate, or in other words the swimming speed, the riding power or the running rate at which the lactate level in the blood will remain stable over time – that is, the rate of lactate production and its entry into the blood will be equal to the rate of lactate “removal” from the blood.
Sound simple? not so much Over the years, a large number of tests have been developed to determine the “lactate threshold”, with each of them using a different method to determine the “threshold” – starting with simple mathematical formulas, to more complicated ones, methods that use the absolute value of lactate in the blood to determine the threshold (for example “4 millimolar”) or a predefined increase in lactate concentration (“1 millimolar above resting values”), as can be seen in the attached graph. Each method will locate the threshold at different speeds/power in the same athlete. What further complicates the matter is the fact that protocols Different tests (the duration of each step at the end of which the intensities are increased within the test) will change the threshold even if the same method is used.