Dispelling rumours: Lactic Acid and DOMS.
Jun5Written by:
05 June 2009 
Often in the gym you will hear misinformation. Well more than often I’m sure that if one listened enough they would hear misinformation all the time. One of those topics that came up recently, when having a chat with a friend of mine who is a personal trainer, is muscle soreness. He went on to mention hearing something particularly funny well to those in the know at least. A couple guys were standing around having a chat. The one blurted out that he had lactic acid build up for 3 days after his last weight training session.
This is one of those times where rather than laugh as did his mates. He should be enlightened.
Lactic Acid build up in simple terms is the build up of lactate to a greater extent than it can be cleared away due to the muscle cells not having enough oxygen to complete the aerobic respiration process. This creates a concentration in lactate in the muscle. This is when one feels the burn in cardiovascular exercise and in many cases high repetition weight training. It is a short term condition that subsides as the body’s demands for energy decreases, so the ability to effectively remove lactate returns through oxidation.
Lactic Acid does not have the ability to create the condition known as DOMS (Delayed On set of Muscle Soreness). While there is no conclusive proof as to what the cause of DOMS maybe. It is known that one usually experiences the symptoms after intense strength biased exercise. This could be due to the fact that when muscles experience intense stretching of the muscle fibres, not contraction as is commonly thought, micro tears along the muscle fibre strands occur.
It is commonly thought that DOMS occurs due to the muscle fibre swelling during the regeneration process, the process of making itself bigger (hypertrophy) and stronger. Yet this has been disproved in a recent medical study. The current accepted theory is that DOMS is caused by stiffness within the actual muscle fibres.
While there are many theories as to how to reduce the affect of DOMS. Most agree that low intensity cardiovascular training, and stretching is shown to reduce the affects of DOMS.
About the author:
Stevin is a qualified personal trainer from Health and Fitness Professionals Association and sport freak, be it watching or playing. Stevens website is Steven.co.za
Copyright ©2009 StevenL
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Re: Dispelling rumours: Lactic Acid and DOMS.
I am one of the people who "certifies" personal trainers in the USA and I can attest that what the author is saying is true. the idea of lactic acid build up causing DOMS is one of the biggest fitness myths in history and I try to dispel it whenever I can. Listen closely and you will be amazed at how many people on the radio, tv, magazines and the internet still believe this old urban legend
keep up the great writing fellow myth buster!
Joe Cannon, MS, CSCS
my website www.joe-cannon.com
By Joe Cannon, MS CSCS on
19 January 2010
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