Demystifying the Action of Lactate in Events of Delayed Onset Muscle Soreness (DOMS) Resulting from Physical Exercise: A Practical Approach

Our study aims at demystifying the action of lactate in events of delayed onset muscle soreness (DOMS) resulting from vigorous physical exercise. For such, we have made use of three exhaustion runs (3 X 250 meter runs in official 400 meter long tracks, with active recovery 150 meter long breaks). Five students (3 men and 2 women average age 21 years old) have participated in the test. Our objective was to propose a non-habitual strenuous physical activity so as to increase the concentration of lactate to induce a certain level of muscle discomfort. 3ml of blood were collected before the physical activity (control value , CO), immediately afterwards (T0h), two hours later (T2h) and four hours later (T4h), so as to obtain the amounts of lactate (in whole blood) and of creatine kinase (in plasma). The analysis of the concentration of lactate was conducted using the device Accutrend Lactate and the levels of CK in plasma measured through the reactive method CK NAC, Kinetic Method, Laborlab making use of a spectophotometer. There was a significant increase of lactate levels in the blood immediately after the physical effort. Nevertheless, after T2h and T4h, these levels decreased back to the same levels measured before the exercise, evidencing a natural strategic elimination of this lactate. An identical increase of the plasmatic concentration of CK could also be observed in all 5 individuals 4 hours after the physical exercise, with a significant increase in T4h when compared to the CO. The concentration of lactate in plasma goes back to the pre-exercise levels 2 hours after the intensive physical activity, long before the first symptoms of DOMS. It can be said, thus, that the significant increase of CK in the plasma 4 hours after the exercise leads us to conclude that an increase of permeability or stronger perturbation of the sarcolema constitutes a primary event in the development of the DOMS.

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