This article was sent to me by a fellow SCAQ swimmer after reading about the lactic acid sets that Olympian/NCAA Champ, Rada Owen, and Olympian/bronze medalist Erik Hockstein conduct every Sunday for SCAQ Swimmers.Here is some astonishing info regarding what really causes muscle fatigue and it has nothing to do with lactic acid. From the New York Times: "... For decades, muscle fatigue had been largely ignored or misunderstood. Leading physiology textbooks did not even try to offer a mechanism, said Dr. Andrew Marks, principal investigator of the new study. A popular theory, that muscles become tired because they release lactic acid, was discredited not long ago.
In a report published Monday in an early online edition of Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Dr. Marks says the problem is calcium flow inside muscle cells. Ordinarily, ebbs and flows of calcium in cells control muscle contractions. But when muscles grow tired, the investigators report, tiny channels in them start leaking calcium, and that weakens contractions. At the same time, the leaked calcium stimulates an enzyme that eats into muscle fibers, contributing to the muscle exhaustion. ..."
This study has implications for those with heart issues too. Please take careful note of the last paragraph. [Link]
2 comments:
Very interesting. I wonder...if such a drug (or therapy) is approved...will it fall into the "performance enhancing" category? (In relation to allowing your body to go beyond the "danger zone".)
I don't think there's any doubt about that! I dare say Tony's emphasis on Dr. Mark's speculation that the fatigue process could be protective and if circumvented may well result in death is his obvious rejoinder to those considering doing so.
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