Sequence of the lactate performance diagnostics

When working with (high-performance) athletes, the goal is to perform lactate performance diagnostics as sport-specific as possible. In this respect, the physical strain does not always take place under standardized conditions on an ergometer or treadmill. In soccer training, for example, one often sees soccer players having a little blood taken from their earlobe after running in order to determine the lactate levels in their blood.

It is important, however, regardless of the type of exercise, that the intensity of the exercise is increased gradually. As a rule, a low exercise level is started and the intensity is increased every 3-5 minutes. Capillary blood, usually from the earlobe or fingertip, is taken at each stage.

The earlobe is usually rubbed with a blood circulation-enhancing ointment (Finalgon®) about 10 minutes before the first measurement. If the lactate test is carried out in a designated room, an ECG is normally taken at the same time, which also takes the heart rate into account.The steps are increased more and more until the load is reached. With which load intensity one begins, how large the stages are and whether up to the extent of utilization is increased, is thereby individually decided on the basis the training and state of health of the respective test person.

A lactate performance curve is drawn up on the basis of the values determined per level. It usually relates the performance (for example running speed or wattage, x-axis) to the measured lactate concentration (y-axis). This results in a curve whose shift to the right indicates an increase in performance.

The point at which the lactate curve increases significantly is called the individual anaerobic threshold. Up to this point, a so-called lactate steady state is present at constant load. The formation and breakdown of lactate are balanced so that there is no accumulation of lactate in the muscle. A performance in this range can therefore be achieved over a longer period of time. This is why the individual anaerobic threshold is also called the continuous performance limit.