Sore muscles are caused by lactic acid. Well sorry if your Mom told you this (or more likely your favorite fitness instructor) they are talking from outdated research. This one just hangs on as research in early 1980s showed that lactate is not a bad thing and has nothing to do with muscle soreness. So why do we talk about lactic acid build up?

In the early 1900‘s German physician and biochemist, Otto Meyerhof, cut a frog in half and put its legs in a jar. The frog's muscles had no circulation hence there was no source of oxygen or energy. Dr. Myerhoff gave the frog's leg electric shocks to make the muscles contract, but after a few twitches, the muscles stopped moving. Then, when Dr. Myerhoff examined the muscles, he discovered that they were bathed in lactic acid. A theory that would last a century was born. From there on out it was thought that a lack of oxygen to the muscles leads to lactic acid which in turn leads to fatigue.

George A. Brooks, a professor in the department of integrative biology at the University of California, Berkeley became interested in the 1960’s when he was running track at Queen’s College and his coach told him that is was lactate acid that caused his muscle soreness. He decided to study the lactic acid hypothesis for his doctoral dissertation. In his early research he found that in rats (and later humans) lactate was actually a source of energy. The tiny amount of acid that is actually created is flushed from the body quite quickly after exercise ends. Whereas the soreness can take days to set in.

There are some great descriptions of lactate versus lactic acid and what can actually builds up in the body on line. What you should know is that lactate is the principal fuel for the heart during vigorous exercise. The good news is that the liver can recycle it and it becomes a new source of energy. Did you know your body is constantly making lactate? It does build up as you increase the intensity of exercise. Our lactate threshold is simply the point where our bodies produce lactate faster than it can clear it. This makes our ability to clear lactate a critical part of sustaining high-end power.

Based on Brooks’s research one of the highest priorities of training should be to increase the body’s capacity to use lactate during high-intensity exercise so an athlete can race faster longer. We know that the lactate threshold is the fastest swimming, cycling, or running speed that can be sustained for one hour. This means most athletes should be able to train at this to get faster and stronger. The are other limiters to a lot of intensity training, but lactic acid is not one!

Not surprisingly most research on endurance athletes has been done on men. As the percentage of women in endurance sports continues to grow hopefully more research will center on women. Right now more women participate in half marathons than men. Female numbers are getting stronger every year at the marathon, half ironman and full distances. Limited research or certainly field experience says that the menstrual cycle affects female athletes.

Here’s a little primer to make the conversation later easier to follow. Typically the female cycle is divided into two phases the follicular and the luteal. Day 1 your lining sheds and this can last 4-6 days (your period). During the follicular phase an egg follicle on an ovary gets ready to release an egg. The last 5 days of the follicular phase are when you are fertile. The luteal phase starts when the egg is released. This phase lasts until your period begins - premenstrual. It is during this time that your hormones (estrogen, follicle stimulating hormone, and progesterone) are on the upswing. That isn’t to say your hormones are not constantly on the move (check out the graphs in the slideshow).

In the luteal phase the hormones estrogen and progesterone are both higher levels so your blood plasma is lower and there is a faster time to fatigue and hyponatremia (a conditions that occurs when the level of sodium in your blood is abnormally low) is more common. Focusing on proper hydration will positively affect workouts at this time. Estrogen tends to be at a peak when ovulation occurs and at that time tendons and ligaments can become more lax. Some female soccer players say that ACL issues have occurred at this time in their cycle.

On top of that in the high hormone phase women have less heat tolerance because your own body temperature can be a degree higher than at ovulation. This means that women need to really focus on hydration and appropriate hydration to keep electrolytes in balance.

As we move into a high hormone phase the need for some carbohydrate supplementation increases. When the hormones are high women should also focus on getting in good proteins within the 30 minute window after exercise as well as thinking about getting BCAAs in pre-exercise. What are BCAAs? Branched-chain amino acid boost protein synthesis during and after training sessions. You’ve probably heard them touted in supplements and protein powders (my favorite is Power House )

Here are foods and their BCAA content
Food Serving Protein BCAAs Leucine Isoleucine Valine BCAA Leucine
(per g of protein)
Chicken Breast 6oz 36g 6.6g 2.9g 1.8g 1.9g 0.18 0.08
95% lean beef 6oz 36g 6.2g 2.8g 1.6g 1.8g 0.17 0.08
Canned Tuna 6oz 33g 5.6g 2.5g 1.5g 1.6g 0.17 0.08
Wild Salmon 6oz 34g 5.9g 2.7g 1.5g 1.7g 0.17 0.08
Flank Steak 6oz 36g 6.2g 2.8g 1.6g 1.8g 0.17 0.08
Talapia 6oz 34g 5.9g 2.7g 1.6g 1.6g 0.17 0.08
Turkey Breast 6oz 40g 5.2g 2.8g 1.1g 1.3g 0.13 0.07
Egg 1 6.3g 1.3g 0.54g 0.3g 0.4g 0.21 0.09
Egg White 1 3.6g 0.8g 0.3g 0.2g 0.3g 0.23 0.09
Roasted Peanuts 6oz 12g 6.8g 3.1g 1.7g 2g 0.14 0.07

You’ll see the BCAA is not equivalent to the protein, so a balance is best. Research shows that 3 grams is the approximate amount of leucine needed at a given meal to maximize muscle protein synthesis, so 6 oz of any of these meats is on the low side of what you would want to consume at a meal.

Estrogen evens affects our metabolic rate - you may have already noticed this if you are trying to lose weight. The good news for female endurance athletes is that we have a greater capacity for burning fat at a given intensity level requiring less fueling. This is true when estrogen is at a higher level. So if you are racing an endurance event and keeping your heart rate nice and low then you may actually need less fuel. As a bonus to menopause I raced Ironman Lake Placid with my period, but had not had it since April when I ran the Boston Marathon! Note to all in headed to menopause it will visit the big event! Since I had not had my period for 3 months my estrogen levels had most likely really dropped (I have not been tested). At Lake Placid I burned 5296 calories and took in MUCH less than anyone would say I should. I am thinking that although the day was very hot because my estrogen levels were low I was able to better manage the heat. You absolutely need to focus on where you are in your cycle for performance maximization.

When estrogen is low in your cycle you may notice more fatigue. When progesterone is low you may also feel low energy and sleep issues. Some websites say that the spice turmeric, also in curry, is known to help increase the body's progesterone levels. Other herbs such as thyme and oregano are thought to have the same properties. Adding one of these ingredients in each meal may help to smooth hormonal balance.

There have been a couple of studies done that show athletes perform well in endurance events while menstruating. In 2006 Kishali published a study titled Effects of menstrual cycle on sports performance. Directly from the study abstract “The aim of this study was to examine the effects of menstrual cycle on female athletes' performance. Forty-eight teak-wondo athletes, 76 judoka, 81 volleyball, and 36 basketball players (total 241) elite athletes participated in the study. A questionnaire constituted from 21 questions about menstrual cycle applied. Most of the athletes said that they have a painful menstruation period, and during the competition their pain decreased. As a result of the questionnaire, during the training and competition the number of athletes that did not use drugs were higher than the athletes that used drug (p < .01). The number of athletes that felt good before and during the menstruation were significantly higher (p < .05, p < .01). Between the menstruation periods the athletes said that they felt better in the first 14 days than the second 14 days (p < .01). When the non-menses period and menses period were compared the athletes said that their performance did not change (p < .01). It has been concluded that the menarche age was high in the athletes. It has found that the physical performance was not affected by the menstrual period and the pain decreased during the training and competition.” Although it can be a pain to deal with, don’t let it affect your mindset going into an event.

We have all read in mainstream fitness magazines that after an intense workout your metabolic rate stays higher, meaning you are still burning calories at a higher rate for up to 20 hours. Hence the popularity of HIIT and other high intensity training. Bummer alert - Dr. Stacy Sims a researcher and founder of OSMO Nutrition says that women return to normal metabolic rates much faster, within 3 hours.

In 2006 an article titled Nutritional aspects of women strength athletes was published in the British Journal of Sports Medicine. The study look at strength training and nutrition for women. They found that “compared to men, women appear to be less reliant on glycogen during exercise and less responsive to carbohydrate mediated glycogen synthesis during recovery. Female strength athletes may require more protein than their sedentary and endurance training counterparts to attain positive nitrogen balance and promote protein synthesis. Therefore, women strength athletes should put less emphasis on a very high carbohydrate intake and more emphasis on quality protein and fat consumption in the context of energy balance to enhance adaptations to training and improve general health. Attention to timing of nutrient ingestion, macronutrient quality, and dietary supplementation (for example, creatine) are briefly discussed as important components of a nutritionally adequate and effective strength training diet for women.” While this study was on strength athletes it has implications for endurance athletes as well. First, all women should be strength training since we lose muscle mass after the age of 30 and strength work creates muscle balances countering the imbalances of sport training. Second it was found that women use more fat stores and less carbohydrate stores than men. This means that when a company says eat this high carb gel every 15 minutes that is likely overkill for most women. Another study done in 2001 (Binzen C A, Swan P D, Manore M M. Post exercise oxygen consumption and substrate use after resistance exercise in women. Med Sci Sports Exerc 200133932–938.938 [PubMed] ) found women continue to burn fat post exercise - again unlike men.

Studies done in 1996 found that during a woman’s cycle when estrogen is high there should be increased muscle strength, but that is muted by progesterone. Interestingly a few studies found that there was no change in muscle fatigue over the course of a cycle nor did the cycle change the muscle ability to contract and fire. A study in 1998 by De Souza et al found that recreational runners did not ovulate as consistently as non runners and therefore their hormone fluctuations were different. Another reason to document and track your cycle and training progress.

Deutz and team published research in 2000 looking at 42 gymnasts and 20 runners all of national elite caliber. They did extensive body composition analysis and used a procedure to measure energy balance finding that those who were under eating actually had higher body fat percentages “possibly from an adaptation of the resting energy expenditure’. So eating less does not give you the strongest body.

Deutz R C, Benardot D, Martin D E. et al Relationship between energy deficits and body composition in elite female gymnasts and runners. Med Sci Sports Exerc 200032659–668.668 [PubMed]

What about fatigue?
Very often low iron is associated with fatigue, but what about athletes whose iron levels test fine? Low iron stares can decrease physical performance, cause unusual fatigue and even cognitive impairment. A study was done in 2014 to test iron supplementation in athletes who iron levels were normal. It was found after 6 weeks of IV iron supplementation that there was improved perceived fatigue and mood of trained athletes (without improvements in oxygen transport capacity of performance). Earlier another study was done by Irena Auersperger and team and published in 2013 on the premise that many endurance athletes are iron deficient. The study founds that of 14 runners, 7 were iron deficient at baseline and 10 after training. The prevalence of depleted iron stores was 71% (in the whole group of 21) after 8 weeks of training. Hepcidin (regulates stores) and iron stores did not recover after ten days. This means that after a tough training period along with a recovery your iron stores and hepcidin levels will not recover to normalcy. Hence a good chance you are going to experience fatigue and less than desired athletic results.

Vitamin D can affect both muscle strength and aerobic performance. Stress can deplete vitamin D levels along with cold dark winters! Nikolaos E. Koundourakis published a paper in July 2014 titled; Vitamin D and Exercise Performance in Professional Soccer Players. While the study looked at professional soccer players it studies aerobic and neuromuscular exercise performance both important to endurance sports. They found a possible effect of vitamin D on jumping ability and strength. They also found a linear association between vitamin D and VO2max. Other studies have show deficiency in vitamin D leads to decreased lung function. Better lung function could result in better VO2max.

Vitamin B12 deficiencies are more common in vegetarians. Some studies have shown that B12 levels can be altered with strenuous exercises as a result it is a common supplement for triathletes and other endurance athletes. The B vitamins are involved in energy production during exercise. B12 is required for the production red blood cells, for protein synthesis and tissue repair and maintenance. Studies are inconclusive as to whether exercise really depletes B vitamins and B12, so athletes should make sure their diets contains good sources. Where can you get B12 in food? Shellfish, mackeral, liver, fortified cereals, red mean, skim milk, cheese and eggs. The B vitamins can be found in dark leafy greens, fortified cereals, lentils, nuts, milk, eggs and fish (among other foods - each has varying levels of the different B vitamins - folate, B6, niacin, riboflavin, and thiamin).

In menopause the hormone fluctuations go away. There is less of a need for carbohydrate supplementation and more of a need to protein both pre and post workout. Menopause can last anywhere from 2 to 10 years and start as early as age 40! And to make it more complicated every woman experiences different symptoms and effects of menopause and at different rates!

When you are perimenopausal (before your periods actually cease) estrogen concentrations can vary greatly. Once you have gone 3 months without a period your estrogen levels will have dropped. Loss of muscle mass will occur if strength training is not undertaken. Weight gain tends to affect women after menopause, but in some cases it is due to reduced activity. Athletes should celebrate because exercise will counteract some of the downsides (weight gain, lost muscle mass, body composition changes, and increased LDL - bad cholesterol).

Night sweats can cause an imbalance in electrolytes, so you’ll need to pay attention to magnesium, potassium and sodium. Insomnia is often reported by women and many say melatonin works well. Many women tend to follow fad diets and cut out major food groups. Milk has become a taboo product for some women. Calcium is greatly needed by menopausal women to help build bone strength. Running alone will not continue to keep our bones strong enough to run until we are 100. Sadly there is very little research on menopausal athletes. Anecdotal evidence says that performance decreases, but is that because the athletes are tired, weaker and feel like they shouldn't be as fast or as strong. Let’s get some research done here!

What about hormone replacement therapy? There is a thread on Slowtwitch where women rave about HRT. Some feel it helps with maintaining muscle mass, energy and performance. Others say don’t mess with mother nature. It is best to consult a variety of medical professionals to help make this decision.

It is amazing how little research is done on female athletes and how much has been done on whether athletes have a bigger or smaller index finger to ring finger ratio (again done primarily on men!). We have a long ways to go, but as the Virginia Slims ads always said “you’ve come a long way baby”. Only those going through menopause will remember this tagline!

Running requires less gear and one would think less technical expertise than many other sports. It is probably why it is so popular as a form of exercise (well that and the fact that it burns more calories per minute than any other you can do for an hour). But as anyone who has gotten into the sport, even on a purely recreational level knows, there is a lot more to it. How fast should you run, how often, what to wear, what to eat/drink and then those pesky aches and pains. Don't be deterred - get educated. Join us for the Better YOUniversity free seminar: 2016 - YOUr Best Running Year.
Register here - http://www.fitness-artist.com/running-seminar/

There are more and more classes out in the market focused on heart rate training. Do I wish more people would train with heart rate monitors? - absolutely. Do the majority of people using heart rate monitors really understand the data? No way. You know how I can tell? They are in the red zone for 25, 30, and even 40 minutes. People are super focused on getting the best workout they can every time. The most calories - who can top 1,000 in a spin class? Who is most sore after a workout? And then they wonder why they don't see progress. The scale never changes. They aren't getting stronger. The tools are out there and reasonably priced, but you need to understand how to use them. You need to understand what the numbers mean.

I train at Vent Fitness on IC7 bikes with power. I love it because I can watch my watts, cadence, heart rate and more. I can see when I am gaining fitness and when I feel like I am working, but my heart rate is lower or my power abysmal. I know this changes and that I need to look at my workouts with a macro view as well as a micro view. Wednesday I ran the Veterans Day Dash. Good strong effort. I did not wear my heart rate monitor, but I was high 160s I am sure. The race was at 10 am. At noon I went to Vent to teach my power class. I did wear my heart rate monitor and watched watts. I could not come near the punches I normally get and my heart rate stayed lower in class. I had nothing in the tank to give at my normal level. I was OK with that knowing I had already had a hard push for the day. If I had tried to push into the red zone and hold it there as long as possible I would end up injured. My goal is to train smart. That means I have easy days and I have hard days. After the hard days I have recovery. It is during recovery that we get stronger, but that will be another lengthy post!

So what do you need to know to at least get started? You need to get reasonably accurate zones.

Maffetone – The Formula:

1) Subtract your age from 180
2) Modify this number by choosing below:
a. If you have or are recovering from a major illness or if you are on medication, subtract an additional 10
b. If you have not exercised before or have been exercising but have been injured, sick, going “down hill” or have asthma or allergies, subtract an additional 5
c. If you have been exercising for more than two years and making progress without any problems, add 5
d. If you have been exercising for up to two years without any significant problems, then keep the result of 180 – your age Next – Put the number to work:
This is your Maximum Aerobic Heart Rate number or a close approximation. Most exercisers do not have a big aerobic base, so this will be close on. If you have exercised for years to develop an aerobic base then this number might be low for you. In my case it is, but again that is because I have had a focus on building a big aerobic base (means for most people working out and feeling like they are doing nothing just to keep their HR down. As the base builds the HR will stay even and the pace gets faster). Aerobic base is where you are utilizing oxygen to create energy. (blue-green zone). The red zone is anaerobic.

THINKING POINTS:

• Anaerobic endurance activity is very stressful to the body, if done too soon (without an aerobic base) or too often, your health will suffer.
• Anaerobic activity is performed whenever you are working above your maximum aerobic heart rate, most types of weight lifting (regardless of HR), and racing.
• Do not exceed 3 anaerobic workouts per week, never back-to-back, never more than 5 weeks in an “anaerobic block”, and never over 90% of your MAX HR (not aerobic max), other than during short (20 second) sprints.

So what is the red zone and MaxHR? If your heart muscle is pumping at 70-75% of its maximum and your legs are pumping at only 20-25% of the maximum speed you can run, do you think your aerobic conditioning needs some adjusting?  Aerobic conditioning is all about how much oxygen each one of your red blood cells can carry. The reason well conditioned runners and cyclists have such low resting heart rates is because their red blood cells are carrying a lot of oxygen.  Their oxygen capacity is much higher. A less conditioned person won't transport as much oxygen on their red blood cell, in turn their aerobic capacity is lower. To get the same amount of oxygen to their muscles their heart has to be faster. Some people look in the mirror or at the scale to determine their fitness. Yes strength is important but if you are running, cycling, swimming, skiing, etc. then your need a strong aerobic engine.
MaxHR:

• 1) Maximum Heart Rate - Your Maximum Heart Rate (MaxHR) is the fastest your heart can beat in a minute. You need to get your true Max HR tested in a lab, but there are on-line calculators or test that you can do to get an approximation. That said they can be off by as much as 10 - 15 bpm!
• 2) Target Heart Rate - Your Target Heart Rate is a percentage of your MaxHR. Think about the graphics in gyms that shoe 60%, 80% and so on. These are target HRs. Depending on the type of training you are doing you will be in a different zone.  Some people use perceived exertion or the Borg Scale to figure out how hard they are working.
• 3) Recovery Heart Rate - Recovery Heart Rate is the change in your heart rate after you stop working out. Many watches will allow you to set this lower limit so that you can pay attention to how quickly you recover after a workout. This is another indicator of fitness. Watch for 1 - 2 minutes. If you do not have much change in your heart rates, you are not very fit (your heart still has to beat rapidly, even though you have stopped working out. ) To calculate your Recovery HR, take your heart rate 2 minutes after completing a workout. When working out in an aerobic zone, a common recovery heart rate is 20-30 beats per minute drop. The more fit the athlete the greater the drop.

FIGURING THE ZONES:

So if you are going to take classes that want you in a certain zone then you need to know how to calculate. A method I like is the Karvonen. This calculation takes into account your resting HR (your HR when you wake up in the morning before getting out of bed). I like this version because it takes gender into account along with resting HR. 
Some athletes can get up to 80% max and still be aerobic (use the talk test). After that you are in what studios are now calling the orange 80-90% and red 90-100% zones. Red zone is VO2max - maximum effort. You can be in the orange zone for up to 10 minutes. You will increase your performance capacity here and it will be muscularly and aerobically taxing (hence anaerobic zone cause you can't get enough in!). The red zone is for loading and unloading - hee hee. The red zone is where fit athletes train for short bursts to increase max ability (lass than 5 minutes). Another way I know people are not exercising in the red zone for 45 minutes is because when in the red zone your body is using glucose as fuel. You have about 2,000 or so calories stored at any time. If you go into a class and have not topped off your stores you can be damn sure your brain (which needs glucose and will stop all other function to get it) will cut you off before you run out.

You want your zones to be calculated correctly otherwise if you think you have burned 1,000 calories you may have only burned 700 (a portion of which you would burn sitting on your butt at work). So take the time to do a test - at Vent you can do a FTW test to calculate your power threshold, this will help you get HR zones too. There are a number of different field tests you can do to get your HR zones down and then you can use all this great data to your advantage! Or hire a coach and have them do the calculations for you and you can focus on the workouts!

I tell anyone who takes classes with me that we start losing muscle mass after the age of 30! That loss is called age-related sarcopenia. People who are physically inactive can lose as much as 3% to 5% of their muscle mass per decade after age 30. Even if you are active, you will still experience some muscle loss. You need real strength work just to maintain your current muscle mass. If you want to get stronger then you need a plan. I am in the boat of wanting/needing to get stronger and being on the losing it quickly age bracket. My boys on the other hand are on the growing and getting stronger every day side of the equation.

I strength train 3 days a week and use some of my run and cycling workouts to build strength. But lifting is only part of the equation. You have to supply your body with the tools to rebuild after a good workout. Did you know that as you age your body's ability to synthesize protein also declines. Ouch double whammy. The good news is that both aerobic exercise and resistance exercise enhance muscle protein synthesis. A study published by Dickinson and Rasmussen out of Arizona State University in 2013 says in the summary, "we argue that the capacity to stimulate skeletal muscle protein synthesis is preserved with age and when appropriate and targeted strategies are used, nutrition and exercise are capable catalysts for muscle protein anabolism in older adults and can serve to preserve/improve muscle size and function. In addition, distributing appropriate quantities of ingested protein throughout a given day and performing routine exercise may preserve the protein synthesis response of skeletal muscle and slow the progression of muscle atrophy. In particular, routine exercise serves to improve insulin sensitivity and the protein anabolic actions of insulin on skeletal muscle. Finally, the strategic coupling of exercise and nutrition also represents a practical strategy that has promise for restoring skeletal muscle size and function in those older adults who may already be at risk for the deleterious effects of sarcopenia, and this combination may be even more useful as a strategy to recover physical function in clinical aging populations." A mouthful, but basically we need to look at exercise (resistance and weight bearing aerobic) with nutrition to slow the aging process!

I stress to my boys (12 and 14) every day the need to balance out meals and always have protein. One runs daily, so his burn rate is as crazy high as high as his appetite is large! I am having trouble finding ways to keep him full. He loves his Power House Athletics protein powder and makes his own shake concoctions. His current favorite is vanilla protein powder, vanilla almond milk, a banana, and Reece's PB cups! He doesn't do that all the time - just as dessert! He knows that after a good workout he needs to get in a 4:1 or 3:1 carb:protein snack.

I decided to try some whey protein powder that I could add to pancakes, muffins and other meals to make sure we are getting the right balance at each meal. Today's lunch was egg salad (2 whites and one yolk), mashed avocado, and a teaspoon of powder. I am a self professed carb loader, so even when I think I am doing well I can still end the day with 60% carbs!

Other ideas I found were adding to guacamole, hummus or black bean dip - sounds reasonable to me and would be an easy post school/workout snack for the guys. A scoop in my morning oatmeal. I made it this morning, but forgot to try, so will give it a go tomorrow and maybe gt back into adding a scoop of pumpkin as well. Some various types of protein powder in waffles and pancakes. I am not sure I would change the tried and true recipe for sourdough pancakes, but a little protein boost in our decadent buttermilk waffles would be good.

A couple of recipes I found said substitute a 1/4 of whey or soy protein powder for flour in muffin recipes. A nice counter to the chocolate chips I put in our whole wheat banana muffins! So how do you boost the protein or even add protein to your meals to keep them balanced?

Just to throw another curve ball at you - did you know that certain drugs block or slow protein synthesis in the body.
Ibuprofen, antibiotics, and alcohol! For those who like the data here is a study that was done to look at exercise followed by a good protein/carb recovery and ingesting alcohol post workout.  To be fair there are also studies that say NSAIDs do not affect protein synthesis, but to be on the safe side I try to stay away! (this study also found that they did not help with muscle soreness, so why bother any way)