Question

Lactate concentration in the blood rises rapidly during hard running. After running, the blood concentration drops slowly. Describe why the lactate concentration increases and why it decreases.

Answer 1

During hard running body require enegry in high amount. Energy stored as ATP in skeletal muscle is used for this . But the demand is so high that ATP in skeletal muscle will not be sufficient. Within initial few seconds of running the stored ATP will be finished. The energy stored in glycogen is released from skeletal sysytem as glucose into the blood to produce more ATP to satisfy the demand. the system experience shortage of oxygen during hard running that cause the fast anaerobic glycolysis to occur resulting in the formation of lactic acid. The lactate can produce energy anaerobically. Thus lactic acid in blood increases and reach into a threshold point. This occur for a short period of time after which fatigue weakens the muscle. Thus the slowing down of intense activity lead to again the aerobic metabolism and removal of lactate from blood occur.Thus the concentration of lactate falls