Fire Up that Metabolism, Feel the Burn!

Jefferson Squat

 You all know the feeling, you are working out, halfway through the exercise and you feel the BURN.......All these thoughts start racing through your head....You begin to think to yourself, is this pain normal, is this self-imposed punishment worth it, where am I, why am I here? All of these questions, depending on what you're doing at that present moment, are probably logical.  In regards to the is this worth it and is this normal, the answers are YES and YES.
Let's talk about the role of Lactate and specifically an interestingly, cool form of weighted-resistance training known as Lactate Training.

Ladies and Gents, when we put our bodies under the stress of

Deadlift

exercise, it must have an energy pathway producing energy to get our
muscles moving.  There are 3 different pathways that operate both together and independently.  The first is ATP energy production, which happens for about the first 20 seconds of any movement.  It fades quickly and the body transitions into the glycolytic or Anaerobic energy pathway.  This pathway is good for about 2 minutes of work and if we are still continuously moving, the body moves into the next method of energy production, the Aerobic pathway, which is the preferred energy system for endurance exercises like running, swimming, or cycling.  These are vague, quick explanations, but fine for some background info.

Stability Ball Shoulder Press

Now, back to lactate.  Intense exercise will quickly max out the aerobic physiology, forcing your body into anaerobic energy production.  We need energy faster than our bodies can adequately deliver oxygen; so, the muscles generate energy anaerobically breaking down glycogen molecules into pyruvate, which eventually becomes lactate.  We have heard of lactic acid before, but actually, lactic acid was first found in dairy milk (Lactic Acid, AKA, Milk Acid).  Lactate is the actual compound produced in human metabolism.  During intense exercise, the aerobic capacity becomes "cashed out", hydrogen ions from the breakdown of ATP energy begin to accumulate in the muscle cells.  These hydrogen ions are actually the culprit for the burn that you feel in the muscles, not lactic acid buildup, as we commonly thought or heard! These hydrogen ions cause the pH of the cell to become more acidic, thus the "BURN" (acidosis).  The lactate is actually the "good guy, " grabbing the rouge hydrogen ion and buffering against the pH change, reducing damage.

Split-Squat

During "power" exercises, when the demand for energy is higher, lactate is produced faster than the tissues ability to remove it.  The lactate concentration in the bloodstream rises.  Why is this beneficial, you are asking? What does this mean for my muscles and body metabolism? Science has shown us that there is a direct link between lactate and Human Growth Hormone (HGH).  HGH plays a huge role for burning or metabolizing fat for energy production.  Actually, lactate is a chief promoter of 2 powerful muscle building and fat burning hormones, Testosterone and HGH.  This increases lean muscle mass and decreases fat mass.  Your muscles will tone up and the energy production required will strip fat away.  This is what you want, this is WHY you workout, the desire for a more comfortable, more efficient body (that looks good and fits into your flashy clothes)!

Tricep Floor Press

OK, what you've been waiting for......the recipe on how to do Lactate Training:

• Do Compound Movements, ones that involve multiple muscle groups like the pictures you see here.  Do these as opposed to isolation exercises (bicep curls) or machines.  Compound movements are well-suited for fat burning because they require many burnt calories to accomplish the movement.  You work more muscles, burn more calories all in one complex movement.  WIN WIN!
• Take it SLOW through the movement.  3 to 5 seconds through the concentric or action phase of the movement (e.g. the upward press on bench press), Pause, then 3 seconds on the eccentric or negative phase of the movement (the return to the starting point of the exercise).  Take it slow through 12 to 15 repetitions, concentrating on proper form.  Because these are slower reps, you will want to use a lighter weight during the set. Minimize rest between sets to only about 10 to 15 seconds during the circuit.   Depending on the number of exercises in your circuit, you will want to complete the circuit 3 to 5 times total.
• Short rest intervals between circuits.  Rest no longer than 75 seconds between your circuits.  If you rest too long, the oxygen you breath will clear the lactate from the bloodstream.

Lactate Training = Slow reps, long sets, with short rest

Stability Ball Hamstring Curl

The take home message is this:  Lactate Training will ignite your fat burning metabolism (because of the HGH correlation), and after weight training, this furnace will run on high all day long (even when you're kicked back on the couch watching Fraiser or filling out TPS reports at the J.O.B.)  But remember, you have to work your entire body and stay away from isolation exercises.  We want to keep that heart-rate pumping during this workout.  Don't get caught chatting it up with Joe Blow about how bad NBA basketball sucks or grabbing digits from the opposite sex, you're there to WORK! So, get to it!

Side Note: Unfortunately, aerobic exercise doesn't boost the metabolism post-workout like weight-training does.  Don't get me wrong, I like to run a few miles and do some races, but you have to diversify your fitness with some weight-training.  Mix it up, your body will thank you and working out will be more fun in the long run.

Get out there, MOVE, enhance and embrace the BURN!