A new 3-point method to determine lactate curve kinetics - Part 1.

Busse M1, Schulze A1, Strauchmeier J, Falz R1, Thomas M1, Bischoff C1

1 Institute of Sports Medicine, University of Leipzig (Prof. M. Busse, MD)

Summary

Busse M, Schulze A, Strauchmeier J, Falz R, Thomas M, Bischoff C. A new 3-point method to determine lactate curve kinetics - Part 1. Clinical Sports Medicine International (CSMI) 2014, 7: 21-23

Purpose: To compare accuracy of lactate curves determined by multiple points or a new 3-point method.

Materials and methods: 10 male students participated in 2 running tests as part of a master thesis. Test 1 (multiple points) was a usual incremental treadmill test (blood samples at rest and every 3 min). Test 2 (3-points) was a football specific track running test (800 m warm up, followed by a number of high intensity intervals; blood samples at rest, after 800 m and after the last high intensity run). Since lactate curves are assumed to follow an exponential pattern, multiple points and 3-points curves were plotted as linear semi-logarithmic graphs.

Results: The increments of both methods are similar without statistical differences. So despite different test procedures both methods revealed similar lactate/running speed relationships.

Conclusion: This is a first study with a very small number of participants. Yet the results suggest that basic lactate curves may be derived from football specific track tests. If these results could be confirmed in a representative number of subjects, lactate curves could be assessed much more easily in the future.

Keywords: lactate curves