Blood lactate parameters related to aerobic capacity and endurance performance

The relationships among four descriptors of lactate increase: lactate threshold (LT) (the VO2 at which blood lactate concentration begins to increase above the resting level during an incremental exercise test), LT1 (the VO2 at which blood lactate increases 1 mM above the resting level), LT2 (the VO2 at which blood lactate concentration reaches a fixed value of 2 mM), onset of blood lactate accumulation (OBLA; the VO2 at which blood lactate reaches a concentration of 4 mM), were compared with aerobic capacity (VO2max) and 12 min running performance in 19 untrained female students. The VO2 (+/- SD) of LT, LT1, LT2, OBLA, and VO2max were 14.5 +/- 3.7 ml X kg-1 X min-1, 22.5 +/- 4.3 ml X kg-1 X min-1, 22.2 +/- 4.5 ml X kg-1 X min-1, 30.3 +/- 5.2 ml X kg-1 X min-1 and 36.0 +/- 5.1 ml X kg-1 X min-1, respectively. The mean (+/- SD) distance covered in the 12 min running was 2356 +/- 160 m. The results were as follows: 1) the lactate parameters (i.e. LT, LT1, LT2, and OBLA) were highly correlated with each other. 2) all the lactate parameters were related to VO2max and endurance running performance with a high correlation coefficient. Of the four descriptors of lactate change with exercise, LT correlated best with VO2max and endurance running performance compared to LT1, LT2 and OBLA. It is concluded that lactate threshold is the best index for aerobic capacity and endurance running performance.