THE CORI CYCLE

THE CORI CYCLE

For years, during high intensity activity lactate or lactic acid in the blood is blamed for that burning sensation and not being able to maintain those intensities. While there's mild truth to it, lactate is not the enemy. It's a by-product of energy production during glycolysis under anaerobic conditions. Our bodies actually use this formed lactate as energy during this glycolysis cycle. Pyruvate is converted into lactate. This lactate is transported in the blood towards the liver where it is converted again to pyruvate for use in gluconeogenesis - the production of new glucose molecules from non-carbohydrate sources. At this point, glycolysis can start again.

​A fantastic example of how our bodies are fine tuned machines. Once we have generated new glucose molecules in the liver and the demand for energy is still high, these new glucose molecules are transported back to the muscle cells for use in glycolytic energy production. The cycles begin again.

However, if at this moment there is no demand for energy, the new glucose molecules are converted to glycogen and stored for use at a later date.

This is a perfect example of how lactate is not the enemy, but we must train our bodies to be better equipped to deal with higher levels of lactate in the cells and improve our ability to transport it out of the muscles cells.

It's also an example at how we can manipulate training variables so that we don't incur a build up of lactate during training. Sometimes fatigue isn't a desirable outcome and we want to extend the duration and the quality of our sessions. This is where things like Tempo training come in handy and should be utilised more in team sports.