How to Improve Lactate Threshold

Along with your VO2Max, your lactate threshold is the main physical factor that limits running speed and endurance. It is essentially the limit of your body's ability to deal with the lactic acid produced by your muscles during exercise. If yours is too low, you'll find yourself feeling tired and lead-legged sooner than you should.

Difficulty: Moderately Easy

Instructions

1. Increase your overall exercise volume before trying workouts designed to target your lactate threshold, especially if you're new to working out.

2. Run for 20 to 30 minutes at your lactate threshold pace. This pace should be slower than your VO2Max pace, so don't be tempted to run too fast. Also, aim to keep your heart rate somewhere between 85 to 90 percent of its maximum.

3. Try some interval training. To do this, alternate between hard running and easy jogging, switching intensity every few minutes or so. If you've never done intervals before, don't do more than one or two sessions for the first few weeks.

4. Add a little muscle to your frame with strength training. A large muscle working at a medium intensity will generate less lactic acid than a small muscle working at a high intensity, so strength training can be beneficial even for those trying to stay light for whatever reason.

5. Try to focus on training that favors the development of your slow-twitch muscle fibers, since fast-twitch muscle fibers produce more lactic acid than slow-twitch fibers. You can even get some of your fast-twitch fibers to function more like slow-twitch fibers with the right training, which for the purposes of raising your lactate threshold is good news.

Tips & Warnings

• If you're an exercise junkie, don't push too hard on your off-days between interval or tempo workouts, as this can lead to over training and can really set you back in the long run in terms of making lasting gains in fitness.

Who Can Help:

• Tired of Being Tired? Fight Fatigue and Try FRS for FREE!