Lactic acid in the muscles is known by those people who exercise but many do not know what it is and how it can be remedied for this effect, which generally manifests itself with burning in the muscles during training. Let’s see how.
To many of us it will have happened that after an intense workout our muscles are sore and sore by feeling for example the heavy legs with difficulty walking or the arms with difficulty bending them.
The lactic acid in the legs is the most common because being big muscles need proper training and just prolonged rest with the next heavy workout or a change of training methods to make sure that the’ lactic acid to form and experience pain or muscle soreness during or shortly after training.
All this happens when we carry out an intense effort where with prolonged contractions of the muscles the oxygen supply is reduced leading to a production of lactic acid greater than what our body is able to dispose of (the so-called anaerobic threshold ) where it will remain in our muscles before to be brought from the blood to the liver to be converted into glucose.
The lactic acid manifests as burning during the workout while micro trauma experiencing muscle fibers used for that effort (so called DOMS), will manifest with muscle soreness and pain in the days following, which does not allow us to do those activities everyday life that seems trivial such as walking, climbing stairs, getting in and out of the car, running after our son, getting out of bed etc.
In reality, the production of lactic acid is a defense mechanism to protect the body from excessive fatigue and usually the “disposal” takes place within a few hours while, as mentioned, the pain felt in the following days is caused by micro traumas.
Let’s see now what are the remedies for post-workout muscle pain and some tips to help dispose of lactic acid faster. Remember that lactic acid, in a trained person, is disposed of by the body in a few hours, however there are remedies that can help prevent excessive formation and speed up its disposal.
✓ Hot bath against muscle pain
A cure-all after excessive effort. A warm bath helps to relax, to relax the muscles, to loosen the joints. Bathing in a tub should always be done after a sporting competition or intense effort because the heat will lead to greater blood flow in the areas affected by soreness.
It is also advisable to dissolve one or two tablespoons of bicarbonate in the water: the muscles will be already looser and the skin will also be more toned. Another tip we give you is to put rosemary needles or simply vinegar in the tub. Even simple coarse cooking salt (inexpensive and easy to take), can help to cool down the muscular system by releasing all tensions, thus also helping to counteract soreness.
✓ Ice packs
An ice pack used for a few minutes can bring relief to areas of pain. To make connective tissues work at their best, it is good to take breaks between one compress and another.
For muscle toning, another tip is to fill a tub with ice and water. This method is used a lot by football teams, for example when they are on a summer retreat in the mountains where after a very intense workout, they immerse their legs totally inside a stream or a river.
✓ Drinking water helps to dispose of lactic acid
It is not to be underestimated how important it is to drink so much water. And absolutely it is after excessive physical exertion. To help eliminate lactic acid in the muscles, it is very important to introduce liquids after a muscular effort that leads to a lot of sweating. The intake of liquids as mineral salt supplements for sports or simply natural water is a very valid natural and effective remedy to eliminate lactic acid waste in a short time.
✓ Take fruit rich in potassium
To facilitate the elimination of lactic acid, our body needs food such as green leafy vegetables, preferably raw, fasting fruit and citrus juices, possibly lemon. After training it would be best to consume fruits such as dehydrated bananas and apricots, which are rich in potassium.
✓ Creatine intake
Taking creatine, a substance already present in our body, will help our body and muscle contraction to ensure that our energy expenditure is not so great as to allow lactic acid to form.
✓ Counter lactic acid with magnesium
The intake of magnesium will also help to help in the disposal of lactic acid waste, a substance that can be found in foods such as almonds and spinach or in ready-made sachets associated with potassium. This combination is widely used for the prevention of post-race muscle cramps.
✓ Purify the liver
As we have seen, the liver is responsible for the absorption of this substance. To help him in his work and speed up the disposal of lactic acid, we therefore add to our diet those foods that stimulate the activity of the liver such as tomatoes and all foods rich in vitamin A, vitamin C and vitamin E. Eliminate all those instead heavy foods and enemies of the liver such as coffee, fried foods, grilled meat and saturated fat. In short, purifying the liver helps eliminate lactic acid and you will see that the whole body will also say thank you!
How to reduce lactic acid formation and prevent post-workout pain
An excessive accumulation of lactic acid is responsible for the soreness felt during exertion and fatigue, thus making it difficult to continue with training. Prevention is obtained through appropriate training, proper nutrition and adequate management of the activity phase, always preceded by warm-up and relative stretching and followed by cool-down.
As often happens, in fact, lactic acid in the muscles is formed when we go to do an activity that we haven’t done for some time, like going for a run after weeks, doing squats in the gym after a long time, etc. The body’s ability to make up for physical exertion therefore depends on training.
The athletic preparation to prevent the formation of lactic acid must be studied and programmed for each person according to his age, preparation and lean mass (the muscular one), generally with aerobic and anaerobic workloads which are slowly increasing considering however intermediate periods of adaptation that allow the muscles to get used to the jobs they are subjected to.
Therefore, inside the training or simply if you find yourself having to do a simple jog, we advise you to perform 15 minutes of warm-up with high skip gaits and with stretching where you will stretch the affected muscles for 30 seconds each more than once, the same will be true if you have to perform weight lifting exercises in the gym.
At the end of the activity we advise you to do some more stretching to stretch the muscles that will be contracted and tired; for example after a run do not stop immediately, but go for a walk. Once this is done, do some stretching again to bring the muscle to a state of well-being and by stretching the muscles well. These exercises will also help prevent post workout cramps and pain.
