Thursday, March 8, 2012

Burning Legs and Vomit

If you ever wondered why your muscles begin to burn when you workout hard, today is the day you find out! When you exercise your body gets the energy from carbs by breaking the chemical bonds of glucose molecules. The result of breaking these bonds is energy as well as free floating hydrogen ions left over. These hydrogen ions build up in your muscle, and so something needs to remove them so you don't have a build up of lactic acid and get that burning or tingling sensation. The hydrogen ions attach to pyruvate and are then pulled into the blood to buy your muscles some time. Lactic acid is not garbage however, it can be converted back to glucose and used as a source of energy for your body. Your blood can only handle so much, so when it is full and can't keep up with the amount of free hydrogen ions you are releasing into the muscle, you get the burning sensation. This is also why you may vomit when you work out hard. Your blood can only handle taking in so much of this lactic acid, and then your body reacts by inducing vomiting. In order to improve your ability to manage lactic acid you have to train your body to take in more oxygen to your muscles and blood - you need to increase your VO2 max. You do this through cardio training. You focus on your aerobic system, not your anaerobic system. Now you know why your legs burn and you just vomited!