With me training for a half-marathon, I have been sore and stiff due to my training sessions.

Through my years of being an athlete when I was younger and lifting and running now in my 20s; I was under a belief that my soreness was due to lactic Acid; in reality, there is more than Lactic Acid involved.

Lactic Acid occurs due to the of lack of oxygen during the breakdown of Glucose called Glycolysis within the muscle (Kraemer, W., Fleck, S.; Deschenes, M; 2012, p. 34).

But they are one of four ways that are typically all involved with Muscle Soreness and Lactic Acid is just one of them.

Another way we get muscle soreness is because of damage to the sacrolemma, the membrane of a muscle cell, and to the sacrolemma reticulum, which is like the Endoplasmic reticulum(ER and Rough ER) of cells that we learned back in high school Biology class that helps clear out the cell (Martin, F; Nath, J; Bartholomew, E. 2012, p. 307, G-9, G-18).

The third and fourth reasons stem from an lowered pH-level within the muscle fiber that would eventually negatively effect the Calcium ions and enzyme activity of the muscle fibers. Not to mention the heighteness of our pain awarness due to low blood pH as well as pain from the brain (Martin, F, et al. p. 308).

Lower pH, from blood or plasma means either or is more acidic. Think of it as it as more “acid” in the system. Average pH is 7.4-7.6 for humans.

Now our bodies can heal overtime as well as recycle and remove these lactic acid molecules via the liver or to combined it with oxygen to correct the Glycosis system and to raise our pH-level.

I learned this during the 2012-2013 school year while I was finishing my Health and PE degree and it help me understand what our body does while training. But of course, the burn feels good because you are pushing your body further.

Jeremy McDonald received a B.S. in Journalism from Southern Oregon University in 2011 and currently is finishing up his B.S. in Health and Physical Education from Southern Oregon University. He is currently a Sports Correspondent for Gold Country Media.

Sources:
Martin, F; Nath, J; Bartholomew, E. (2012) “Fundamentals of Anatomy and Physiology 9th Edition”. San Francisco, CA. Pearson Bejamin Cummings. p. 307, G-9, G-18.

Kraemer, W., Fleck, S.; Deschenes, M; (2012) Exercise Physiology: Intergrating Theory and Application.” Philadelphia, PA. Lippincott Williams and Willkins at Two Common Squares. p. 34