World-class endurance athletes and their trainers are constantly seeking new ways to improve performance and endurance without running afoul of the organizations that monitor their sport or sacrificing their health. At such an elite level, improvements measured by fractions of a second can be quite significant so triathletes and other types of endurance athletes examine every aspect of diet, training, sleep patterns and other factors to gain a competitive edge. Thanks to innovative research on how our bodies manufacture lactic acid and process it, endurance athletes and their trainers now have a much better understanding of how to prepare for elite competitions.

Best of all, their decisions are based on hard scientific evidence instead of anecdotal evidence and supposition. Over the last several years, several sports supplements have been developed to help prevent lactic acid buildup in muscle tissue during intense exercise by including compounds that act as lactic acid buffers. This overview of how lactic acid buffers help reduce lactic acid buildup from impairing performance and endurance during intense workouts has been demonstrated in a double-blind, placebo-controlled, crossover study.

How Lactic Acid is Produced and Processed by the Human Body

When the muscle cells in an endurance athlete’s body need fuel, they convert glycogen or glucose into lactic acid. Next, each muscle cell’s mitochondria, the power plant of a cell, burns lactic acid for fuel. Specific types of proteins called "transporter proteins" expedite the delivery of lactic acid, also called lactate, to each cell’s mitochondria through a network of tiny tubes throughout the cell. Through proper training, an endurance athlete like a triathlete can gradually improve the rate at which lactic acid is burned for fuel in their body so it doesn’t accumulate in their muscle tissue and impair performance, endurance, and cause them to "hit the wall."

How Lactic Acid Buffers Work

Buffers are substances that help prevent any solution, such as blood or the fluid in muscle tissue, from undergoing a change in pH when introducing an acid, such as lactic acid, or alkali. In order to illustrate how lactic acid buffers work and help an endurance athlete stay competitive, it is helpful to have a basic understanding of the physiology and biochemistry of the human body.

The lungs and kidneys work together to maintain a pH of 7.4 in blood by altering the components of naturally occurring buffers. If the blood’s pH becomes too acid or alkali with pH’s as low as 7.0 or as high as 7.8, the body’s buffers can no longer compensate for the extreme conditions and systems begin to fail one after the other. There are four major buffering systems in the human body:

Biocarbonate buffers found in the blood’s plasma correct the equilibrium shift that occurs when a surplus of lactic acid in muscle tissue creates an abundance of excess hydrogen ions.

Hemoglobin in red blood cells acts as a buffer to byproducts and other threats to the pH balance in blood. For instance, when glucose is broken down into fuel by muscle cells and converted to lactic acid, the byproducts created are carbon dioxide and excess hydrogen ions.

Phosphate buffers are essential for buffering the pH of fluid in cells and are especially important for buffering urine in the kidneys. Protein buffers also buffer the effects of excess hydrogen ions created when glucose converts in lactic acid. Protein buffers primarily buffer the pH of fluid inside cells.

Lactic Acid Buffers such as Magnesium and Potassium

Many sports supplements include magnesium and potassium in their formulas because these two substances, along with a lesser amount of sodium, help regulate fluids in cells, especially muscle cells, and help equalize or buffer the blood’s pH. Potassium levels maintained in a ratio of 5:1 to sodium help regulate water retention in our bodies and prevent too much potassium from voiding as waste in urine. Potassium protects against kidney damage, strokes and high blood pressure.

Only within the last two decades has magnesium’s importance in maintaining proper pH and overall health been understood. Research has found that magnesium is essential for facilitating the storage of potassium in our bodies. Without magnesium, the human body cannot store potassium. When triathletes and other endurance athletes take sports supplements that contain recommended dosages of potassium and magnesium, the amount of sodium removed from the body increases, as does the amount of excess fluids. These minerals are not only essential to proper health and balance, they also facilitate the body’s ability to buffer and quickly process the lactic acid created during strenuous exercise.

Whether you’re an elite endurance athlete or a weekend warrior, taking a sports supplement with lactic acid buffers such as potassium and magnesium is not only a good way to gain a competitive edge, it is also essential for overall health!