Lactate after exercise in man: I. Evolution kinetics in arterial blood.

Arterial and venous blood lactate concentrations were measured at 10 or 30 s time intervals before, during, and after several types of muscular exercise on an ergocycle in a sitting or supine position. Arterial blood lactate concentration curves over the recovery period were found to fit a biexponential time function including a rapidly increasing and a slowly decreasing component, even during active recovery at approximately 40% VO2 max exercise. The velocity constants were dependent on the exercise load. They were also linearly related to each other. The time of lactate disappearance during recovery increased with the work load.