ABSTRACT
A soccer player's capacity to perform repetitive high intensity exercise during a match might be crucial for the final outcome. During such exercise anaerobic energy is provided from the splitting of endogenous energy-rich phosphagens (i.e. intramuscular stores of adenosine triphoshate (ATP) and creatine phosphate (CP)) and from glycolysis which leads to lactate production even during exercise of short duration (Boobis, 1987). High blood lactate concentrations have been observed during soccer matches, and the question is whether these impair performance (Ekblom, 1986; Gerisch and Rutemoller, 1988; Bangsbo et al., 1991). Within the sports community, it is taken as a fact that lactate accumulation is the cause of the perceived fatigue during high intensity exercise. Based on several recent investigations, an exclusive role of lactate and pH may not be that obvious (Sjogaard et al., 1985; Juel et al., 1990). For soccer players the time needed to recover from high intensity exercise should be as short as possible. It is well known that low intensity exercise accelerates lactate disappearance from the blood (Hermansen and Stensvold, 1972). However, the influence of such exercise on muscle lactate concentration and on subsequent performance is not well established.
