No. of Recommendations: 3
"Lactic acid is the stuff that makes your muscles hurt and fatigue when you exercise. Phelps' body apparently produces far less than his competitors' do."
Anybody can, over time, improve the way in which their body handles lactic acid buildup. And
everybody, if they push past their anaerobic ( sans oxygen ) threshold, generates lactic acid in their body.
The world class athletes like Phelps have obsessively trained their body to raise their anaerobic
threshold to as high of a physical exertion point as possible, which allows them to push at what seems to be a superhuman level to the rest of us mere mortals. I do xc ski races, and if I stay past the point of my individual anaerobic threshold for too long, my entire body will eventually cramp up, and the only way to clear it is to stop, or be just barely moving. I've had that happen a couple of times, when pushing at too hard of a pace over a 17 mile race. It is very painful, but no lasting ill effects.The trick to being able to exert yourself for long periods of time is to stay just below the anaerobic threshold. But you can train that threshold point to a higher exertion level.
These world class athletes like Phelps have been genetically blessed, but they also work insanely hard at their sport. They truly are fine tuned machines. The rest of us can become fine tuned machines, too, if we're willing to put in the suffering ( training, lol ), but it won't be enough to beat out a superior athlete that is also willing to ride the pain train on a regular basis.
