Arnica topical gel and a bottle of chocolate milk. You are just sore and the arnica will really help with that. The milk will aid in recovering what you spent riding and the chocolate just tastes good. I also use chocolate protein powder (from Trader Joes) too.

Today i took a long 3 hour ride, it was pretty good. I stretch a while and work a little on the rollers at home. I think i've goten better.

The whole point is that the OP's blood chemistry is (may be) abnormally acidic to begin with. The pH is not normal. Blood pH is primarily modulated by a carbonate buffer system, meaning roughly that blood pH is primarily controlled by CO2. IF you suddenly disrupt the buffer system by dumping a bunch of H+ ions into the bloodstream (making it more acidic), the body will naturally adjust by increasing respiratory rate. This decreases the partial pressure of dissolved CO2 in the bloodstream, which makes your blood more basic, which will counteract lower blood pH. Respiratory compensation (hyperventilation) for low blood pH is well-documented [1] [2] [3] in the medical community; there's even special types of compensatory breathing. Link #1 actually causally links hyperventilation, as a way of increasing blood pH, to exercise-induced metabolic acidosis.

I actually agree with you, the odds are highly unlikely that this is a blood pH problem. But you have to get your facts straight before dishing out advice.

Where do i come from? I'm an EMT with a degree in physical science.

OP, i'm glad you're feeling better.

I've seen this baking soda method before, and I think it's dubious at best.

first off, baking soda CHNaO3 can behave as both acid or base. You can use baking soda to neutralize both acids and bases.

secondly, this is going inside your stomach, and your stomach acid would be neutralized, but it's not like your stomach is connected directly to your blood stream. All nutrients are absorbed in your small intestines, not your stomach.

thirdly, and probably most importantly, the H+ ions in the blood stream, which is what causes the blood to acidify, are filtered out in your kidneys, along with water, urea, ammonia and other wastes of your body. Now, it's true, that someone who has exercised a lot will have a high level of H+ ions in their pee, but the body does an excellent job at keeping the pee from coming back into the body.


So, unless you directly inject baking soda into your blood stream, I doubt its acid neutralizing process will aid in the blood stream. Now, what you do get with baking soda, however, is a lot of sodium and sodium does help replace electrolytes that your body sweats away. and besides, carbonated drinks are slightly acidic too with carbonic acid (H2CO3), and you might realize that's quite similar to carbonate, but you don't see anyone recommending those drinks for sports, now do you?

Well, okay, the carbonated drinks are loaded with sugars, but not very high on carbonic acid or sodium.


carbonic acid and bicarbonate do play a vital role in regulating blood pH balance, but the main problem with baking soda is the amount of sodium it contains. High levels of sodium are not healthy to your kidneys and that's what kidney stones are made out of.

what's interesting is that this is all taught in gr.12 biology.

I once put baking soda in someone's milk on accident.

nogood.

So i did some research (quick google scholar search) and, crazy enough, ingesting baking soda does seem to affect blood pH. Paper 1, Paper 2, Paper 3.

Unfortunately all the subjects wound up either dead or in the emergency room.

wow, now that's crazy.
hmm, so I wonder, since we eat so many acids, like citric fruits and juices, does this mean they're no good to eat during excersize?

Lactic acid buildup is a result of low levels of oxygen in your blood, and when there is a low concentration oxidative phosphorylation cannot occur. Without oxidative phosphorylation, the product of glycolysis (pyruvate) does not go through the krebs cycle, but goes through lactic acid fermentation, which creates lactic acid, ATP, and substrates for glycolysis to continue. So stop feeding yourself baking soda and breath while you're riding your bike..

Yay!

Oh wait, Adenosine Triphosphate...not the festival. :disappointed:

Just get a good leg massage.

If you're an EMT, you should know that your body won't change it's blood pH by hyperventalating. You will either a) stop, and blood CO2/pH levels will return to normal or b) pass out when your body decides it doesn't need to breath due to low blood CO2 and your blood CO2/pH levels will return to normal. You can't change your bodys pH levels like that. The OP doesn't have blood pH problems, he ripped his leg muscles and needs to recover properly.

Go back and read, not skim, the massive acid base chapter again. You are embarrassing your profession.

Again, i agree with you that the OP's problem is not blood pH imbalance, but for christ's sake, learn what a carbonate buffer system is before you say anything else. FFS.

protein recovery drink + nap

quoting Pollak, A.N. (ed), Emergency: Care and Transportation of the Sick and Injured, 9th ed., pp. 376-377:

I stand by my words. I read elsewhere that you're a paramedic; perhaps you're privy to some secret ALS knowledge about acid-base buffers within the blood and tissues. Let me know if that's the case.

Respiratory acidosis vs metabolic. That excerpt horribly lumps them together.

Ah that. Check this out, though (was link #1 in an earlier post). Respiratory compensation for metabolic acidosis.

Chocolate milk. Seriously. It's a good, simple recovery drink. Not something you wanna drink directly after a training ride or running a 5K if you dont wanna paint your shoes brown but it'll work just fine for almost any kind of lactic acid buildup/muscle-recovery. Every member of my rowing team as well as myself kept to this after races and erg tests and we managed medaling at youth nationals so there has to be some truth to this

.

anything else anyone mentions is not the healthiest/natural/right way to do it. you should do some sort of active recovery after any workout. don't go mashing for 30 min and sit down

Dude, you're grasping for straws here. Someone with a chronic illness or an acute illness/injury can have long term blood pH distruption, but you can't change it long-term by hyperventilation. If you try, you will eventually pass out, and your bodys autonomic reflexes will take over and restore proper pH levels. As soon as you stop hyperventilating, your blood pH will return to normal. Lactic acidosis has to do with anaerobic respiration, not blood pH levels. You need to go back to school and study up. Look here:
https://www.chemistry.wustl.edu/~cour...s/carbonic.htm

The OP has leg pain following an accident and self-diagnosis it as mystery lactic acid buildup and retention, and everyone believes him?

I suspect he has an undiagnosed back injury with referred pain to his thighs.

I have a history of extreme exercise, far beyond anything the OP has reported, and, frankly, I recovered every day.

I don't buy the OP's story.

i love forums because threads like these go off topic 99.8% of the time. Evilcry fatigued his muscles because he overworked them without sufficient rest. latic acid/lactate is not the reason for it, take your argument to a physio forum.

/thread

now let this die.

edit:
actually, let this live. i find humor in physio arguments.

If you have a gym membership, I favor spending some time relaxing in the suana and whirlpool. That seems to help me keep it at bay. I have been real sore before. When I was 15, 16, and started working out really hard at the gym. I was in good shape and young. But I had no idea what I was doing. When you get sore, it can be really bad. To painfull to fully extend your arm or leg, and it can last for days, a week, or more. When it does go away, and it will, focus on prevention. Mainly, a cool down period followed by streching at the end of your ride. And don't push yourself to the max only to be home fast asleep in the same hour.

1) I think you may still be under the assumption that i still believe the OP's problem to be acid imbalance. I don't. If you'll recall, i saidI then suggested stretching and cooldowns. I felt that a discussion of methods to reduce blood pH would help clarify misunderstandings about blood pH in this discussion, namely yours and the OP's. But, if you assumed that i was suggesting the OP do this now, like a week after he exercised, i understand your confusion. I was suggesting he do this post-exercise, like the stretching and cooldowns, if and only if his leg problems were due to some sort of metabolic acidosis.

2) "Anaerobic respiration" is something that blue-green algae does. I think you mean "anaerobic metabolism." Also, lactic acidosis has everything to do with blood pH levels, since by definition it's low blood pH in body tissues, along with accumulation of lactate.

3) I think what's going on is that you're doing what warnette was talking about earlier, namely confusing metabolic acidosis with respiratory acidosis. The former is caused by bodily processes, e.g. anaerobic metabolism, and the latter is caused by hypoventilation. What i've been talking about all along is respiratory compensation for metabolic acidosis, i.e. the increase of respiratory rate to help return body pH to normal. This process is well-documented.

4) Your excerpt actually demonstrates what i'm saying. Namely, this partis exactly what i was saying earlier. If you increase the rate of respiration, you increase the rate of CO2 exchange, thus raising blood pH. Now yes, increased heart rate tends to mitigate CO2 exchange in the lungs, but i never claimed hyperventilation was the most efficient respiratory compensation mechanism for metabolic acidosis, only that it was one.

Since we seem to be agreement, or at least i'm in agreement with your source, i'd call this case closed. Hope you learned something valuable today!

Not quite: