Nausea after Repeated Sprints: Is Lactic Acidosis Really the Culprit?

Introduction: Nausea caused by exhaustive sprinting is associated with high lactate ([La-]) and hydrogen ion concentrations ([H+]) and fall in blood pCO2, thus raising the issue of whether there is a causal link between nausea and these variables. For this reason, this study aimed to determine whether interspersing repeated sprints (RS) with periods of active, compared with passive, recovery results in lower levels of both nausea and changes in [La-], [H+], and pCO2.

Methods: Twelve male participants completed two separate sessions comprising four 30-s sprints separated by 20 min of either active (AR; cycling at 40% V˙O2peak) or passive recovery (PR).