When you train, you have mechanical stress (i.e., muscle tension) and metabolic stress—the infamous painful, burning sensation you experience (especially from relatively longer sets with constant tension on the target muscles).

The burning sensation is a result of increasing acidity in the muscles due to hydrogen (H+) ions (and while not technically correct, this is commonly referred to as lactic acid, and we’ll use that terminology for the remainder of this article) that are produced by your body’s glycolytic energy system1.

The longer we sustain exercise, especially with constant tension on the target muscle, the more lactic acid accumulates in the muscle cells, and the cells become increasingly acidic. In the gym, we experience this as an increasingly intense burning, painful sensation that eventually makes it impossible to continue working.

So why do we care about lactic acid? 

Well, as it turns out, the old saying “no pain, no gain” is quite accurate. In fact, high levels of lactic acid can lead to increases in muscle size and strength as well as fat metabolism.

The graphs below—from a study where researchers measured muscle growth and strength in response to increasing acidity in muscle cells—provide a great visual to drive this point home.

As we can see, there is a very strong relationship between acidity and the change in participants’ muscle cross sectional area (i.e., increased muscle size), and a fairly strong relationship between acidity and the change in participants’ one-rep max (i.e., maximal strength)2.

In addition to this correlational study, we have direct evidence which shows lactic acid plays a key role in muscle growth. In an in vitro study, researchers took muscle cells and added lactic acid to them. As a result, protein synthesis (the major process that makes muscle grow) increased3. In short, more lactic acid equals more muscle!

So what’s going on here? How does that massive burning sensation you experience lead to better gains? As it turns out, there is a high correlation between lactic acid and growth hormone (i.e., more lactic acid means more growth hormone), thus lactic acid plays a major role in the exercise-induced growth hormone response in humans4.   

Growth hormone is a powerful chemical that helps build muscle and strength5 in addition to releasing greater amount of free fatty acids for energy6 (thus increasing your fat-burning potential). Lactic acid, then, rather than being directly responsible for boosting your gains, is simply a means to an end, playing a supporting role to growth hormone.

Even so, we can’t have growth hormone without lactic acid, and lactic acid gives us a powerful feedback system to determine how much growth hormone we’re producing. Specifically, if your muscles are burning like a five-alarm fire, you know you’re skyrocketing growth hormone.

What’s more, growth hormone doesn’t just assist the specific muscles you’re working, but has a systemic (total-body) effect7. It circulates through your bloodstream to all of your muscles, boosting the muscle-building and fat-burning potential of your entire body.

Armed with the knowledge about the power of growth hormone for promoting favorable body composition changes, Vince couldn’t help but wonder—how can I harness this phenomenon to get more out of every workout? Specifically, Vince wanted to find a way to flood his muscle cells with growth hormone BEFORE the workout even begins.

Enter:

The Ultimate Single Set Pre Workout Lactate Protocol To Increase Growth Hormone, Leanness and Mass!

This protocol releases hormones that help build muscle and burn fat), that puts you into the HURT ZONE in record time.

A whole-body lactic acid maximization protocol. HRT(z)ONE is a single set that you will do for 60, 90, or 120 seconds (for fast, mixed, and slow fiber-type guys, respectively) before every workout to maximize lactic acid and growth hormone.

And the entire protocol is a FREE BONUS GIFT when you pick up a copy of Vince Del Monte’s Gene Expression Training program to Increase Testosterone, Leanness and Mass! 

You can learn more, right here… 

HURRY… this expires tonight at midnight: 

>> BRAND NEW: Gene Expression Training to Increase Testosterone, Leanness & Mass + FREE Lactate Maximization Protocol

Start adding this SINGLE SET to the start of all your workouts and take your body to the next level of progress and development.

Keep training hard,

Mike Westerdal
CriticalBench.com

P.S. Here are all the studies so you can verify everything said in this email yourself…

1. https://books.google.com/books?id=rk3SX8G5Qp0C

2. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22628373

3. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/15947720

4. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18184755

5. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22628373

6. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19240267