Incubating muscle cells with lactate upregulates genes related to muscle adaptation, including mitochondrial biogenesis and muscle protein synthesis.

“So, there are a lot of really talented people studying muscle adaptation today. But this has, again, been overlooked because everybody believes lactate is bad. But it's really an upstream signal which activates genes for mitochondrial biogenesis, for muscle protein synthesis, basically, pretty much what happens to you when you do exercise training.”