Caffeine & Bicarbonate - Individuality is Key: Using Supps That Work for You Make a >90% Performance Difference

Caffeine & Bicarbonate - Individuality is Key: Using Supps That Work for You Make a >90% Performance Difference

bicarbonate caffeine cycling endurance ergogenic ergogenics NAHCO3 natural ergogenic performance sodium bicarbonate time to exhaustion

Right vs. wrong supps can make a victory or defeat difference of >90%.

I've written about the individual response to caffeine and bicarbonate before. To tackle both of these ergogenic supplements I can actually recommend, however, based on a single study that as just been published in the Applied Physiology, Nutrition, and Metabolism is news. The study was conducted at the Derby University's Department of Life Sciences, Sport, Outdoor & Exercise Science (Higgins. 2016) and evaluated the effects of ingesting sodium bicarbonate (NaHCO3) or caffeine individually or in combination on high-intensity cycling capacity.

In a counterbalanced, crossover design, 13 healthy, noncycling trained males (age: 21 ± 3 years, height: 178 ± 6 cm, body mass: 76 ± 12 kg, peak power output (Wpeak): 230 ± 34 W, peak oxygen uptake: 46 ± 8 mL·kg−1·min−1) performed a graded incremental exercise test, 2 familiarisation trials, and 4 experimental trials.

You can learn more about bicarbonate and pH-buffers at the SuppVersity

The Hazards of Acidosis

Build Bigger Legs W/ Bicarbonate

HIIT it Hard W/ NaCHO3

Creatine + BA = Perfect Match

Bicarb Buffers Creatine

Instant 14% HIIT Boost

Trials consisted of cycling to volitional exhaustion at 100% W peak (TLIM) 60 min after ingesting a solution containing either

• 0.3 g·kg−1 body mass sodium bicarbonate (BIC), 
• 5 mg·kg−1 body mass caffeine plus 0.1 g/kg body mass sodium chloride (CAF), 
• 0.3 g·kg−1 body mass sodium bicarbonate plus 5 mg/kg body mass caffeine (BIC-CAF), or 
• 0.1 g·kg−1 body mass sodium chloride (PLA). 

Experimental solutions were (supposedly) administered double-blind (which is difficult imho, because bicarb and salt taste different, but alas).

Figure 1: Tabular overview of the rate of perceived exertion (RPE_L = legs, RPE_O = overall cardiovascular strain | left) and blood pH over time (right) during the four trials (Higgins. 2016).

The first and most obvious effect of treatments (BIC) and (BIC-CAF) was a significant increase in pH, base excess, and bicarbonate ion concentration ([HCO3−]) compared to the CAF and PLA trials.

Another new study supports lower dose (0.3g/kg) bicarbonate for resistance training: The study was conducted by a Bachelor student from the University of Tempa. The purpose of the study was to investigate whether the ingestion of sodium bicarbonate (SB) pre-exercise improved athletic performance during resistance training (RT) and reduced fatigue in male college students. In the study, ,ale college students performed 1RM and endurance tests before their own individualized RT program 4 times a week during the 4 week study. The SB group produced higher increases in mean weight used in each of the 1RM tests (P < 0.05) compared to the placebo group. The SB group also produced a higher amount of repetitions in the IDP, LP, and LPD endurance tests (P < 0.05). There was a significant difference in each self-report scale (P < 0.05) between the SB group and the placebo group. "These findings suggest that the supplementation of SB prior to RT in college male students could enhance performance," (Indorato. 2016) the author concludes.

The effect on TLIM (time to volitional exhaustion) was unfortunately less obvious - for all three active treatments, by the way. When all subjects were considered, ...

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  A high amount of alkali in your diet could have general health and performance benefits | learn more

  there was a significant increase in TLIM for CAF (399; 350–415 s; P = 0.039; r = 0.6) and BIC-CAF (367; 333–402 s; P = 0.028; r = 0.6), but only compared with BIC (313: 284–448 s), yet not compared with PLA (358; 290–433 s; P = 0.249, r = 0.3 and P = 0.099 and r = 0.5, respectively), 
• there were no differences between PLA and BIC (P = 0.196; r = 0.4) or between CAF and BIC-CAF (P = 0.753; r = 0.1), and 
• there was no effect whatsoever on the rate of perceived exertion (RPE | Figure 1, left).

The "average" effect does yet not tell you the full truth about the potential ergogenic effects of caffeine and bicarbonate. Why? Higgins et al. found very large inter- and intra-individual variations, when they compared the individual treatments (see Figure 2, right).

Figure 2: Mean +/- SD (left) and individual (right) response to the treatments (Higgins. 2016).

Accordingly, the scientists rightly highlight that optimal supplementation strategies require individualization. Using supplements that work for you can, after all, make a performance difference of 81%, 92% and 63% (max. vs. min responders) for bicarbonate, caffeine and the combination of both (all values relative to T_LIM in the placebo trial).

Caffeine has many benefits, but also potential downsides you should know about to make an educated decision based on science and your individual response to caffeine | learn more

Fine. So shall I use bicarbonate and caffeine or not? I cannot tell you that. Why? Well, it depends on how you react to these proven ergogenics. The only way to find out is to testdrive both - on their own and together. Plus: A study investigating the maximal cycling time at 100% of your peak wattage doesn't tell you sh*t about the effects on your performance during other physical activities like resistance training (the study in the red box, does, though).

Luckily, the new study by Indorato is not the only one to show bicarbonate (example) has, just like caffeine, by the way (example), ergogenic effects . This doesn't mean that either of them will necessarily work for you, but it is a good reason to trial both | Leave a comment on Facebook!

References:

• Higgins, et al. "Evaluating the effects of caffeine and sodium bicarbonate, ingested individually or in combination, and a taste-matched placebo on high-intensity cycling capacity in healthy males." Appl. Physiol. Nutr. Metab. (2016).
• Indorato, Daniel. "Enhanced Resistance Training Performance via the Neutralization of Lactic Acid with Sodium Bicarbonate." Student Pulse 8.03 (2016).

Alkaline Diet - 4-9 Days Suffice to Boost Urinary pH, Boost Time to Exhaustion (21%) + Fat Oxid. During Exercise (10%)

Alkaline Diet - 4-9 Days Suffice to Boost Urinary pH, Boost Time to Exhaustion (21%) + Fat Oxid. During Exercise (10%)

acidic acidity acidosis alkaline alkaline diet alkalosis bicarbonate fruits health performance sodium bicarbonate vegetables

Many of you may now shake their heads and say: Well I am already eating such a diet... even though, I didn't do it for its alkalizing effects. Good for you!

As a SuppVersity reader you're familiar with the multifaceted benefits of sodium bicarbonate. Evidence that it will improve your performance, even when taken chronically, however, is still lacking. With a recently published study by Susan L. Caciano and colleagues we do yet have more evidence that this could be the case even though, we're not talking about bicarbonate supplementation, technically: In her study, Caciano tried to experimentally confirm the previous cross-sectional findings (Niekamp. 2012) suggesting that even a short term (4-9 days) low-PRAL, i.e. highly alkaline diet, would result in a higher respiratory exchange ratio during maximal exercise as compared to the SAD acidic diet.

You can learn more about bicarbonate and pH-buffers at the SuppVersity

The Hazards of Acidosis

Build Bigger Legs W/ Bicarbonate

HIIT it Hard W/ NaCHO3

Creatine + BA = Perfect Match

Bicarb Buffers Creatine

Instant 14% HIIT Boost

Now, this may initially sound like a disadvantage, but in view of the fact that the study showed that the exact opposite was the case and the alkaline diet reduced the ratio of glucose to fat Caciano's 18-60 year-old, healthy volunteers, who had been randomly assigned in a cross-over design (meaning all subjects performed the tests once on both diets) to a high or low PRAL diet, burned during...

• 

  You will probably remember that Serial loading helps avoid the gastro-intestinal side effects from consuming large amounts of sodium bicarbonate in one sitting. Eventually, however, it is a special way to alkalize your diet aggressively.

  [...] a graded exercise test that was initiated at a speed determined during warm-up to increase HR to ~70% of age-predicted maximal heart rate (HRmax) and a grade of 0% and then increased by 2 percentage points every 2 minutes until the subject could no longer continue due to fatigue, and 
• [...] an anaerobic exercise performance during which they had had to run to exhaustion on a treadmill with the speed set at the same speed used during the graded exercise test, albeit at a treadmill grade that was 2 percentage points steeper than that achieved during the last full stage of the graded exercise test

For each of the dietary interventions, the study dietitian provided the subjects with specific instructions on how to modify their habitual diets to achieve a low- or high PRAL diet.

Ketogenic diets, acidic and problematic? The standard versions of low-carb or ketogenic diets have been shown to trigger significant decreases in blood pH (Yancy. 2007), of which the study at hand shows that they could trigger relevant performance decreases. Since eating more fruit is not an option, though, your vegetable intake should be as high as possible. On the other hand, the standard Western Diet will have similar consequences and the effects observed in the study at hand, as well as in previous studies could be corollary to the alkalinity of the diet and in fact caused by a mere increase in polyphenols, vitamins, dietary nitrate and other potentially performance enhancing substances in fruits and vegetables.

The study dietitian was in contact with the participants (via telephone or email) every day during the dietary interventions to encourage compliance and to provide specific food suggestions as needed.

• The general strategy used for the low-PRAL diet was to increase the consumption of alkaline-promoting foods such as fruits and vegetables and to reduce the consumption of acid promoting foods such as meats, cheeses, and grains. More specifically, participants were instructed to consume 6-8 cups of vegetables and >4 servings of fruit each day. Because there is a tendency for lower energy intake with diets that are rich in fruits and vegetables, such as the low-PRAL diet, participants were instructed to eat frequently and consume energy dense foods during the low-PRAL trial, such as starchy vegetables (e.g. sweet potatoes), dried fruits (e.g. dates and raisins), and plant sources of fat (e.g. avocado, coconut, nuts, seeds). Foods with moderate PRAL values (e.g. legumes, yogurt, egg whites, quinoa) were allowed and were used to ensure that energy and macronutrient intakes were adequate. The participants were also advised to minimize the consumption of all meats, cheeses and common grains (most of which are high-PRAL) during the low-PRAL diet. 

• 

  Bicarbonate keeps muscle activity high - even during most intense workouts | more

  During the high-PRAL diet, participants were instructed to consume at least 3-4 servings of common grains (e.g. wheat, corn, and oats), 3 servings of meat, and 3 servings of cheese (especially hard cheeses such as parmesan) each day while minimizing the intakes of fruits and vegetables. Moderate PRAL foods were allowed as desired as long as it did not displace high PRAL foods from the diet. In general, the high-PRAL diet required less intensive counseling from the dietitian be cause it closely resembled the baseline diet of the participants.

Now, obviously even the most tightly controlled study will have confounding effects that may mess with the results. For the time being, however, we will simply assume that the only thing the diets did (and were intended to do) was to achieve a dietary PRAL of ≤-1 mEq/d during the low- and a PRAL ≥15 mEq/d during the high-PRAL diet phases (I will get back to the validity of this assumption in the bottom line). As the scientists point out, "these cut points were based on PRAL values of the high and low PRAL tertiles that were observed in our previous cross-sectional study on 57 middle-aged men and women (Niekamp et al., 2012)" (Caciano). Whether the subjects achieved the desired level of alkalinity was measure with pH stripes in their morning urine.

Figure 1: Fasted morning urine pH during the dietary intervention for the low- and high-PRAL interventions. The objective was to attain the pH goal in 4 days; however, up to 9 days were required for some participants. “Last day” indicates urine pH on the last day of the dietary intervention (i.e. 4 to 9 days), which was also the morning during which outcomes assessments were performed (Caciano. 2015); values are means, error bars are standard deviations.

As the data in Figure 1 tells you, the dietary intervention successfully changed the urinary pH levels of which most critics of the idea of an "alkaline diet" say that it was as irrelevant as the PRAL-value, i.e. the degree of alkalinity of acidity of your diet, itself.

Figure 2: Respiratory exchange ratio (RER | high = higher CHO/FAT oxidation) and performance time-to-exhaustion on the graded (left) and anaerobic (right) performance tests (Caciano. 2015).

If this assumption is correct, the significant increase in RER (=increase in fat oxidation during the graded performance test), as well as the borderline significant and significant performance increases on the graded and anaerobic performance (+21%) test in Figure 2 would have to be explained by ergogenic effects of certain polyphenols, vitamins or other ingredients of fruits and veggies. This is possible, but just as hypothetical as the assumption that the changes were observed in response to a dietary-induced increase in serum bicarbonate.

What about the conflict w/ previous observational data? Neither I nor the scientists have an explanation for the difference to the previously cited observational data by Niekamp et al who had found increased RER-values in individuals consuming a lower PRAL diet. One possibility is that the low PRAL diet was also lower in carbohydrates and thus triggered a decrease in RER. Another possibility the scientists plan to test in a future study is "that the shift in systemic pH altered the activity of enzymes that regulate lipid and carbohydrate oxidation [due to the pH-sensitivity] of carnitine acyl transferase-I, one of the rate limiting enzymes in lipid oxidation" (Caciano. 2015).

High Dietary Acid Load Doubles Risk of Type II Diabetes in Lean Individuals! Causative or Corollary? Plus: Are Grains, not Meats the Main Offenders in the Modern Diet? Learn more about the benefits of alkaline diets in this SV Classic!

Unlike the mere ingestion of increased amounts of fruits and veggies, the levels of bicarbonate in the blood has yet previously been shown to will trigger improvements in time-to-exhaustion from numerous studies on sodium bicarbonate. That the latter was in fact increased, even though the scientists measured only the urinary pH, which increased by by ~12%, can be assumed based on previous studies by Unwin and Capasso (2001); studies that confirm that the urinary pH is a reliable indicator of serum bicarbonate. Accordingly, Caciano et al.'s explanation that, both the performance increases and the borderline significant increase in VO2max (p = 0.08 | not shown in Figure 2) "could have resulted from an alkaline environment created by the consumption of low PRAL foods, and possibly by an increase in bicarbonate availability" (Caciano. 2015) is reasonable.

Plus, the authors are also right to point out that it is "generally accepted that bicarbonate loading improves anaerobic exercise performance by enhancing acid buffering capacity," and that it would be pretty awesome, if the same or at least similar benefits could be achieved without risking gastrointestinal distress, as it has been repeatedly observed in response to bicarbonate loading, high intakes of fruits and vegetables, which have the added benefits of being rich in phyto-chemicals, fiber, antioxidants, and other nutrients. Overall, the planned consumed of an alkalizing diet may thus, just like Caciano et al. say, "be an attractive alternative to bicarbonate loading for improving anaerobic exercise performance" (Caciano. 2015). It that's due to or rather corollary to its "alkalizing" effects, is yet open to debate...

For 66% of all athletes, sodium bicar-bonate will work; others get diarrhea.

Bottom line: I guess, the performance benefits of the low-PRAL diet are about as undebatable as the beneficial health effects of increased intakes of fruits and vegetables. Practically speaking, we do thus not really need to know why the performance of the subjects increased significantly on the low-PRAL diet. What is important, though, is that the performance did increase statistically significant and to an extent that is practically relevant for every athlete who performs in competitions that require one or several 1-5 minute bouts of high intensity exercise... what? Yeah, that's probably more than 50% of all athletes.

Addendum: For those who have been indoctrinated by self-proclaimed mythbusters and avengers of "the truth" or quacks who claim to be able to heal every ailment with certain dietary tweaks against or in favor of the benefits of "alkaline diets" here's an interesting overview (Schwalfenberg. 2011) of proven and unproven claims of what an "alkaline diet" may be good for | Comment!

References:

• Caciano, Susan L., et al. "Effects of Dietary Acid Load on Exercise Metabolism and Anaerobic Exercise Performance." Journal of sports science & medicine 14.2 (2015): 364.
• Niekamp, Katherine, et al. "Systemic acid load from the diet affects maximal exercise respiratory exchange ratio." Medicine and science in sports and exercise 44.4 (2012): 709.
• Schwalfenberg, Gerry K. "The alkaline diet: is there evidence that an alkaline pH diet benefits health?." Journal of Environmental and Public Health 2012 (2011).

Creatine and Bicarbonate - A Worthwhile Combination: Supplements Exert Great Individual and Small Combined Effects on HIIT Performance Test in Nine Well-Trained Men

Creatine and Bicarbonate - A Worthwhile Combination: Supplements Exert Great Individual and Small Combined Effects on HIIT Performance Test in Nine Well-Trained Men

baking soda bicarbonate creatine high volume mean power peak power performance sodium bicarbonate total volume total work volume

The results of a Wingate test cannot be translated 1:1 to any sports.

You will probably remember my article about the combination of creatine and bicarbonate. Mixing both is basically what the producers of "buffered creatine" supplements do. Albeit with amounts of bicarbonate that may affect the uptake of the latter and offer benefits if you have to load as fast as possible, but won't have individual performance effects (learn more).

Other studies I've likewise covered in the SuppVersity News in the past showed both significant as well as borderline significant and non-significant beneficial effects of combining creatine and bicarbonate for a performance enhancing double-whammy in trained individuals.

You can learn more about bicarbonate and pH-buffers at the SuppVersity

The Hazards of Acidosis

Build Bigger Legs W/ Bicarbonate

HIIT it Hard W/ NaCHO3

Creatine + BA = Perfect Match

Bicarb Buffers Creatine

Bicarbonate Works for Most(!) Athletes

Against that background it is not surprising that a recent study by Griffen et al. (2015) found similarly ambiguous results. The study investigated the effects of creatine and sodium bicarbonate coingestion on mechanical power during repeated sprints. To this ends, nine well-trained men (age = 21.6 ± 0.9 yr, stature = 1.82 ± 0.05 m, body mass = 80.1 ± 12.8 kg) participated in a double-blind, placebo-controlled, counterbalanced, crossover study using six 10-s repeated Wingate tests.

Before each of the performance tests, the participants ingested either a placebo (0.5 g/kg of maltodextrin), 20 g/d of creatine monohydrate + placebo (Cre), 0.3 g/kg of sodium bicarbonate + placebo (Bi), or coingestion  (Cre + Bi) for 7 days, with a 7-day washout between conditions. Participants were randomized into two groups with a differential counterbalanced order. Creatine conditions were ordered first and last. The participants individual mechanical power output (W), total work (J) and fatigue index (W/s) were measured during each test and analyzed using the magnitude of differences between groups in relation to the smallest worthwhile change in performance.

Figure 1: Subject allocation.

Yes, the washout period could be a problem: With only nine participants you have to do crossover study, but in view of the results of previous studies (McKenna. 1999), which report washout times of 4 weeks, the scientists would have been on the safer side if they had planned for a washout of 28, not just 7 days. Now you may argue that not all subjects started "on" creatine, so that the residual effect could average out. The problem, however, is that the significance of the results of a study with only nine participants gets impaired with every subject who was in a creatine group before being randomly assigned to one of the placebo + X groups, so that the researchers would have had to order all the creatine conditions last, not one first and the other last, as it is depicted in Figure 1 and described in the full text of the study.

As the data in Figure 2 tells you, both, the creatine (effect size (ES) = 0.37–0.83) and sodium bicarbonate (ES = 0.22–0.46) supplementation, resulted in meaningful improvements of all three indices of mechanical power output compared to placebo. Now what we are really interested in, though, is what the combination of the two did...

• In general, the coingestion provided "small meaningful improvements on indices of mechanical power output (W)" (Griffen. 2015) 
• The previously mentioned advantage was yet only seen when comparing sodium bicarbonate (ES = 0.28–0.41) with the combination treatment; a similar beneficial effect was not seen compared to creatine alone

This does obviously mean that the addition of bicarbonate to creatine did not result in meaningful increases in power output in this particular exercise test.

Figure 2: The only relevant advantage of combining both creatine and bicarbonate was seen for the total work done (orange bars, see orange arrow); this however is also among the most relevant measures for real athletes (Griffin. 2015).

What it did do and that's what we actually take bicarbonate for is to "provided a small meaningful improvement in total work (J; ES = 0.24) compared with creatine" (Griffin. 2015) - or, in other words, anyone who does not just one, but several all-out sprints (and that's almost every athlete) will see a small but meaningful performance increase, one that may make the difference between victory and defeat (see Figure 1, orange bars).

The increase in PGC-1a expression you get if you do HIIT w/ sodium bicarbonate and the correspondingly increased stimulus for mitochondrial biogenenesis is a hitherto often overlooked benefit of "baking soda" supplementation | learn more

Disappointing? I would not say so, which significant improvements in response to both supplements and a potential "game changing" increase in the total work the subjects were able to perform on the cycle ergometer during the repeated Wingate tests, both supplements have proven their efficacy and the potential benefits of combining them. Benefits the Griffin et al rightly call "small", but "meaningful" in the conclusion to their recently published paper.

The fact that these benefits may not be as exorbitant as some of you may have hoped for does not imply that the combination of creatine and bicarbonate supplements is useless. In view of the overall small study size (low number of subjects even for a crossover study), the problem with the washout and the specificity of the exercise - who knows what the results in the gym or on a football field would have looked like, thus, future studies are warranted | Comment!

References:

• Barber, James J., et al. "Effects of combined creatine and sodium bicarbonate supplementation on repeated sprint performance in trained men." The Journal of Strength & Conditioning Research 27.1 (2013): 252-258.
• Griffen, C., et al. "Effects of Creatine and Sodium Bicarbonate Co-Ingestion on Multiple Indices of Mechanical Power Output During Repeated Wingate Tests in Trained Men." International Journal of Sport Nutrition and Exercise Metabolism, 2015, 25, 298-306.
• McKenna, Michael J., et al. "Creatine supplementation increases muscle total creatine but not maximal intermittent exercise performance." Journal of Applied Physiology 87.6 (1999): 2244-2252.

Sodium Bicarbonate a Performance Booster for Only 66% of the Athletes? Study Shows Individual & Variable Responses from Zero to + 30% Increase in Maximal HIIT Workloads

Sodium Bicarbonate a Performance Booster for Only 66% of the Athletes? Study Shows Individual & Variable Responses from Zero to + 30% Increase in Maximal HIIT Workloads

baking soda bicarbonate high intensity high volume HIIT NAHCO3 performance sodium bicarbonate

Even though, the study at hand confirms that NaHCO3 doesn't work for everyone previous studies show it's worth trying.

You will probably have asked yourselves, whether I had already forgotten about sodium bicarbonate and the performance enhancing effects of pH buffers, right? No, I didn't, but unfortunately, many researchers have... well, many, but not all researchers. Gabriela Froio de Araujo Dias and her colleagues from the University of Sao Paulo, for example, have just released a paper in which they describe the intriguing results of the first bicarbonate study that was specifically designed to (a) determine within- and (b) inter-individual variation that could potentially compromise the magnitude of an effect that's determined based on averages (e.g. if you use bicarb three times and have performance increases of 0.4%, 5% and 0.3% it will look less effective).

You can learn more about bicarbonate and pH-buffers at the SuppVersity

The Hazards of Acidosis

Build Bigger Legs W/ Bicarbonate

HIIT it Hard W/ NaCHO3

Creatine + BA = Perfect Match

Bicarb Buffers Creatine

Beta Alanine Fails to HIIT Back

In the corresponding experiment, the scientists had 15 physically active males (age 25±4 y; body mass 76.0±7.3 kg; height 1.77±0.05 m) complete six cycling capacity tests at 110% of maximum power output (CCT110%) following ingestion of either

• 0.3 g/kg body mass of sodium bicarbonate (SB | 4 trials) or
• alcium carbonate placebo (PL, 2 trials).

Just in case you're wondering: Calcium carbonate has no reasonable buffering effect as it will not, as you can see in Figure 1 affect the pH, bicarbonate levels of base excess of the blood in the way bicarbonate does. It is thus the standard choice in corresponding experiments.

Figure 1: Line graphs for blood measurements (mean ± 1SD) at Baseline, Pre-exercise, Post-exercise and 5-min post-exercise. Panel A displays pH; Panel B displays bicarbonate; Panel C displays base excess; Panel D displays lactate. PL trials are represented by dashed lines and SB trials are represented by solid lines (de Araujo Dias. 2015).

As you may already know from previous SuppVersity articles on bicarbonate, the increases in blood pH, bicarbonate, base excess and lactate you see in Figure 1 are important to tell what exactly triggers the net effect of using baking soda as a pH buffer. What every athletes will yet be more interested in, though is whether the buffer allowed the recreationally active men who participated in the study saw statistically significant increases in the total work done (TWD) during the 110% high-intensity cycling capacity test, or not.

Learn more about Serial Loading!

You have problem "stomaching" NaHCO3? If you feelm, like some of the subjects in the study nauseated or even get diarrhea when you ingest a large bolus of sodium bicarbonate at once, try the Serial Loading Protocol from Dreher's 2012 study I discussed in an older SuppVersity article about sodium bicarbonate. That should work even for the most sensitive tummies. That's still no guarantee that it'll work, though, and would - just as the study at hand shows it for the regular bolus administration require some experimentation.

As you can see in Figure 2, the average subject saw the highest improvement in the last of the four trials (7%); an improvement of which statistics tell us that it says that there's 93% chance of general substantial improvement - with lower values for the other trials.

Figure 2: Rel increase (%) in total work (figures over the bars indicate likelihood of relevant benefits and relative increase, e.g. for bar 4: "It's 93% likely that the 7% increase displays a real-world relevant performance increase) - left; Total work done during SB trial as function of total work done during PLA trial - right (de Araujo Dias. 201).

Apropos "other trials", when the scientists removed the subjects who reported sick during trial 1 and trial 3, the results of trial 1 suggest a "likely" benefit (81%) and those of trial 3 a "possible" (50%) benefit. The notion that whether you benefit or not can / will depend on how well you tolerate the bicarbonate solution would also be confirmed by the data in Figure 2, right. The latter is a plot of the ratio of total work done in the sodium bicarbonate trial #4 vs. the control trial; a plot that easily tells us who saw benefits and who didn't because all "winners" are above, while all "losers" are below the transverse line. And since the distance to said line is a marker of the performance increase, you can also see that even among those who did benefit, the benefits ranged from hardly measurable as in subject #7 to a whopping 30% increase in total work done during the high-intensity cycling capacity test in subjects #12.

25g of Baking Soda Will Up Your Squat (+27%) & Bench Press (+6%) Within 60 Min | more

Bottom line: If you belong to the unlucky 33%, who were represented in the study at hand by the 5 subjects the scientists found who didn't benefit in any of the four sodium bicarbonate trials, you could probably still try the serial loading protocol and if that doesn't work either, simply accept that "SB may not always improve exercise" (de Araujo Dias. 2015).

On the flipside, though, you must not give up on baking soda if you didn't see improvements in your first trial, either. Eventually, the data from the study at hand also shows that even in those who benefit the benefit can sometimes be small or even non-existent.

As a trainer or trainee, you should thus keep in mind that sodium bicarbonate, baking soda or NaHCO3 must be taken on multiple occasions in order to categorize yourself or your clients into non-responders and potential responders and excellent responders | Comment on Facebook!

References: