How Cyclists Can Use Sodium Bicarb To Maximise Training Benefits  

One of the most exciting ways in which nutrition can support an athlete is through enhancing training adaptations.

There are a number of ways in which what you eat around a session can influence the stress that the session creates and how the body responds to it. Potentially allowing an athlete to gain more performance benefits from a training session without actually having to do any more training. Something I think any time crunched cyclist, or anyone interested in getting faster would be interested in.

Sodium Bicarbonate (or baking powder as it is common found in the kitchen) is a potent buffer. By consuming bicarb in the time period before a high intensity interval training session, we can enhance the bodies ability to buffer the acidity that is produced during high intensity exercise, particularly for efforts that are in the region of 2-8minute long where a large amount of acidity is produced by the muscle which can negatively impact on the bodies ability to perform high intensity exercise.

Research has consistently shown sodium bicarb to be of benefit to performance, but what about training adaptations? Being able to complete more word during each interval could certainly be of benefit over a block of training.

A study from 2006 is one of a small number of studies that has looked at the impact of sodium bicarb on a block of interval training. They took a group of 16 trained female athletes and put them through 8 weeks of interval training, with each week involving 3 training sessions consisting of 6-12, 2 minute intervals at around 140-170% of their lactate thresholds. The 16 athletes where split into two groups, one receiving sodium bicarbonate supplementation, the other a placebo.

At the end of the 8 weeks, the participants repeated a group of tests that they completed prior to starting the interval training block and the results where pretty mind blowing. Both groups saw increases in their Vo2 Max and their muscle buffering capacity but interesting the sodium bicarbonate group saw a greater increase in their lactate threshold and their time to fatigue, despite doing exactly the same amount of work.  

The sodium bicarbonate potentially helped through lowering the acidity within the muscle as a result of the interval training which allowed for a greater adaptation to the muscle oxidative capacity, potentially as a result of less acidity allowing greater mitochondrial adaptations to occur. Given the mitochondria is the engines of the muscle cell, this is a really key adaptation for enhancing performance.

Being a research study, it was important that the amount of work that each group completed was kept the same, but in the real world the supplementation of sodium bicarbonate may have actually allowed the participants to complete more work during each interval, as it would have taken longer for acidity to accumulate within the muscle, which may have further enhanced the benefits of supplementation on training adaptations. 

There are some important considerations before implementing a strategy like this due to the explosive and uncomfortable effects that sodium bicarbonate can have on the digestive system which takes a specific approach to manage. Sodium bicarbonate also contains a large dose of sodium, meaning that it can result in fluid retention and may not be something to put in place regularly during exercise.

Coach Ben