Sodium Bicarbonate Doubles Athletes' Anaerobic Running Endurance -- Na-Citrate Works, Too, but is Less Effective

In 1990 Luft et al. were able to show that, unlike regular salt, of sodium bicarbonate does not trigger an increase in blood pressure - the exact opposite is the case, even if you don't sweat like an athlete.

If you follow the news and the SuppVersity Classic posts on the SuppVersity Facebook Page it has probably been only two to three weeks since you've read the last post and/or article about the pH buffer. If you belong to those SuppVersity readers, however, who devour only the articles at www.suppversity.com, you will probably have asked yourselves: "Where on earth are the articles about bicarbonate, wasn't that one of Adel's favorites?"

Well, guess what: I have been asking myself a similar question when I reviewed the most recent tables of contents of pertinent journals - there was no bicarbonate study to be seen... until, a few days ago, at least.

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

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Avoiding Diarrhea W/ Bicarb

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Instant 14% HIIT Boost

The study I am referring to was conducted at the School of Sport Sciences of the Surabaya State University in Indonesia (Hartono 2017) and it is particularly interesting because it did not just test the efficacy of sodium bicarbonate in a practically relevant context, i.e. the effect of supplementation on time to exhaustion during an anaerobic running test in trained individuals (University badminton players and thus athletes competing in a highly anaerobic sport), but also compared the its efficacy to that of sodium citrate, an almost forgotten pH buffer that has long been thought to be the one of the go-to supplement for athletes.

Figure 1: Afraid of too much sodium? For hard working athletes, a deliberate reduction in their salt intake may do more harm than good. For certain athletes, scientists even recommend to deliberately increase their consumption (learn more).

After an initial baseline trial, the subjects (30 badminton players, mean age 21 years) were randomly assigned to receive a placebo drink containing only 500 ml water, or...

• 300 mg/kg sodium bicarbonate in 500 ml water, or
• 300 mg/kg sodium citrate in 500 ml water

90 minutes before a treadmill test that measured their maximal running endurance from the anaerobic threshold to the time they stopped running because of exhaustion. Next to the time to exhaustion, the blood pH and bicarbonate ion content, as well as the subjects' lactate levels were measured.

Figure 2: Time to exhaustion (in min) during anaerobic phase of a treadmill running test with placebo (water only), water + 0.3g/kg sodium bicarbonate or water + 0.3g/kg sodium bicarbonate (Hartono 2017).

As you can see in Figure 2 the results leave little room for interpretation. The provision of the allegedly diarrhea-prone amount of ~20-25g of sodium bicarbonate (remember: serial loading can help you not to have to run to the toilette) lead to a statistically highly significant 103% (p = 0.029) increase in anaerobic running endurance and could - unless you have to run to the toilette - thus make a practically relevant difference for any athlete who competes in a sport with a significant anaerobic (=glucose-burning, like sprinting in football or soccer, lifting heavy objects etc.) component.

Figure 2 does yet also tell you that similar, albeit significantly less pronounced effects (the difference of bicarbonate vs. citrate has a p-value of only 0.020 and thus a ~2% chance of being only coincidental) can also be achieved by sodium citrate, which is said to be less diarrhea-prone than its bicarbonate brother. I have to warn you, though: My personal experience with the effects of sodium citrate on the digestive tract say the opposite and the results from (mostly older trials) with sodium citrate yielded even more ambiguous results than those with bicarbonate.

Planning to fry your legs? Ingest 0.3g/kg NaHCO3 before your workout!

"So, bicarbonate works, but I cannot stand it!" Before you give up on bicarbonate because of the taste, I suggest you dissolve it in sufficient water add something that tastes sweet (like a non-acidic pre-workout) to it and drink it at a reasonable pace (~30 minutes) to limit the risk of immediate runs to the toilette.

Based on personal experience your tummy will get used to it (if not try serial loading) and due to its ability to re-acidify the chime in minutes, you don't have to be afraid that the temporary increase in stomach pH will make your vulnerable to an invasion of unwanted gut tenants (remember my recent article on discussing the role PPIs in SIBO).

Likewise, claims that the pre-workout ingestion of bicarbonate would compromise your protein digestion for longer than ~30-60 minutes or elevate your blood pressure (Luft 1990) have no scientific back-up... and in case you simply cannot keep the bicarbonate where it belongs, the study at hand gives you a less proven and slightly less effective alternative: sodium citrate, which is not necessarily, but often better tolerated by athletes | Comment on Facebook!

References:

• Luft, Friedrich C., et al. "Sodium bicarbonate and sodium chloride: effects on blood pressure and electrolyte homeostasis in normal and hypertensive man." Journal of hypertension 8.7 (1990): 663-670.
• Hartono, Soetanto. "The Effects of Sodium Bicarbonate and Sodium Citrate on Blood pH, HCO3-, Lactate Metabolism and Time to Exhaustion." Index coverage: 13.

Endurance Athletes May Benefit From High-GI Meals Before Competition: 18% Increased Endurance During Time Trial

Hillariously sweet, super cheap, and surprisingly effective: glucose!

While most of you will probably already have discarded the notion that you can only lose weight if you eat a diet with an extremely low GI (on a side note: Taubes' own study falsified his "insulin theory of obesity", recently), the notion that the ingestion of high glycemic index foods before exercise could ruin your performance, because your glucose levels, after an initial spike, will plummet and you will crash, still looms large.

With that being said, athletes around the world have, somewhat paradoxically, stuck to complex carbs before competition only to then fuel their performance with extremely sugary intraworkout bars, gels and drinks.

Are you a workout junkie? Try bicarbonate or other pH-buffers

Caffeine & Bicarb = Perfect Match

Build Bigger Legs W/ Bicarbonate

HIIT it Hard W/ NaCHO3

Creatine + BA = Perfect Match

Bicarb Buffers Creatine

Instant 14% HIIT Boost W/ Bicarb

Now, a recent study from the University of Florida, shows that "a fiber-free, glucose-derived meal may be superior to a low glycemic fiber-free whole meal in supporting moderately high intensity exercise in some highly motivated recreationally trained endurance athletes" (my emphasis in Waggener. 2016) - not exactly what you'd expect, right?

No reason to feel embarrassed, though: Even the authors of said study expected that their likewise fiber-free whole milk supplement with a low glycemic (LGM | GI = 41), would "equal or surpass the effects of an iso-kilocaloric, high glycemic (HGM) pre-exercise meal of glucose" (GI = 100).

Timing + intensity (and fiber) may matter, here! While there are surprisingly few studies that actually compare high vs. low GI carbohydrate sources pre-workout, a 2001 study by Kirwan using totally different CHO-sources (2 different breakfast cereals: rolled oats (moderate GI, 61; MOD-GI) or puffed rice (high GI, 82; HI-GI), combined with 300 mL of water) suggests that high-fiber low GI meals are advantageous if (a) the time-trial begins after 45 minutes of rest (instead of 2h of medium-intensity exercise) and you are (b) training / competing at a low intensity of only 60% VO2peak and thus for 2h+, which is obviously not exactly representative of endurance sports competitions or resistance training workouts w/ higher intensities.

Furthermore, the scientists expected that both would kick the ass of an artificially flavored placebo. when either of the three treatments was consumed 30 minutes before a 2-hr submaximal steady state ride at 55% of VO2 max that was followed by brief rest, and then by a final time-trial to exhaustion on the cycle ergometer (TTE) at 80% of VO2 max - the test was repeated on three separate days.

"The test drinks in this study consisted of whole cow’s milk (837.2 kJ / 320 ml fluid volume: 16 g carbohydrate, 10.7 g fat, and 10.7 g protein; Publix, Inc.) and two contrast drinks, one consisting of glucose polymer drink iso-kilocaloric to the whole milk supplement (837.2 kJ / 300 ml fluid volume: 50 g carbohydrate, 0 g fat, and 0 g protein; Cardinal Health, McGraw Park, IL) and a placebo/control drink (water). The placebo was an artificially flavored, unsweetened beverage (2 g of NutraSweet in 300 ml bottled water; [...])" (Waggener. 2016).

To avoid that the subjects' baseline diet would mess with the results, the diet in the days before the test was standardized (high in carbs 60.5% = typical end. athlete diet) and controlled via food logs.

Figure 1: Stamina (length in minutes) during the time trial after 1h of low-medium intensity exercise (Waggener. 2016).

Much in contrast to what the scientists expected, the LGM (whole milk) did not exert a greater ergogenic effect in this study when compared to the isokilocaloric HGM (glucose).

In fact, there was a non-significant (+18% time to exhaustion, blue bar in Figure 1 | not significant due to the large inter-individual differences) advantage for the HGM meal, which outperformed both, the LGM and the placebo on the most important test: the time to exhaustion trial - and that in spite of the fact that it was performed after a 2h! medium intensity workout, during which the subject's serum glucose and insulin levels should have performed the initially hinted at, purportedly ergolytic (=the opposite of performance-enhancing) roller-coaster ride.

Ah, and before you ask: The carbs - high or low GI - did not reduce the fat oxidation, the respiratory quotient was the same. Intra-workout fat oxidation doesn't matters much (or not at all) for fat loss, but alas... (Waggener. 2016).

Bottom line: As surprising as it may seem, the scientists' conclusion that a glucose-derived meal "may be superior to a low glycemic fiber-free whole meal in supporting moderately high intensity exercise in some highly motivated recreationally trained endurance athletes" (Waggener. 2016), is accurate, even if the time between the ingestion of the glucose solution and the actual high intensity work is so long that the "high GI carb bashing) would have you expect the athletes to fall into a hypoglycemic coma ;-)

What? Oh, yes! It would certainly be nice to see this being repeated with different types of exercises or athletes, but with the recreationally trained cyclists with a rather wide range of relative VO2 max values, the subjects in the study at hand are more representative of the average fitness enthusiast than pro-athletes or noobs | Comment on FB!

References:

• Kirwan, John P., et al. "Effects of moderate and high glycemic index meals on metabolism and exercise performance." Metabolism 50.7 (2001): 849-855.
• Waggener, Green T., et al. "The Effect of a Low Glycemic vs. High Glycemic Pre-Exercise Meal in Recreationally Trained Endurance Cyclists." (2016).

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

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

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Creatine + BA = Perfect Match

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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, ...

• 

  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).

First Study to Demonstrate Ergogenic Effects of Metformin - 14% Increased Time to Exhaustion in Standardized Supra-Maximal Cycling Test With 500mg of Ordinary Metformin

With the publication of Learsi's latest paper the list of things metformin can do for you has just gotten been expanded with another item: Doping!

You will probably remember my article about the potential, but unproven ergogenic effects of AMPK mimetics (read it). Well, as it is often the case, a new study is released only days after you've published a review of the existing literature. Oftentimes that's not really relevant, but in the case of the latest study from the Federal University of Alagoas this may be different. After all, we are dealing with a human study in  ten healthy, physically active, but non-athletic subjects with a mean (±SD) maximal oxygen uptake (VO2max) o 38.6 ± 4.5 mL/kg per min who performed (i) an incremental test; (ii) six submaximal constant workload tests at 40%-90% V O2max; and (iii) two supramaximal tests (110% V O2max).

All tests were performed twice once with a placebo supplement and once with 500mg of metformin. Both, the placebo and the metformin supplement were ingested 60 minutes before the supramaximal test, in order to investigate the hypothesis that metformin would increase anaerobic capacity and performance during high-intensity, short-duration exercise.

Like antioxidants metformin could blunt the hormetic response & long-term(!) adaptation

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The authors, Learsi et al. (2015), based this hypothesis on the fact that metformin inhibits aerobic pathway energy production and so the glycolytic energy system could be overloaded during ATP production for muscle contraction.

Figure 1: Overview of the study design. The active / placebo treatment, i.e. 500mg of metformin or an identically looking placebo were administered 60 min before the supramaximal tests. The whole procedure was repeated twice, with at least 72h between the first and the second testing session (Learsi. 2015).

The aim was thus to to determine the effects of metformin on anaerobic capacity and to elucidate whether metformin has any ergogenic effect in intense, short-duration exercise in healthy, physically active men.

Is this really the first study? Yes, it is the first to prove metformin's ergogenic effects in humans. It's yet not the first human study to test the ergogenic effects of metformin. 2008 Johnson et al. made the mistake to assume that taking metformin would affect the VO2max, or ventilatory threshold. Just like Gudat et al. before them, Johnson et al. simply missed the most straight forward practical measure of exercise performance, i.e. total time to exhaustion, while focusing on things like VO2 (Johnson et al. 2008) or lactate (Gudat et al. 1997) which are nice to explain increases in performance, but - if we are honest - still irrelevant, when all that really counts is how fast you run, how long you cycle or how hard you hit.

While many of the variables they assessed didn't change, the already hinted at 14% increase in maximal endurance (see headline) is something that may make the difference between winning an Olympic medal and placing fourth or worse.

Figure 2: Changes in time to exhaustion and EPOC, both stat. significantly w/ metformin (Learsi. 2015).

What is also noteworthy is that the subjects excess post-exercise energy consumption, which was measured for (unfortunately) only 10 min, increased significantly, as well (see Figure 2, right). In contrast to what some bro-scientists may tell you that does not necessarily equal increased fat loss, but it's still interesting, because it may suggest that metformin improved the subjects' performance by increasing the supply of energy via the anaerobic alactic system, i.e. by boosting the efficacy of non-glucose- and thus non-lactic-acid-dependent energy pathways - in short: fat oxidation.

Alpha Lipoic Acid, GABA, Taurine, Green Tea, Gooseberry & Fenugreek. Plus: Metformin the No.1 Drug? Supplements to Improve and Restore Insulin Sensitivity - Read the First Installment of This Series | read more

Bottom line: This is the first human study to confirm that the AMPK-booster and frequently prescribed diabetes drug can trigger statistically and practically relevant increases in endurance performance during a supra-maximal VO2 max test. If we assume that a similar performance increase occurs in trained athletes, the Learsi study makes taking a bunch of grandma's metformin pills before the next race quite attractive. For the WADA, however, it means that they will have to watch and test for yet another commonly prescribed and readily available medication. And last but not least, for the "wonder-drug" metformin, it is yet another area of application: athletic performance enhancement or as we usually call it "doping" | Comment on Facebook!

References:

• Gudat, U., G. Convent, and L. Heinemann. "Metformin and exercise: no additive effect on blood lactate levels in healthy volunteers." Diabetic medicine 14.2 (1997): 138-142.
• Johnson, S. T., et al. "Acute effect of metformin on exercise capacity in active males." Diabetes, Obesity and Metabolism 10.9 (2008): 747-754.
• Learsi, et al. "Metformin improves performance in high-intensity exercise, but not anaerobic capacity." in healthy male subjects." Clin Exp Pharmacol Physiol. 2015 Aug 7. doi: 10.1111/1440-1681.12474. [Epub ahead of print]

Exercise Threesome: 40g of Galactose = 17% More Stamina Than W/ Same Amount of Glucose ☆ Faster Sprints W/ Psychological Tricks ☆ 10% Lower Insulin W/ Exercise

A neat threesome, anyone?

A threesome is always quite entertaining, especially, when it's one that can help you (a) increase your stamina, (b) boost your sprint performance, and (c) decrease your fasting insulin levels by 10%. Ok, I have to admit it will probably not suffice if you only read the following paragraph, but buying 40g of galactose, playing a couple of psycho-games on yourself and the adherence to the regular exercise program you are already performing anyway (right!?) is something you will probably manage to do, as well.

• 40g galactose before a workout will increase your stamina (O'Hara. 2014) -- Basically that is already the main finding of a recent study by John P. O'Hara et al... well, aside from the fact that the same dose of glucose didn't produce similar benefits - but let's tackle one thing after the other...
  
  The researchers evaluated the effects of the pre-exercise (30 minutes) ingestion of galactose (Gal) or glucose (Glu) on endurance capacity, as well as glycaemic and insulinaemic responses.
  
  To this ends 10 trained male cyclists completed three randomised high-intensity cycling endurance tests. Thirty minutes prior to each trial cyclists ingested 1 litre of either
  
  • 40g of glucose,
  • 40g of galactose, or
  • 40g of a placebo
  in a double blind manner. The protocol comprised: 20 minutes of progressive incremental exercise (70% to 85% maximal power output (Wmax)); 10x90 second bouts at 90% Wmax, separated by 180 seconds at 55% Wmax; 90% Wmax until exhaustion.
  
  Blood samples were drawn throughout the protocol. As the headline already told you the times to exhaustion were longer with glactose (68.7+/-10.2 minutes, P=0.005), interestingly that was true for both the placebo (63.9+/-16.2 minutes) and the glucose (58.5+/-24.9 minutes) trial.
  
  In view of the anti-lipolytic effects of high insulin, it's probably also worth mentioning that the ingestion of 40g of performance-increasing galactose supplement did (at least from a statistical perspective) not increase the participants insulin levels, at all.

• 

  SuppVersity HIGHLY Suggested Read: " Brocebo? Add 10kg to Your Bench in Days with Sugar-Based "Anabolic Steroids". Old Study Shows, Many "Natural Anabolics" Could Work Solely via Placebo Effects" | read more

  Psyching yourself up will boost your sprint performance (Sarra. 2014) -- A soon-to-be-published study in the Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research that investigated the effect of "psyching-up" (PU) strategies, in this case preparatory arousal and imagery strategies, would improve the performance of 16 male sprinters (age 20.6 +/- 1.3 years, body mass 77.5 +/- 7.1 kg, height 180.8 +/- 5.6 cm).
  
  If we sprint forward to the results, we'll see that the imagery and preparatory arousal strategies did in fact contribute to performance increases in the short-distance sprints (from 0 to 10-m). The imagery strategy also increased the performance in the 30-m sprints.
  
  And you know what? These "psyching-up" strategies work even if you don't buy a useless supplement take it before your workout and ignite the "placebo afterburner"
• Work out to decrease your fasting insulin levels by 10% (Conn. 2014) -- In spite of the fact that we all believe we knew that regular exercise will have beneficial effects on  insulin sensitivity, there is very little comprehensive data on the average effect size.
  
  A recent meta-analysis from the University of Missouri provides just that: A "Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis of Outcomes Among Healthy Adults", which reveals what the subheading to this item in today's exercise news-quickie already told you: The average participant in one of the 78 papers that were included in the analysis showed statistically lower fasting insulin levels (6.9mU/L) than the control subjects (7.9 mU/L).

Bottom line: If you are already working out regularly, you may want to try to psyche you up, while you're guzzling a galactose drink before your next workout and let me know what happened, after you tore down the gym... if you are not, I mean, not working out, on the other hand, the decrease in insulin you can achieve with a minimal amount of physical activity should be reason enough to get your ass off the couch... and no, I am not talking about walking to the fridge to get another bottle of coke and some ice-cream to satisfy your sweet tongue ;-)

Reference:

• Conn V. S. et al. "Insulin Sensitivity Following Exercise Interventions: Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis of Outcomes Among Healthy Adults." J Prim Care Community Health. (2014) Jan 27. [Epub ahead of print]
• Hammoudi-Nassib, S. et al. "Effects of psyching-up on sprint performance". Journal of Strength & Conditioning Research. January 28, 2014 [accepted manuscript].
• O'Hara, J.P. et al. "The Effect of Pre-exercise Galactose and Glucose Ingestion on High-Intensity Endurance Cycling". Journal of Strength & Conditioning Research. January 28, 2014 [accepted manuscript].

3.2g of Beta Alanine Reduce Rate of Perceived Exertion, Increase Time to Exhaustion and Ventilatory Threshold. Vegetarians, Older People and Diabetics May Benefit Most.

Image 1: If you are into running, ladies, beta alanine is for you ;-)

Those of you who make sure that they are getting their highly educative daily dose of the SuppVersity *rofl* will be aware that today's blogpost is, once again, dealing with beta alanine. Contrary to yesterday's post, which dealt with its pharmacokinetics, we are today going to have another look at what kind of real world performance outcomes the average (female!) physical culturist can expect from taking at least 3.2g of the beta amino acid per day - a dosage that has been shown in previous studies to increase intra-muscular carnosine levels by 27–39% in fast- and slow-twitch muscle fibers, respectively (Baguet. 2009). And though I do not want to spoil things, I can already tell you that the results make it quite clear why beta alanine is not the next creatine.

Somehow ergogenic, yet not really antioxidant

For the study that was conducted at the Applied Physiology Laboratory at the University of North Carolina, study that was conducted by A.E. Smith recruited 24 "recreationally active" women, of which the authors state that they "engag[ed] in 3–7 days per week of aerobic, resistance or recreational activities, but were not highly trained competitive athletes". With a mean age of 21.8 years, a height of 165cm and a body weight of 61.5kg the subjects are thusly representative of the average young woman who goes to the gym to either get or keep in shape. I am specifically emphasizing this, because - at least in the early days - beta alanine was heavily marketed as "the creatine for women" who fear the water retention people still claim was an inevitable side effect of creatine supplementation.

Image 2: If you retain water, this is not due to creatine monohydrate. Either you are taking to much (creatine loading is a thing of the past) or you have bought a product with shitloads of carbs in it - in that case, chances are its not only water you are gaining ;-)

Does creatine supplementation inevitably lead to water retention and weight gain? Just because this myth is still perpetuated, especially among female figure competitors, I thought it may be worth addressing this again: Pure creatine monohydrate without the sugar and the other bullshit you will find in many creatine supplements does not necessarily lead to increases in either total body or water weight. A study by Rawson et al. showed only recently that the consumption of 0.03g/kg creatine for six weeks did not result in statistically significant changes in body weight or water in men or women, despite significantly increased plasma creatine concentration and enhanced resistance to fatigue during repeated bouts of high-intensity contractions (Rawson. 2011).

The women were advised to simply stick to their usual routine and to refrain from taking any supplements and medications except from their 2x800mg beta alanine tablets. The latter were to be taken 3x a day... so according to Cocker, they should have consumed 2x0.8g x3/day = 4.8g/day and not, as the scientists state "3.2 g daily". Now, according to Smith et al. this was the "required dosage" all participants met. I can however not say, whether this means that the third dose was optional... and this is not the only oddity in this study, where it is well worth to look beyond the assessments and conclusions of the authors.

At the beginning and the end of the 28-day supplementation period, the women had to perform a graded oxygen consumption test (VO2max) to evaluate VO2max, time to exhaustion, ventilatory threshold and establish peak velocity (PV), as well as a "non-damaging treadmill run (oxidative stress run) for 40 min at 70% PV [peak velocity]". Before, immediately after and in the 2-6h post running window total antioxidant capacity (TAC), superoxide dismutase (SOD), 8-isoprostane (8ISO) and reduced glutathione (GSH) were measured. In addition to that, heart rate and ratings of perceived exertion were recorded during the 40 min run. The two main metrics of the study were thusly the potential anti-oxidant effects (TAC, SOD, 8ISO, GSH) and the anticipated immediate ergogenic effects (VO2Max, time to exhaustion, heart rate and perceived exertion) of beta alanine supplementation.

Figure 1: Effect of 28 days of beta alanine supplementation on maximal oxygen consumption (VO2max), time to exhaustion during a graded exercise test (VO2TTE) and ventilatory threshold (VT) and qualitative practical significance (data and caption adapted from Smith. 2011)

If you now have a look at the my graphical rehash of the scientists own evaluation of the effect beta alanine supplementation had on VO2Max, the time to exhaustion (VO2TTE) and the ventilatory threshold (VT), you will have to concede that mean improvements of 0.28%, 6.6% and 3.7%, respectively, as well as the large discrepancies among the subjects (from beneficial over negligible to harmful) do not actually speak for beta alanine.

Figure 2: Effect of beta alanine supplementation on oxidative stress markers measured as total
antioxidant capacity (TAC) and glutathione (GSH) and the qualitative practical significance
for women (data and caption adapted from Smith. 2011)

Things get even more confusing when we take a look at the antioxidant effects of beta alanine. Not only were the levels of superoxide dismutase (SOD) and 8-isoprostane (8ISO) not different between groups, and the effect of beta alanine on the total antioxidant capacity (TOC) of the subjects negligible, the scientists' summary of the effects does even suggest that, after an initial amelioration of the negative effect of treadmill running on GSH, there was some sort of a "likely harmful" rebound 6h after the 40 min exercise bout. Before you do now flush your beta alanine stores down the toilette, I suggest you first take a look at the actual (absolute) effects beta alanine supplementation had on the exercise induced changes in GSH levels:

Figure 3: Absolute GSH levels (in µM) immediately before (pre), post, 2h and 4h after treadmill running in the placebo and beta alanine supplemented women before (pre) and after (post) the 28-day supplementation period (compiled based on data from Smith. 2011)

As you can see in figure 3, there was an (unexplained) increase in GSH in the course of the 28-day supplementation period in both groups. With 2%, the latter was statistically non-significantly greater in the beta alanine group, and the "likely harmful" effect of beta alanine supplementation 6h after the end of the treadmill-run is simply the result of a smaller increase in GSH, when you compare the pre- to post-supplementation levels at the 6h mark - and I guess, you would agree that a +27% increase in GSH is not exactly something that deserves to be called "likely harmful", wouldn't you?

All-clear: Beta alanine is not ergolytic ;-)

Now that we have gotten that straight, let's get to the last (and most) significant benefit the women in the beta alanine group had from taking the supplement: a statistically significant reduction in the rate of perceived exertion during treadmill running (cf. figure 4).

Figure 4: Rates of perceived exertion during 40 min treadmill running before (pre) and after (post) 28 days of supplementation with beta alanine or placebo; small graph: relative difference post supplementation in women receiving BA vs. placebo (data calculated based on Smith. 2011)

It goes without saying that being 18% less fatigued is something that could well be worth spending the roughly 7$ for a 28-day supply on (calculation based on a dose of 3.2g per day taken over 28 days and assuming you buy your beta alanine in bulk at one of the major suppliers). This, by the way, could be particularly true if you belong to one of the following groups, who have been found to have low intra-muscular carnosine levels, to begin with:

Image 3: Older people are only one of the three groups who are "at risk" of low carnosine levels and are thusly most likely to benefit from beta alanine supplementation.

1. vegetarians - a 2011 study by Evaraert et al. found that "Vegetarians have a lower carnosine content of 26% in gastrocnemius compared to omnivores" (Everaert. 2011); and according to another recent study, the soleus carnosine content of vegetarians was "non-significantly" reduced by -9% after 5 weeks of sprint training, while the same protocol elicited increases of +11% in omnivores (Baguet. 2011)
2. older people - Evaraert et al. found a linear decline (ca. -10% in 20 years) in carnosine levels with age (correlation r=-0.26; Everaert. 2011); and Stout et al. report a highly significant +29% increase in physical working capacity at the fatigue threshold in twenty-six men (n = 9) and women (n = 17) (age ± SD = 72.8 ± 11.1 yrs) who  had been supplementing with 800 mg three times per day for 90 days (Stout. 2008)
3. type-2 diabetics - according to Gualano et al. type-2 diabetics have "significantly lower carnosine content (−45%) in gastrocnemius muscle", a relative deficiency of which the scientists argue that it "may be partially associated with defective mechanisms against oxidative, glycative and carbonyl stress in muscle." (Gualano. 2011)

After all, it does yet not really matter whether you are a type-2 diabetic, a vegetarian or simply getting older, compared to many (if not most) of the other overpriced ergogenics that are advertised all over the web, beta alanine is certainly not only one of the cheapest, but also one of the most promising candidates for the 3rd place on your list of staples, where (whey) protein and creatine should nevertheless still occupy position 1 and 2, respectively. And the fact that it did not prove to be a potent antioxidant in this study need not really be a disadvantage, after all, we still do not know whether the exercise-induced oxidative "damage" is not what actually triggers the highly desirable adaptive responses (cf. previous posts on "hormesis"), we are all looking for, when we are hitting the gym.

XS® Energy Drink Practically Useless for Athletes: Not Even eXtra Small Improvements in Exercise Performance

XS Energy Drink. 0 sugar, only 83mg caffeine.
Probably tasty, but not ergogenic.

If you believe the marketing campaigns of supplement manufacturers (and, of lately energy drink producers), performance - just as about everything in our society - is for sale (in this case at the local GNC). You, as a regular visitor to the SuppVersity are yet aware that supplements, if they do work at all, usually provide a rather minute performance increase that - and here is where the magic happens - may nevertheless decide a head-to-head finish in your favor. It is thus very expedient that XSBlast refers to this X-tra S-mall advantage of their product line in their company name already... wait! You think they imply "XS" as in eXceSs? Well, I guess in the end it does not really matter, because their XS® Energy Drink, a mixture of 83mg caffeine, 1.5 g taurine, 6.0 mg Vitamin B6, 294 µg Vitamin B12, 10 mg Vitamin B5, 20 mg Vitamin B3, 24mg Sodium, 25mg Potassium, as well as undisclosed amounts of L-Glutamine, Citric Acid, an Adaptogen Blend (Eleutherococcus Senticosus, Panax Ginseng, Panax Quinquefolium, Schisandra, Astragalus, and Reishi), Natural Flavors and the artficial sweetener Acesulfame, does not seem to come up to any of these implications.

Supported by an independent research grant, K.M. Sheehan and L.K. Hartzler from the Department of Biological Sciences at Wright State University, Dayton, OH, USA, investigated in a double-blind cross-over study protocol (Sheehan. 2011) the effect of a single serving of XS® Energy Drink on subsequent exercise performance of 12 athletes (sex: 9m, 3f; age: 18-24 y) in a modified Ellestad Treadmill protocol and found:

Vo2max (p=0.99), time to muscle fatigue (p=0.48), maximum heart rate (p=0.66), [minute ventilation  max] VEmax (p=0.10), time at which [respiratory exchange ratio] RER is greater than 1 (p=0.50), or recovery time to one half Vo2max (p=0.67) were not significantly different with ingestion of XS® Energy Drink over placebo. 

Accordingly, the conclusion of the scientists, that "[e]ven with all sources of error taken into account it is still not likely that acute consumption of XS® Energy Drink, in the amount used in this experiment, has an advantageous performance effect" is valid for the whole spectrum of effect sizes from XS as in eXtra Small to XS as in eXceSsive ;-)

In view of some of the proclaimed ergogenics in the drink and the load of B-Vitamins having a possible effect on cognitive performance, as well, I would really like to see a study into these effects of this drink. Maybe, this is where the XS® Energy Drink produces eXceSsive results, after all.