Can taking baking soda make you stronger in your workouts?

Posted February 28th, 2009 by Dr Sean

We all know that exercise causes lactic acid buildup and some studies have shown that taking baking soda (sodium bicarbonate) can enhance performace in short-duration, high-intensity exercises. But does sodium bicarbonate help with muscular strength during weightlifting?

In a recent study in the Journal of Exercise Physiology, Materko and colleagues looked at this question. They took 11 healthy male subjects and randomized them to either take Sodium Chloride (salt water) or sodium bicarbonate (0.3 g/kg) two hours before a muscle strength test. Then they had each sujects perform 10 rep max on bench press and pull press. They found NO differences in muscular strength between taking Sodium Bicarbonate versus sodium chloride. At this time, I do not recommend using sodium bicarbonate in strength training until we have some longer, better powered, clinical trials.

Reference:
Materko W, Novaes JS, Santos EL. Effect of Bicarbonate Supplementation on the Muscular Strength. JEPonline 2008;11(6):25-33

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On March 2nd, 2009 Dan says:

I think there have been other studies that do show a small increase in certain kinds of activities (i.e. alters the pVO2 slow-component response). However, at those dosing levels, a 70kg male is ingesting about 5 grams of sodium which is far beyond the daily recommendation for sodium levels. Secondly, there are a lot of potential health problems from self administering sodium bicarbonate including metabolic alkalosis, edema and heart failure. And even if you ignore those risks, there were minimal benefits in the studies I saw (unless you're an elite level sprinter) and I don't think anyone has studied a healthy loading regimen.

I'm also curious to know how much of the sodium bicarbonate actually reaches the bloodstream, since the reaction of sodium bicarbonate and stomach acid would breakdown at least a portion of it into sodium chloride, co2 and water. Is the blood alkalization cause by the actual sodium bicarbonate metabolization or some secondary effect (e.g. the pancreas reducing more bicarbonate)? Also, what would the long term effects be on the "normal" lactate threshold of a healthy athlete? Are they reducing it? Are they just training their bodies to produce less bicarbonate? The studies so far seem pretty weak and none address the long term effects of this kind of supplementation.