How Baking Soda Can Help Your Workout

Baking soda, better known as sodium bicarbonate, can be used not only for baking, but also for cleaning various surfaces , soothing heartburn, and even browning meat better . Aside from these uses, baking soda has another unexpected and underappreciated use: it can be used to improve athletic performance .

Similar to creatine, baking soda may help with short, high-intensity workouts , which is thought to be due to its ability to buffer hydrogen ions produced from anaerobic metabolism. A number of studies have shown that athletes who take baking soda experience less fatigue during high-intensity exercise , allowing them to work harder for longer periods of time, and also report reduced recovery times , which may help them stay on course. training cycle.

“In the world of sports science, we know that [baking soda] works, and works well,” said José Antonio , a sports scientist at Nova Southeastern University. However, “in the real world, where you can try it, no one likes to do it.”

Research shows that baking soda is an effective performance enhancer.

Baking soda has been studied as a sports aid for decades, and a significant amount of research has shown it to be most beneficial for short bouts of high-intensity exercise , ranging from 30 seconds to twelve minutes. In practice, it can help in sports such as weightlifting, martial arts, running, swimming, and cycling. In terms of its effectiveness, baking soda can help boost your high-intensity performance a bit , cutting race time by a few seconds or landing a few more hits during a boxing match.

Research also shows that combining baking soda with creatine may result in a greater effect on athletic performance than either alone , which is thought to be due to the different modes of action of the two supplements. “You get different mechanical effects,” Antonio said.

Creatine works by increasing your body’s stores of phosphocreatine , which your body uses for energy. Having a higher supply of phosphocreatine in your body can help you work out a little more at high intensity when your supplies are low.

In contrast, baking soda acts by buffering hydrogen ions produced from anaerobic metabolism . It is these hydrogen ions that are responsible for the fatigue and “burn” you get from high-intensity exercise. Baking soda helps neutralize some of these hydrogen ions, which in turn helps delay the onset of fatigue.

Disadvantages of using baking soda

The main reason baking soda isn’t often used as a sports supplement is because you need a lot of it – to the point where it can cause stomach upset and diarrhea. The recommended dosage is 0.3 grams per kilogram of body weight . For a 60 kg athlete, this amounts to 18 grams per day. Given that one teaspoon of baking soda weighs about 4.8 grams, that’s about 3.75 teaspoons of baking soda. That’s a lot of baking soda and, by extension, a lot of sodium, which means if you have high blood pressure or have been advised by your doctor to limit your salt intake, this is not an option.

However, as Antonio points out, “a low dose is better than no dose.” The minimum effective dose starts at 0.2 grams per kilogram of body weight, which is a more acceptable dose; and it is also possible to split the dosage throughout the day. “It would be logical to use small doses and gradually increase them,” Antonio said. This way, your body will get used to the baking soda, which can help minimize any potential gastrointestinal problems.

How baking soda works in practice

In the past few weeks, I’ve started mixing a small amount of baking soda into my daily water bottles, using a low-sugar powdered mix to mask the taste. I added baking soda throughout the day, adding about two teaspoons in total, spread out over two to three large bottles of water. I also added a scoop of creatine to one of the bottles to boost the baking soda. The result is a slightly fizzy, slightly bitter drink. The dose was low enough that I did not experience any noticeable gastrointestinal symptoms. I also added it daily, including non-training days.

For context, I am a former athlete who developed an autonomic nervous system disorder called Postural Orthostatic Tachycardia Syndrome , or POTS for short, one of the first signs of which was an unexplained drop in athletic performance. Currently, exercise is an important part of managing my condition, but I struggle more with high-intensity exercise as it takes me longer to recover.

Ironically, the addition of baking soda coincided with a period of training that I felt a little better than usual, and after stopping the baking soda for a few days, my workouts got a little harder. The difference was subtle enough that it could easily be a placebo effect, but given the research, it’s a fairly simple (and cheap) measure that I’m willing to keep using.