The influence of progressive-chronic and acute sodium bicarbonate supplementation on anaerobic power and specific performance in team sports: a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled crossover study

Krzysztof Durkalec-Michalski; Paulina M Nowaczyk; Jacek Adrian; Joanna Kamińska; Tomasz Podgórski

doi:10.1186/s12986-020-00457-9

The influence of progressive-chronic and acute sodium bicarbonate supplementation on anaerobic power and specific performance in team sports: a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled crossover study

Nutr Metab (Lond). 2020 May 24:17:38. doi: 10.1186/s12986-020-00457-9. eCollection 2020.

Authors

Krzysztof Durkalec-Michalski^{1

2}, Paulina M Nowaczyk¹, Jacek Adrian³, Joanna Kamińska⁴, Tomasz Podgórski⁴

Affiliations

¹ Institute of Human Nutrition and Dietetics, Poznań University of Life Sciences, Wojska Polskiego 31, 60-624 Poznań, Poland.
² Department of Food and Nutrition, Poznań University of Physical Education, Królowej Jadwigi 27/39, 61-871 Poznań, Poland.
³ Department of Theory and Methodology of Team Sport Games, Poznań University of Physical Education, Królowej Jadwigi 27/39, 61-871 Poznań, Poland.
⁴ Department od Physiology and Biochemistry, Poznań University of Physical Education, Królowej Jadwigi 27/39, 61-871 Poznań, Poland.

Abstract

Background: The aims of this study were to verify the effect of progressive-chronic and acute sodium bicarbonate (SB) supplementation on the anaerobic capacity, blood acid-base balance, and discipline-specific performance in team sports disciplines.

Methods: Twenty-four trained male field hockey players completed a randomized, placebo-controlled, crossover trial of either progressive-chronic (increments from 0.05 up to 0.2 g/kg) or an acute one-off dose (0.2 g/kg) supplementation protocol. Before and after treatments, athletes completed an exercise protocol that comprised of a discipline-specific field performance test conducted between two separate Wingate anaerobic tests (WAnTs).

Results: Progressive-chronic SB supplementation improved anaerobic capacity in the first bout of WAnTs, as observed based on an increase in mean power (MP: 575 ± 71 vs. 602 ± 67 W, p = 0.005, ~ + 4.7%), peak power (PP: 749 ± 94 vs. 777 ± 96 W, p = 0.002, ~ + 3.7%), power carry threshold (P_CT) at 97%_PP (727 ± 91 vs. 753 ± 93 W, p = 0.002, ~ + 3.6%) and average power over P_CT (739 ± 94 vs. 765 ± 95 W, p = 0.001, ~ + 3.5%). Acute SB supplementation had no effect on anaerobic capacity. However, an improvement in time during discipline-specific field performance test was observed after progressive-chronic (919 ± 42 vs. 912 ± 27 s, p = 0.05; ~ - 0.8%) and acute (939 ± 26 vs. 914 ± 22 s, p = 0.006, ~ 2.7%) SB supplementation. Acute SB supplementation also improved post-exercise parameters of acid-base balance (based on blood pH, bicarbonate concentration and base excess) compared to no supplementation or placebo.

Conclusions: Our study indicates that both chronic and acute SB supplementation positively supports discipline-specific performance among field hockey athletes. Moreover, the chronic protocol supported anaerobic power indices before the inset of exercise-induced fatigue but had no significant impact afterwards. However, only the acute protocol significantly affected the buffering capacity, which can be used to determine athlete's performance during high-intensity sporting events. This study design therefore highlighted that future studies focusing on sodium bicarbonate supplementation in team sports should concentrate on the efficiency of chronic and acute supplementation in varying time frames.

Keywords: Acid-base balance; Alkalizing agent; Buffering; Ergogenic support; Exercise performance; Sports nutrition.