Science Library

Sodium bicarbonate

Moderate evidence

Endurance

Dose

0.3 g/kg

Timing

60-180 min pre

Best for

1-8 min efforts

Catch

Can wreck your gut

Does it work?

-Only if your event is a hard, all-out effort lasting roughly 1 to 8 minutes — and even then the case is narrower than it used to look. Baking soda buffers the acidity that builds during anaerobic work, but a 2025 meta-analysis of continuous running found that once you account for the people who dropped out with gut symptoms and for publication bias, the benefit was negligible and not statistically significant. Gut side effects are the reliable part: 29.5% of users versus 2.6% on placebo.

How much · when

-Dose at 0.3 g/kg body weight (about 20-24 g for most people) — more is not better and just worsens GI upset.
-Take it 60 to 180 minutes before your effort, with a carb-rich meal and plenty of water to blunt stomach distress.
-Test it in training first, never on race day — find your own tolerated dose and timing before it counts.
-If single doses upset your gut, split the daily total across breakfast/lunch/dinner (0.1-0.2 g/kg each) for a few days, or use enteric-coated capsules.

The catch

-The GI side effects are the real story: bloating, nausea, cramps, and vomiting are common at the effective dose, and a bad gut day can hurt performance more than the buffer helps. Pooled across trials, symptoms hit 29.5% on bicarbonate versus 2.6% on placebo, and dropouts from gut trouble were nearly 3x higher.
-The performance gain shrinks under scrutiny. Adjusted for GI-related dropouts and publication bias, the effect on continuous running was 0.18 — negligible, and not significant. It stayed small-but-real in male-only trials (0.40), which is where most of the older evidence comes from.
-It does nothing for one-rep strength, short repeated sprints, or long endurance, and a meaningful slice of the benefit is placebo.

Safety

-High in sodium — relevant if you have high blood pressure, kidney issues, or are sodium-restricted; check with a doctor first.
-GI distress is common and dose-dependent. A 2026 review of 101 studies found single large doses are the worst; spreading intake over hours, using enteric-coated capsules, or taking mini-tablets in a carbohydrate hydrogel all reduce symptoms — though no study has directly compared those strategies head to head.
-Always trial it in training, never for the first time before something that matters.
-Do not confuse the gram-per-kilo dose with casual antacid use; too much can cause metabolic alkalosis.

Key research

Supplements

Beta-alanineModerate CaffeineStrong

Educational information, not medical advice. Talk to a healthcare professional before starting a supplement — especially if you're pregnant, nursing, or managing a health condition.