Sodium bicarbonate

Does it work?

• -Only if your event is a hard, all-out effort lasting roughly 1 to 8 minutes. In that window, baking soda buffers the acidity that builds up during anaerobic work and gives a small but real edge. Outside that window — pure strength, short sprints, long steady cardio — it does nothing, and the gut side effects can backfire.

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.
• -The performance gain is modest (small-to-moderate effect) and only shows up in a narrow effort window — about 30 seconds to 12 minutes of high-intensity work.
• -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 (nausea, cramps, diarrhea, vomiting) is common at the effective dose. 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

• International Society of Sports Nutrition position stand: sodium bicarbonate and exercise performanceJ Int Soc Sports Nutr · 2021 · Position stand
• Effects of sodium bicarbonate supplementation on exercise performance: an umbrella reviewJ Int Soc Sports Nutr · 2021 · Systematic review
• Effects of acute alkalosis and acidosis on performance: a meta-analysisSports Med · 2011 · Meta-analysis
• Negligible benefit of oral single-dose sodium bicarbonate on continuous running performance: systematic review with meta-analysis of randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled trialsJ Int Soc Sports Nutr · 2025 · Meta-analysis
• Sodium bicarbonate and beta-alanine supplementation: Is combining both better than either alone? A systematic review and meta-analysisBiology of Sport · 2024 · Meta-analysis

Related