Sodium Bicarbonate

Supplements · Sports Performance · Supplement, Typed Supps

Baking soda you drink before a hard, short workout to fight off that burning muscle feeling.

Stage by stage

Intake (Powder in water): Absorbed quickly in the stomach and small intestine.
Stomach (Can cause GI upset): Commonly causes digestive discomfort at effective doses, a well-known practical drawback.
Bloodstream (Raises blood alkalinity): Raises blood bicarbonate levels, increasing the blood’s buffering capacity.
Muscle during intense exercise (Buffers acid buildup): Helps buffer the acid that builds up in muscles during very intense, short-duration exercise.

What the evidence supports

Improving high-intensity exercise lasting roughly 1–10 minutes, repeated sprints and combat sports — strong evidence. The ISSN position stand and multiple trials show a consistent ergogenic effect at about 0.3 g/kg for efforts limited by acid build-up.
Improving longer, continuous endurance events — limited evidence. Meta-analysis found negligible benefit for continuous running and similar longer efforts.
Evidence that it causes Causing gastrointestinal distress — moderate evidence. Nausea, cramps, bloating and diarrhoea are common and dose-dependent, and can themselves impair performance if timing and dose are not managed.

Typical dose

0.2–0.3 g/kg body weight taken roughly 60–180 minutes before exercise, with 0.3 g/kg being the usual optimal dose

Upper limit: Higher doses (0.4–0.5 g/kg) add side effects without extra benefit

Timing

60–90 minutes before intense exercise, often in divided doses to reduce GI upset.

Time to effect

~1 hr: For the acute buffering effect during exercise.

Medication interactions

Lithium: Sodium loading increases renal lithium excretion, which can lower lithium levels and reduce its effect. (moderate)

Common myth

“Sodium bicarbonate helps with any type of exercise.” In reality: Its benefit is specific to very short, high-intensity efforts — it doesn’t meaningfully help longer endurance activity.