EFFECT OF SODIUM BICARBONATE AND SODIUM CITRATE SUPPLEMENTATION ON SWIMMING PERFORMANCE

An ingestion of dietary buffering agents has been proposed to enhance performance in high intensity exercise. This study investigated the effect of ingesting sodium bicarbonate (SB) and sodium citrate (SC) on middle distance swimming performance and blood responses. Six elite male freestyle swimmers (20.7 +/- 2.1 yrs; 184 +/- 6 cm; 79.9 +/- 3.9 kg; 10.6 +/- 1% body fat) participated in a double blinded, placebo controlled crossover trial. Eighty-five minutes after consuming SB (0.3 g/kg), SC (0.3 mg/kg) or placebo (PL) participants completed single 400-m freestyle maximal test on three consecutive days. The order of the trials was randomized. A capillary blood samples were obtained on 4 occasions. In a resting state (baseline), 60 min post-ingestion, immediately post-trial and 15 min post-trial to determine pH, HCO3 - concentration and base excess (BE). Blood analytes responses were significantly different from PL following SB ingestion in all postingestion time sampling points (p< 0.05). There was no statistically significant difference in performance between the conditions. In conclusion, an acute supplementation of SB, not SC before swimming task increase performance by similar to 1%.