RESEARCH ARTICLE Acute versus chronic supp a

Full list of author information is available at the end of the articleIntroduction Alkalizing agents have been used in high performance sports as a strategy to postpone the onset of fatigue during high intensity exercise by slowing the decline in muscle and blood pH [1,2]. Studies have confirmed that in-creasing the extracellular pH, via an alkalizer, promotes the efflux of lactate and H+ from the active muscles [1,3-5]. Therefore, artificially inducing alkalosis prior to anaerobic exercise may reduce intracellular acidosis and increase the time to fatigue [6,7] The process known as “bicarbonate loading”, in which sodium bicarbonate is ingested pre-performance, is a popular method of blood alkalization among athletes [6,8]. According to a recent meta-analysis by Carr et al. [8], sodium bicarbonate enhances performance by 1.7% (±2.0%) for a 60 sec maximal effort, with a dose of 0.3 g kg−1 of body mass being the optimal dose. How