Bicarb soda?mith or truth?

[skindog101]

Bloke I use to work with was a race horse trainer for years and we got talk about my weight training and he said have u tried drinking bicarb soda b4 u train?a table spoon in a cup of water?I said no I had not, he said that bicarb soda is the most illegal thing in horse racing because it limits the amount of lactic acid generated in the muscle thus makes the horse run faster winning races!

Has anyone tried this?or even heard about this?

 

[ItsHectic]

What he is saying is true.
But it seems to be for endurance not power, strength or hypertrophy.
So it will help you do 120 reps instead of 100 reps.

A bicarb (TCO2) stomach drench is popular with many trainers as it has been found that bicarb helps buffer lactic acid. But as bicarb is naturally produced, it cannot be banned entirely. Instead, there is a threshold level of 36 millimoles a litre plasma total carbon dioxide. Any reading over that constitutes an offence.Racing Victoria Ltd's chief veterinary surgeon, Dr John McCaffrey, says bicarb is an old remedy, but it has been abused in more recent times."Bicarb - or baking soda - has been used by trainers for many years but the whole perspective of that changed some years ago when there was evidence that people were using large quantities of it with the intent of trying to have some effect on performance," McCaffrey said."When you give large quantities of bicarb - I am not talking about a teaspoon- or tablespoon-full that trainers have been giving horses for years; we are talking about large quantities of 600 grams or so - the whole idea is that when a horse is exercising, then the bicarb would mop up the lactic acid, which is a waste product of muscle activity."So it does not make the horse run faster. It basically means the horse can perform at the same level for longer."​

http://www.theage.com.au/news/Horse-Racing/The-drugs-challenge/2004/12/27/1103996492071.html​

 

[ZiR RED]

This is what I performed my thesis research on...the effects of bicarbonate loading on repeat sprint ability in soccer players.

When exercising anaerobically we produce lactic acid. The acid reduces the pH of the muscle cell, and thereby inhibits certain enzymes involved in energy production. This in turn reduces performance.

Bicarbonate is a buffer..in other words, it ties up the hydorgen ion (acid) so that it cannot reduce pH and thus allows for more lactic acid production (faster production of energy).

Now, to take advantage of it you need two things.

1. the right dose...which appears to be .3 g/kg of body weight. For a 220 man this is 30g

2. The right exercise. An exercise that produces a high amount of lactic acid. This would be something like 400m repeat sprints, mountain biking, a 1000m row, etc.

Like the above poster said, its not going to do much nless you are doing high rep training with very low rest periods.

Also, the side effects include diareah.

For more information in hu8mans, check out some of the research done by Dr. David Bishop

Br

 

[skindog101]

Very interesting fellas mmmmmm

 

[Jcob]

not necessary