Diet gun

Sodium bicarbonate, it is also known as baking soda.
Sodium bicarbonate is an alkaline salt. Alkaline it is a substance that possesses a pH on the basic side, over 7.0 (7.0 is neutral). Sodium Bicarbonate has 8.4 ph.
The human ideal pH is 7.4 slightly alkaline.

Most processes in the body produce acid and during the day the body becomes more acidic.

Our kidneys constantly produce small doses of sodium bicarbonate to maintain our pH level at the ideal 7.4.

Our body also produces carbonic acid, also trying to maintain our pH level at the ideal 7.4.
The process of the body making carbonic acid results in a slight acidosis.

We must return the body to the balance of 7.4 and to do that we need to eat more alkaline foods or alkaline substances such as sodium bicarbonate and to limit acidic foods.

When we eat alkaline foods, eat fewer acidic foods and take sodium bicarbonate, we help our body limit these processes to a minimum, in a way we give it a rest.


Athletes and Sodium Bicarbonate

In athletes, this help that sodium bicarbonate gives to the body is more visible because exercise itself creates more acidosis (lactic acid) than it creates in people who do not exercise, causing fatigue and/or reduced performance.

Essentially it improves performance by restoring acid-base disorders.

It has been shown to help in high-intensity training or competition from 1-7 minutes. Also in repeated high-intensity sprints and increases the ability to high-intensity “sprint” during exercise or endurance competition.

It is more effective

as the dose increases (0.5% improvement for every 0.1 g/kg of body weight)

as the number of repeated sprints increases (0.6% improvement for every additional 5 sprints)

as the athletes are better trained (1.1% reduction in activity in less trained athletes)

The amount of sodium bicarbonate  intake to be ergogenic is 300mg-500mg/kg of body weight approximately 1 to 2 hours before exercise or competition. There is no need to load the body days before the competition but to administer it only on the day of the competition or training.

It can cause nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, stomach pain, so it is wise not to consume the maximum allowed amount except after observation e.g. during training.

Sodium bicarbonate can be found in pill, capsule or powder form.

Note also that there are up to 4000 mg of sodium bicarbonate in 1 teaspoon of baking soda.


Practical shooting and sodium bicarbonate

Taking sodium bicarbonate will not help a practical shooter athlete due to the short duration of time he competes in a stadium of a match.

It is useless to take a sodium bicarbonate supplement on the day of the match or before a training day.

What will help is a proper and balanced diet with more alkaline foods and fewer acidic foods so that he can rest his body in the long term.

We will refer to acidic and alkaline foods in a subsequent article.