Effects of Sodium Bicarbonate Supplementation on Repeated-sprint Ability in Professional vs. Amateur Soccer Players

Abstract

Soccer is described within the research as a high-speed and high-intensity intermittent sport exposing players across many levels to a continued physical, physiological, technical, tactical and psychological demands. This variance of stressors encountered during actual training and competitive match-play have shown fatigue to become a prevalent issue, especially following periods of high intensity bouts. As a result this investigation has been developed in order to compare the effects of sodium bicarbonate ingestion (NaHCO3) on professional and amateur soccer player’s RSA (7 x professional players: mean±SD: age 21.7±2.1yrs; weight 79.7±9.5kg; and 7 x amateur players: mean±SD: age 22.8±1.2yrs; weight 79.3±4.9kg). Each player ingested 0.3g.kg-1 NaHCO3 or placebo microcrystalline cellulose (MC) in a randomized, double-blind, crossover order, 90-minutes before the repeated-sprint ability (RSA) test (5 x 6-seconds maximal-effort sprints). No differences were found in La- concentrations among professional or amateur players in MC or NaHCO3 conditions pre-exercise (P>0.05). The NaHCO3 trial revealed significantly higher post-exercise La-concentrations in professional (9.57±1.09vs. 10.77±0.90mmol/L-1) vs. amateur players (10.06±1.45 vs. 10.87±1.25 mmol/L-1). NaHCO3 resulted in significant improvements in mean power output in sprints 2 (512.3±199.4 vs. 547.6±185.3W) and 3 (468.6±209.4 vs. 491.6±199.0W) in amateurs, but no effect in professionals. Therefore, it may be suggested that amateur participants in soccer may benefit from NaHCO3 ingestion more than professional players as a result of their reduced physical conditioning level when compared to professional level players.