As we have discussed at length in the past, some of the fundamental physiological adaptations sought by endurance athletes through training occur in the mitochondria. A textbook will tell you that the mitochondria are the ‘aerobic powerhouses’ of cells; the sites of aerobic metabolism, and therefore metabolically where an endurance athlete makes their money. It has long been known that significant mitochondrial remodelling occurs in response to exercise (4), with increased size, number, and functionality of mitochondria observed following endurance training (5). This mitochondrial remodelling, and subsequent useful increase in the mitochondrial respiratory capacity, typically occurs as a result of mitochondrial biogenesis – the building of nice new mitochondria – and mitophagy – the break-down of damaged existing mitochondria.

A couple of recent studies have reported quite startling findings; namely, that short periods of very intense training actually...

Dr Dan Plews and Ed Maunder

Scientists have investigated many different strategies that may up-regulate adaptations to endurance training. One thing that the majority of these strategies have in common – e.g. training with low-glycogen availability, under heat stress, or at altitude – is that they make training harder. With low-glycogen availability you have less carbohydrate energy available and may well feel flat; under heat stress the powers and paces you achieve at the various intensity thresholds decrease as you get hotter, and at altitude, it is more difficult to get the necessary oxygen to the working muscles due to the thin air. Therefore, any greater adaptive pay off comes at some cost

One strategy that may not come at this “makes it harder” cost that has seen some attention in the exercise physiology literature is bicarbonate supplementation during training. Many of you may be familiar with bicarbonate in an acute performance context; as an...