Demystifying Sports Nutrition: Straightforward Tips & Expert Secrets
- By Mario Fraioli
- Published Sep. 6, 2011
- Updated Mar. 15, 2012 at 5:09 PM UTC
Performance Booster
A secret that Krista Austin, Ph.D., of Performance and Nutrition Coaching, shares with her elites is taking sodium bicarbonate, or baking soda, in gel capsules.
“It will expand your blood volume, give you more sodium and act as a buffer for you to tolerate lactic acid better so you won’t be breathing as hard,” she reveals. “If you’re a salty sweater, sodium bicarbonate loading will help prevent cramping and dehydration.”
Here’s how to do it: Buy gelatin capsules from Whole Foods and fill with a tiny amount, about 0.3mg per kilogram of body weight, of baking soda. Don’t even contemplate not using the gel caps or else you’ll be “strapped to the toilet,” Austin says.
Take with a light carbohydrate beverage before hard, long tempo runs or long interval workouts a few times during training to ensure that your body can tolerate it. You may feel a bit heavier and thirstier; Austin recommends hydrating with Gatorade’s G2 sports drink when you’re trying this. In the five days before a goal race, Austin has her athletes take 10 capsules throughout each day with fluid. You can’t use this trick all the time, Austin warns, but when used sparingly, can be “one of the keys to dropping and doing push-ups after a marathon,” she says.
FILED UNDER: Nutrition TAGS: Antioxidants / Carbo Loading / dietary supplements / dieting / perform / race fueling / Recovery Nutrition / sports nutrition
Mario Fraioli
Mario Fraioli is a senior editor at Competitor magazine. A cross-country All-American at Stonehill College in 2003, he now coaches the Prado Women's Racing Team in San Diego and was the men's marathon coach for Costa Rica's 2012 Olympic team. His first book, The Official Rock 'n' Roll Guide To Marathon & Half-Marathon Training (VeloPress, 2013) is available in bookstores, running shops and online.