The kitchen-cupboard compound that made sprint training work harder
Sprint interval training (SIT) is already one of the most time-efficient ways to build speed and repeat-sprint fitness. Now a new randomized trial suggests that a cheap powder, sodium bicarbonate (baking soda), may add extra gains on top of it, and that more (within reason) did better than less.
The study, by Wang and colleagues in the Journal of the International Society of Sports Nutrition (2026), put two doses of sodium bicarbonate (Sb) head to head in basketball players doing four weeks of SIT. The headline: both doses beat placebo, and the higher dose beat the lower dose on every measure the researchers tracked.
What the researchers actually did
Forty trained male basketball players (about 21.6 years old, 185 cm, 84 kg) were randomly split into four groups of ten:
- SIT + 0.3 g/kg sodium bicarbonate
- SIT + 0.45 g/kg sodium bicarbonate
- SIT + placebo
- Control (no SIT)
The trial ran for four weeks during the preparatory phase of the season. The three SIT groups trained three times a week on top of their normal basketball practice. Each session was four sets of ten 5-second all-out sprints, with 20 seconds of active recovery between reps and 2 minutes between sets. All 40 players finished, a 0% dropout rate.
Before and after, everyone was tested on:
- Countermovement vertical jump and standing long jump
- 20 m sprint
- Illinois change-of-direction test (agility)
- Yo-Yo Intermittent Recovery Test Level 1 (repeat-effort endurance)
- Wingate test for peak and mean power
The results, in plain English
Every SIT group improved over time, and all of them outperformed the control group. That part is unsurprising, since the controls did no sprint work.
The interesting comparison is supplement versus placebo. Both Sb groups improved more than SIT + placebo in jump height, standing long jump, sprint time, agility, Yo-Yo distance, peak power and mean power (p < 0.05). The 0.45 g/kg group then improved significantly more than the 0.3 g/kg group across all of those variables.
That is a clean dose-response pattern: placebo, then 0.3, then 0.45, with the gains stepping up each time.
Why would baking soda help sprint training?
The abstract reports outcomes, not mechanisms, so treat this section as context rather than something the trial proved. Sodium bicarbonate is an alkalizing agent. The common theory is that it boosts the body's buffering of the acid that builds up during repeated high-intensity efforts. If athletes can sustain higher quality in each sprint and rep, the training stimulus may be better, which could translate into bigger adaptations over weeks. That is a plausible explanation, but this study did not measure blood buffering, so it can't confirm it.
Practical takeaways: dose, timing, who it's for
Dose by body weight. Multiply your body mass by the dose:
- 0.3 g/kg: about 25 g for an 84 kg athlete
- 0.45 g/kg: about 38 g for the same athlete
That is a lot of powder. A level teaspoon of baking soda is roughly 4 to 5 g, so these doses run to several teaspoons. Many athletes use capsules instead.
Timing. The abstract does not say when the doses were taken relative to training. Many sports nutrition protocols give bicarbonate in the hours before exercise, but check the full paper for the exact protocol before copying it.
Who it's for. The evidence here applies to trained young male team-sport athletes doing hard sprint interval work. If you're a basketball, soccer, hockey or similar player in a preparatory phase with repeated sprint sessions, this is directly relevant. For casual gym-goers, women, older adults or people on a different training plan, this trial can't tell you whether you'd see the same effect.
The GI problem nobody should skip
The authors say outright that the higher dose has to be weighed against stomach discomfort and individual tolerance, because long-term compliance matters. The abstract gives no figures on how many players had symptoms, so don't assume the 0.45 g/kg dose was trouble-free.
General strategies that sports nutritionists commonly suggest, not tested in this study:
- Trial the dose in training, never first on game day
- Split the total into smaller portions
- Take it with a carbohydrate-containing meal and fluids
- Consider capsules rather than powder in water
- Start at the lower dose and move up only if you tolerate it
Because bicarbonate is a sodium load, anyone with blood pressure, kidney or other medical concerns should check with a doctor first.
Honest limitations
- Small study. Ten athletes per group is a small sample, so effects could look different in larger trials.
- Short duration. Four weeks says little about longer-term benefits or whether gains plateau.
- Males only. All participants were trained men.
- Control group isn't the key comparison. SIT beating no SIT is expected. The meaningful findings are Sb versus placebo and high versus low dose.
- No magnitude in the abstract. Statistically significant doesn't tell us how large the practical gains were, so claims that it "doubled" results would go beyond the data.
- Tolerability trade-off. The best-performing dose may also be the hardest on the gut.
Bottom line
In this trial, adding sodium bicarbonate to four weeks of sprint interval training produced larger improvements in jumping, sprinting, agility, repeat-effort endurance and anaerobic power than training with placebo, and 0.45 g/kg outperformed 0.3 g/kg throughout. It's an inexpensive, intriguing option for team-sport athletes, but one to approach with careful dose testing and a plan for your stomach.
Source: Wang et al. Dose-dependent effects of sodium bicarbonate supplementation combined with sprint interval training on performance adaptations in basketball players: a randomized placebo-controlled trial. J Int Soc Sports Nutr, 2026. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/15502783.2026.2735090 | PubMed
