The answer to this question is... well, yes and no. I've had three months to try to quantify the benefits and the answer is: some. BG, KN, BW, CM, and JH conceived and designed the experiment. BG, KN, BK, and JH performed experiments. BG, KN, and JH analyzed data. BG, CM, and JH interpreted results of experiments. BG and JH prepared figures and tables. BG and JH drafted the manuscript. All authors edited or revised the manuscript. All authors approved the final version of the manuscript. Funding One of the limitations to a white paper like this is that it’s a good example of the sharpshooter fallacy. The term refers to the story of a Texan who shoots holes in the side of the barn and then draws targets around the bullet holes. Another way to put it: it’s important to call your shots before you take them. Trials often presented as hypothesis-testing are actually hypothesis-generating because of this bias. Sodium bicarbonate is easily dissolved in water and water-soluble molecules cannot easily penetrate the skins defenses. The innovative technology in PR Lotion creates a temporarily pathway between skin cells, without the use of harsh solvents, while maintaining the integrity of the skin. At the same time, the sodium bicarbonate is encapsulated within fatty acid salts (which also naturally occur in the body) to aid in transport through the skin. The combination of creating a temporary pathway between skin cells and the encapsulation of the water-soluble sodium bicarbonate, allows absorption through the skin and into the body’s tissues and blood stream. PR Lotion is a tool for the human body that delivers bicarbonate directly to your hardest working muscle groups. Bicarbonate is what your body naturally produces to neutralize acid, battle fatigue and reduce soreness. More bicarbonate means the ability to do more–more work, more results and more days doing what you love.

Even though the performance benefits of bicarbonate are clear, the potential for negative side effects in the gut can significantly discourage athletes from ingesting sodium bicarbonate. In fact, to combat the negative side effects, athletes include extensive and sometimes tedious protocols or strategies for sodium bicarbonate consumption into their pre-training or pre-competition routine. The timing of ingestion before exercise, the quantity of sodium bicarb ingested, and the “loading” strategy are all necessary considerations to carefully plan before ingesting sodium bicarbonate for the performance benefits without the negative side effects. Adding to the complexity, ingestion strategies need to be highly personalized to each athlete, as individuals can have varying responses or sensitivities to oral sodium bicarbonate. Early work by Costill et al., ( Costill et al., 1984), found that oral sodium bicarbonate could reduce metabolic acidosis in response to repeated bouts of supramaximal cycling and this was associated with improvements in cycling performance. Since then, the use of oral sodium bicarbonate as an ergogenic aid has produced mixed results due in part to differences in dosing practices, exercise models, acute ingestion versus chronic loading, and variation in gastrointestinal tolerance ( Carr et al., 2011; Calvo et al., 2021).The remaining authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest. Publisher’s note As the sets progressed and the weights increased, I did notice something: I was breathing just as hard as ever, but my legs still felt primed for more. Call it a fluke. Call it a placebo. IDK, but the fatigue I would normally experience just wasn’t there, particularly in my calves. For decades, the bicarbonate buffering system has been a target of ergogenic supplements and interventions, primarily using oral loading of exogenous sodium bicarbonate in the hours to days preceding an intense exercise bout ( Galloway and Maughan, 1996; Marx et al., 2002; Carr et al., 2011; Calvo et al., 2021). While oral sodium bicarbonate loading increases blood pH and bicarbonate concentration and can result in improvements in exercise performance ( Hirche et al., 1975; Kesl and Engen, 1998), it has often been associated with performance encumbering gastric distress when consumed at “ergogenic” doses of 0.3g/kg to 0.5g/kg body weight ( Carr et al., 2011). Various strategies of oral loading have been employed to mitigate gastric distress, however, even when split doses are used deleterious side effects often persist ( Oliveira et al., 2017). I typically do two hard training rides (60-120 minutes) per week, plus a long ride on Saturday. These are the rides where I’ve been consistently using PR Lotion this year. (It isn’t needed for my recovery rides since the goal then is to not push myself hard.)

Maughan, R.J., et al., IOC consensus statement: dietary supplements and the high-performance athlete. Br J Sports Med, 2018. 52(7): p. 439-455. McNaughton, L.R., J. Siegler, and A. Midgley, Ergogenic effects of sodium bicarbonate. Curr Sports Med Rep, 2008. 7(4): p. 230-6. Overall, the PR Lotion seems expensive for what it is, but if you also experience an increase in power then it becomes a cost-effective method of enhancing your performance, only a little more per serving than an SiS Beta Fuel gel. Verdict

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Comments containing language or concepts that could be deemed offensive will be deleted. Note this may include abusive, threatening, pornographic, offensive, misleading or libelous language. This isn't my first time experimenting with sodium bicarbonate during training. While at university, I participated in a research project quantifying the benefits of using bicarb during endurance cycling and the results showed that while there was an advantage to be had, for many people the resulting stomach issues and untimely toilet trips meant it simply wasn't worth it. It should also be noted that this study and many others have found that the benefits of bicarb have high variability, which is to say that different individuals will experience different results. PR Lotion sidesteps the ingestion issue: instead of eating it, you rub it on your legs. No gastrointestinal distress. How Do You Use It? BW holds equity in Momentous and has served as a scientific advisor to Momentous; BW stands to financially benefit from the success of Momentous’ products; BW has engaged in this research for and is publishing on behalf of Momentous. JH has received a research contract from Momentous; the University of Oregon remains Halliwill’s primary place of employment and all research are attributed to the University of Oregon. Sodium bicarbonate is a simple, naturally occurring electrolyte that your body uses to regulate pH. While most people know it as baking soda, sodium bicarbonate has been widely used and researched as a performance aid since the 1930’s. However, there's a catch - when consumed orally, sodium bicarbonate can cause major GI distress, offseting any performance benefits. Using patented technology, PR Lotion delivers sodium bicarbonate directly to your working muscles through your skin, bypassing the gut and eliminating GI distress.

The main active ingredient is sodium bicarbonate, or bicarb for short, and this natural electrolyte supports muscle function by buffering the acid created by the muscles during exercise Taken together, our observations support the idea that transdermal bicarbonate delivery may impact pH buffering both intramuscularly and systemically. In contrast to the observed changes in pH, alterations in [Na +] and [K +] in both intramuscular dialysate and serum were less clear. With PR Lotion application, serum [Na +] was significantly elevated ( Table 2) and tended to decrease in the placebo condition. However, other changes in Na + and K + concentrations were either inconsistent or were observed during both the primary study and the placebo time control ( Table 2). 4.1 Bicarbonate loading When reviewing products, I always try to have an open mind and no preconceived notions of whether it's going to be any good or not. With the PR Lotion, I couldn't help but feel that it had the potential to be snake oil with some rather large claims and marketing jargon such as it being the 'pro's secret weapon'. However, having used it for the second half of the race season, it has impressed me, with too many good power numbers to just be a coincidence. What is it? Used by Tour de France winners, MTB World Champions, IronMan professionals and marathon world record holders Muscle activation is critically dependent upon the Na +/K + pump to re-establish resting ion gradients. An eventual dysregulation of gradients is thought to contribute to sensations of fatigue and a diminishment in muscle force production ( Sreter and Woo, 1963; Juel, 1986; Nielsen and Overgaard, 1996). Overgaard et al. ( Overgaard et al., 1999) highlighted the importance of assessing changes in both Na + and K + in combination rather than separately when resting gradients are lost in fatigue models. In the current study, the rise of Na + concentration in the blood and reduction in K + concentration in the intramuscular dialysate may suggest a shift to a greater amount of Na + located extracellularly with a greater amount of K + intracellularly. This could occur in response to an improvement in pH-sensitive Na +/K + pump kinetics where greater activity has been reported in a more alkaline environment ( Skou and Esmann, 1980). Similar reductions in K + concentrations observed in the placebo time control suggests changes may be in response to influences beyond alkalinization caused by PR Lotion, such as fluid compartment shifts or other factors, complicating our results. Nevertheless, alterations in the ion concentrations of Na + and K + are differentially expressed across these physiological mechanisms and between the conditions, warranting further investigation. 4.5 Challenges of microdialysis

Why does it work (if it works)?

Note: if you didn’t read the series of articles I wrote last year you can get them here. They include a lot of specific performance numbers which may be of interest. What Is It? Two days before the first session, all of the participants performed a 20-minute time trial (TT) to set and calibrate the power of the intervals for the ensuing testing sessions. For the testing sessions, the participant was instructed to apply a tablespoon of assigned lotion per leg 30 minutes prior to beginning a warm-up on a smart indoor bike trainer. The warm-up lasted six minutes, and then the participant began the test: a 30-second interval at 140% of their TT power followed by a 20-second rest interval, and the pattern repeated until the participant could complete the work interval. When measuring ion concentrations in small volumes of fluid, occasional values appear outside the normative range of value and may reflect artifactual measurements. These outliers can have an oversized impact on group means when the number of participants is small. As such, we used a standard criterion of z-scores of ±3 to identify and exclude outliers prior to deriving group means and standard errors (SE) or completing statistical analysis. A total of 594 data points were collected across 13 subjects and, of those, 7 were identified as outliers and excluded.