Is Maurten’s Bicarb System Worth the Cost for Cyclists?

When the intensity of your cycling increases, so does the concentration of lactic acid in your muscles.

The build-up of acidity within the muscles is a significant limiting factor. This primarily affects high-intensity efforts lasting 1-10 minutes (3). To solve the challenge of increased acidity, ingesting an “alkalinizer” like sodium bicarbonate has been suggested (3).

Traditionally, sodium bicarbonate has been administered via a solution or capsule. This method causes the large amount of sodium bicarbonate ingested to mix with stomach acid and produces CO2 causing stomach distention (3). This stomach distention in athletes might cause bloating, cramps, or diarrhea.

Due to the GI symptoms caused by standard sodium bicarbonate supplementation, many have found the supplement impractical. The sports nutrition company Maurten has sought to overcome these challenges by introducing the “Bicarb system”.

Now athletes can now ingest sodium bicarbonate with a potential for lower risk for G.I distress. With potentially fewer adverse side effects, what type of performance benefit can one expect from the “Bicarb System” ?

Usage of Sodium Bicarbonate

Maurten’s “Bicarb system” introduces a new method of delivering sodium bicarbonate. This system utilizes “hydrogel” which acts as a solution to coat the sodium bicarbonate “mini-tablets” when ingested. This method reduces the interaction with stomach acid, therefore reducing the risk for G.I distress (2).

Study #1

Three months ago a study was published that investigated the possible performance benefit from the new Maurten “Bicarb system”. Before we go any further it’s important to call out that Maurten was one of the sponsors of this study. This study involved 14 male cyclists riding a 40km TT (4).

On the x (horizontal) axis in graph above, we have the two experimental groups (Bicarb denoted by NaHCO3 and Placebo). On the Y (vertical) axis we have total time in figure A and mean power in watts in figure B.

Taking a look at these findings sodium bicarbonate provided a 1.42% performance increase which was about 54.14 ± 18.16s faster compared to the placebo group (4). Seeing such a small performance gain from this study may seem insignificant. However, previous research on sodium bicarbonate was sometimes limited due to G.I distress in participants (4).

From a broader perspective, with the reduced risk for G.I distress “Bicarb” may allow for further sodium bicarbonate studies. However, it’s worthy to note the participants in this study were not well trained. In this study participants with a VO2 max of ± 55 were selected (4).

Study #2

A second study was published two months ago that featured participants that were well-trained. This study was conducted with participants with VO2 maxes around ± 67. Similar to the previous study results were based upon a TT, however this study utilized 2, 4km TT’s (2).

In the graph above, three groups are examined, the control (CON), placebo (PLA) and “Bicarb” (M-SB) groups. Researchers were testing the performance time of each group on two successive time trials .

Diving into these results the “Bicarb” group was faster than both the control and placebo groups. Once again the performance benefit proves to be quite marginal. The “Bicarb” group was 1.6% faster in the first time trial and in the second time trial 1.3% faster (2).

It’s worth noting again that Maurten was a contributor to this study, having several employees working alongside other researchers.

Limitations and Practicality

Maurten’s “Bicarb system” seems to provide athletes with a practical way of utilizing sodium bicarbonate. However, this is still a new product with limited research.

Taking information from the limited research on the “Bicarb System”, the best one can expect from this product is less than a 2% increase in performance. For some this marginal gain could be the difference between winning and losing a race.

Moving Forward

Currently Maurten has the “Bicarb System” for sale at $70 for 4 servings (1). At this expense for marginal gains, this supplement may be impractical for some. Before utilizing sodium bicarbonate, your efforts and money are better spent optimizing nutrition from a broader perspective. This broader perspective includes

1. Following a high-carbohydrate availability diet
   • Fueling before rides
   • Fueling during rides
   • Fueling after rides
2. Strategically utilizing caffeine in training and competition

Once you have these nutrition strategies nailed down, and are comfortable with the high cost; Marutens “Bicarb System” might be worth experimenting with in your training, and ultimately adding to your race-day nutrition strategy.

References

1. Bicarb system. Maurten. (n.d.). https://www.maurten.com/products/us/bicarb
2. Gough, L. A., & Sparks, S. A. (2024, August 9). The effects of a novel sodium bicarbonate ingestion system on repeated 4 km cycling time trial performance in well-trained male cyclists – sports medicine. SpringerLink. https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s40279-024-02083-4
3. Jeukendrup, A.E. and M. Gleeson, Sport nutrition. 2024.
4. Shannon, E. S., Regnier, A., Dobson, B., Yang, X., Sparks, S. A., & Naughton, L. R. M. (2024, July 28). The effect of sodium bicarbonate mini-tablets ingested in a carbohydrate hydrogel system on 40 km cycling time trial performance and metabolism in trained male cyclists – european journal of applied physiology. SpringerLink. https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s00421-024-05567-3