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The effects of β-alanine supplementation on muscle pH and the power-duration relationship during high-intensity exercise

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posted on 2018-03-26, 08:45 authored by Matt I. Black, Andrew M. Jones, Paul T. Morgan, Stephen BaileyStephen Bailey, Jonathan Fulford, Anni Vanhatalo
Purpose: To investigate the influence of β-alanine (BA) supplementation on muscle carnosine content, muscle pH and the power-duration relationship (i.e., critical power and W′). Methods: In a double-blind, randomized, placebo-controlled study, 20 recreationally-active males (22 ± 3 y, VO˙2peak 3.73 ± 0.44 L·min−1) ingested either BA (6.4 g/d for 28 d) or placebo (PL) (6.4 g/d) for 28 d. Subjects completed an incremental test and two 3-min all-out tests separated by 1-min on a cycle ergometer pre- and post-supplementation. Muscle pH was assessed using 31P-magnetic resonance spectroscopy (MRS) during incremental (INC KEE) and intermittent knee-extension exercise (INT KEE). Muscle carnosine content was determined using 1H-MRS. Results: There were no differences in the change in muscle carnosine content from pre- to post-intervention (PL: 1 ± 16% vs. BA: −4 ± 25%) or in muscle pH during INC KEE or INT KEE (P > 0.05) between PL and BA, but blood pH (PL: −0.06 ± 0.10 vs. BA: 0.09 ± 0.13) during the incremental test was elevated post-supplementation in the BA group only (P < 0.05). The changes from pre- to post-supplementation in critical power (PL: −8 ± 18 W vs. BA: −6 ± 17 W) and W′ (PL: 1.8 ± 3.3 kJ vs. BA: 1.5 ± 1.7 kJ) were not different between groups. No relationships were detected between muscle carnosine content and indices of exercise performance. Conclusions: BA supplementation had no significant effect on muscle carnosine content and no influence on intramuscular pH during incremental or high-intensity intermittent knee-extension exercise. The small increase in blood pH following BA supplementation was not sufficient to significantly alter the power-duration relationship or exercise performance.

History

School

  • Sport, Exercise and Health Sciences

Published in

Frontiers in Physiology

Citation

BLACK, M.I. ... et al, 2018. The effects of β-alanine supplementation on muscle pH and the power-duration relationship during high-intensity exercise. Frontiers in Physiology, doi:10.3389/fphys.2018.00111.

Publisher

Frontiers Media © The Authors

Version

  • VoR (Version of Record)

Publisher statement

This work is made available according to the conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) licence. Full details of this licence are available at: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/ by/4.0/

Acceptance date

2018-02-05

Publication date

2018-02-21

Notes

This is an Open Access Article. It is published by Frontiers Media under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International Licence (CC BY). Full details of this licence are available at: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

ISSN

1664-042X

Language

  • en