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A performance lotion that is applied pre-workout to the muscles to help any athlete realise greater success and personal sporting achievements 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 user states: “Most weeks I would race Tuesday/Wednesday/Thursday. Crazy? Not with this stuff. I can go hard on the bike day after day. Never getting that soreness that forced me to rest. I also used to struggle with leg cramps and while I still get them sometimes, using PR lotion has drastically reduced them.” Final Thoughts Let’s look at the results again in a little more detail. Poster presentations from the study reveal DOMS was significantly (P=0.007) reduced following the short intensity series, but this was not observed following the 1-hour time trial session. The reductions in heart rate and RPE were significant (P<0.05) for PR Lotion compared to placebo at the 15-minute mark of the 1-hour time trial, but not at any other time points (i.e., at 30, 45, and 60 minutes). Lactate was significantly (P<0.05) higher after the short intensity series, but no difference was observed after the 1-hour time trial. (Recall, this study was not published in a peer-reviewed journal.) 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.
Following baseline sampling, in the primary study, 40g of PR Lotion (Momentous, Park City, UT, United States) was applied by an investigative team member over the entire surface area of each leg from ankle to groin. As PR Lotion is 33% sodium bicarbonate, a total of 26.4g of sodium bicarbonate were applied. For the follow-up placebo control study, 40g of a placebo version of PR Lotion, which included all the ingredients of PR Lotion except for sodium bicarbonate, was applied to each leg. Results: PR Lotion resulted in a rise in pH of 0.13 ± 0.04 units ( p< 0.05), which translates to a 28% reduction in [H +]. Increases in serum pH were smaller (∼9%) yet consistent ( p< 0.05). In contrast, placebo time control pH tended to decrease ( p= 0.08). The effect of PR Lotion on pH tended to correlate with the dose per kg body weight of each individual ( r= 0.70, p = 0.08). From time to time carriers may deliver earlier or later, or on non working days however this is cannot be guaranteed nor should it be expected. The challenge with oral supplementation or ingestion of sodium bicarbonate is absorption and delivery through the gut without significant gastrointestinal distress. A well-known side effect for athletes who ingest sodium bicarbonate before competition or training can be significant GI distress. It is common for athletes to feel nausea, bloating, have diarrhea, or have significant stomach “cramping” when consuming sodium bicarbonate before workouts or competition. Thus, the current study was designed to explore the effectiveness of PR Lotion as a transdermal delivery vehicle for sodium bicarbonate in a resting condition. We hypothesize that a rise in pH within intramuscular dialysate would be observed with a concomitant rise in serum pH following high dose PR Lotion application to the skin surface of the lower extremities during a resting condition. Secondarily, we hypothesized that the application of sodium in the sodium bicarbonate lotion and the corresponding alkalosis will contribute to an increase in circulating Na + concentrations and reduced K + concentrations within the intramuscular dialysate. 2 Materials and methods 2.1 SubjectsIt is well-known that sodium bicarbonate (baking soda) can boost performance in cyclists (here are articles from the US National Institute of Health and TrainingPeaks on the topic, but Google will bring up many more). The challenge with bicarb is the difficulty of ingestion: it is unpleasant to consume, and if you do it wrong things can go south fast. The TrainingPeaks article above says, “One of the more common side effects is gastrointestinal distress in the form of cramping, vomiting, and diarrhea.” A less known, and less understood, benefit of bicarbonate or an enhanced buffering potential is improved recovery by reducing post-exercise or delayed onset muscle soreness (DOMS) following heavy exercise or training sessions. Pre-exercise application of PR Lotion can aid in recovery between training sessions in two ways. First, adequate bicarbonate levels in the muscle can reduce post-exercise inflammation. Bicarbonate creates an alkaline environment surrounding the muscle cells, which can reduce the chemical stress caused by acid production during intense exercise. This, in turn, can reduce the post-exercise inflammatory response following intense exercise [4]. It is this inflammatory response which, in part, contributes to DOMS experienced following a competition or intense training session. Second, PR Lotion may decrease edema or tissue swelling that occurs following heavy or long training sessions. Both sodium and bicarbonate concentrations in the extracellular space (and in the blood) can modulate fluid shifts between the inside and the outside of the muscle cells. It is the buildup of fluid or edema that contributes to the pain we sense as muscle soreness. Anything that can reduce the fluid accumulation in the muscle can reduce DOMS.
Because of the reduced inflammation and muscle soreness between training sessions, PR Lotion can improve the rate of recovery or readiness to train. That is, diminished muscle soreness in the days following intense exercise, aids in the recovery of muscle function which can only enhance the quality of the subsequent training session. The improved readiness to train, combined with increased buffering potential in the muscle, promotes the maintenance of high training loads or high-quality training efforts. This means that the athlete is more ready and able to handle the required or prescribed training loads. PR Lotion can, therefore, help an athlete be more physically capable of performing the intended training session, which will allow for overall superior adaptations to the prescribed training. I recently received a link to a blog post summarizing a 2021 study with such gobstopping results that I must admit my initial reaction was: this seems too good to be true. The title of the study is “PR Lotion significantly improves high-intensity interval performance.” Specifically, the study found more than a 20% improvement in high-intensity interval training to exhaustion in a study of competitive cyclists. 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. 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? 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.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. Initially, I’m not certain I felt much of a difference. This being all new to me, I honestly don’t know what I should expect either. Primary and secondary outcome variables were analyzed with a mixed linear regression model to determine time course effects and presented as a line of best fit and upper and lower confidence limits for the regression. In addition, change (Δ) from baseline to end-of-study for each outcome variable was tested by univariate t-test. Lastly, to explore the possibility of a dose-pH relation, the absolute dosage of 80gPR Lotion applied, made relative to participant’s bodyweight, was compared to the reported change in pH of the intramuscular dialysate via Pearson correlation. All variables are presented as mean ± standard error of the mean (SE). Significance was accepted at p< 0.05. 3 Results 3.1 Primary outcome variable: pH
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. Concentrations of K + and Na + were measured in dialysate and serum via flame photometry (BWB Technologies United States, Evans Mill, NY, United States) per manufacturer’s instructions. To eliminate intersample variance, all samples were thawed once and analyzed in the same run by a single technician. Sample results were inspected for visual stability across the sample run time and all samples with reported instability were re-processed. Sample results were recorded in millimolar (mM) concentrations in duplicate. 2.3 Statistical analysisMethods: We measured the pH from intramuscular dialysate, via microdialysis, of the vastus lateralis during a 2h application of PR Lotion (40g of lotion per leg) in 9 subjects (3 women, 6 men). Venous blood samples were obtained for serum pH before and after application. A placebo time control was also performed in 4 subjects (2 women, 2 men). We hypothesized that PR Lotion application would increase pH of intramuscular dialysate. 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. As the first line of defense for preserving acid-base balance during exercise, bicarbonate (HCO3-) is a critically important electrolyte for optimal neuromuscular function. In fact, over 40 years of scientific research (and athlete practice) overwhelmingly supports the benefits of sodium bicarbonate ingestion for improving acid-base balance and enhancing human performance in sport. Despite the clear evidence for performance benefits, gastrointestinal distress is a common side effect. This makes sodium bicarbonate ingestion impractical for most athletes to use regularly. PR Lotion is the first and only topical lotion to deliver sodium bicarbonate directly through the skin, circumventing the limitations at the gut. After giving the lotion a few minutes to soak in, I got right into my usual leg day workout that consisted of squats, deadlifts, and a couple other burners. 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?
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