When Lactic Acid Stops You from Pain: Do You Know How to Fight It to Win the Race?

Nutrition, training, rest, mental preparation—all must be in place, and then this substance can give you that little extra push, which could make all the difference.

This supplement is part of the famous “marginal gains” that can be the difference between winning or losing a race.

Let’s see how this substance works and what you can do to “make it your friend.”

Inside our muscle cells, when the demand for energy is higher than what can be produced using oxygen, H+ ions (hydrogen) start to accumulate, lowering the pH and creating an acidic environment.

In situations of high acidity, muscle cells don’t function effectively, causing that unpleasant burning sensation that inevitably hampers performance.

Luckily, our muscles have buffer substances that help maintain pH balance in the cells.

One of these important substances is carnosine, which is found in chicken breast and marine animals that often live in oxygen-deprived conditions.

Carnosine helps them stay in apnea for long periods without suffering the harmful effects of oxygen deprivation.

You might think that eating more carnosine-rich foods or training in apnea would make you a champion on land as well.

Unfortunately, it’s not that simple.

Even though freedivers have higher levels of carnosine in their cells and can remain in hypoxia (oxygen deficiency) far longer than you or I combined, I can assure you that the amount isn’t enough to achieve the muscle burn reduction effect we’re looking for.

I can confirm this because, even with World Champions Livia Bregonzio and Alessia Zecchini, whom I assist with nutrition and supplementation, we need to use another supplement to increase their carnosine levels and improve their performance.

Another major issue is that if we take carnosine orally, an enzyme breaks it down into two other substances, rendering our performance enhancement efforts useless.

The first piece of advice is NOT to buy carnosine supplements because you’d just be wasting money.

So, what should we do?

We need to discover what forms carnosine and how we can increase it.

Carnosine is made up of two amino acids: histidine and beta-alanine.

Of these two, histidine is abundant, while the limiting factor is beta-alanine.

So, here’s the secret supplement that can help you become a better athlete.

Now we must ask: is it enough to take a single dose of beta-alanine to see results?

Unfortunately, no.

Scientific research has shown that it takes 4 to 10 weeks of supplementation to increase beta-alanine levels in muscles by 30-50% and achieve the buffering effect on H+ ions.

The optimal dosage is 6 grams per day, which translates to approximately 65mg per kilogram of body weight.

But beware, a high dose of beta-alanine may cause some side effects.

Nothing serious, but you may experience mild paresthesia (tingling sensations) in your muscles.

To avoid this, simply divide the dose throughout the day, adjusting to the maximum amount your body can tolerate.

Since the tingling is neither serious nor long-lasting, I recommend taking 2 grams with each of your three main meals.

This way, you shouldn’t have any issues, though there have been cases where tingling occurred with doses around 800mg.

In such cases, try breaking the doses down even further until the sensation subsides.

The important thing is to reach the total daily dosage.

Once you’ve completed a full cycle of 4 to 10 weeks, your body will return to its previous carnosine levels in about 15 weeks.

This is interesting because it shows that beta-alanine can be cycled throughout your annual training program.

An additional interesting fact: if you’re a woman or follow a vegan diet, you might get even better results from beta-alanine supplementation.

Women and vegans have been shown to have lower carnosine levels compared to those who consume meat and fish, which are rich in it.

Now that you know one of the secrets to pushing my athletes beyond their limits, you can start using it to become even stronger.

But it doesn’t end here!

There’s another substance that, when combined with beta-alanine, can significantly boost your performance in endurance efforts lasting from 1 to 7 minutes.

Do you want to know what it is?

Since that’s another story, I’ll tell you about it in a future article!