Is running really bad for your knees?
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Arnold Schwarzenegger <[email protected]>
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Arnold's Pump Club welcomes new subscribers and shares a deep dive on baking soda as an effective sports supplement. The club discusses the benefits and drawbacks of baking soda for athletic performance, citing evidence from the International Society of Sports Nutrition. They aim to provide a positive and informative space for health and wellness.
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Running Doesn’t Wear Out Healthy Knees. The Real Risk Is Something Else.
Recreational runners don’t show higher arthritis rates than non-runners, and mileage wasn’t the problem. But there is a real red flag.
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Today’s Health Upgrade
Deep dive: baking soda is an effective sports supplement
Is running really bad for your knees?
Temptation and discipline
Deep Dive
Does Baking Soda Improve Performance?
Baking soda has something most performance supplements would love: enough evidence to earn an official position stand. It also has a side-effect problem that can make even the best boost not worth it.
Baking soda can boost performance during hard efforts lasting roughly 30 seconds to 12 minutes. But it can also cause GI issues that may offset the real benefits.
The evidence is consistent, and the gains are real, but it won’t make you superhuman. According to the International Society of Sports Nutrition position stand, baking soda improves performance in muscular endurance work, combat sports, and high-intensity cycling, running, swimming, and rowing. Think 400- to 1,500-meter runs, 2,000-meter rows, combat-sport rounds, or high-rep sets taken close to failure.
An umbrella review of eight meta-analyses found small improvements in events lasting about 45 seconds to eight minutes, muscular endurance tests, and the Yo-Yo intermittent running test.
But that doesn’t mean it works for every fitness goal. The study found no significant benefit for maximal strength or repeated-sprint ability.
Baking soda helps buffer one of the things that makes your muscles tire.
During hard exercise, acidity builds faster than your muscles can clear it. Bicarbonate is one of the body’s primary buffers. A large dose of baking soda raises blood bicarbonate levels, which can help move acid out of working muscle and let you maintain a difficult pace a little longer.
The best-supported dose is 0.3 grams per kilogram of body weight, taken 60 to 180 minutes before exercise.
Higher single doses don’t appear to add benefit, but they do increase side effects.
But as we mentioned, fighting fatigue can come with side effects you’d probably prefer to avoid when working out.
The most immediate problem is your gut. In one blinded crossover trial, participants drank 0.3 g/kg dissolved in water all at once, and 10 of 11 developed diarrhea. Nearly two-thirds reported bloating, and 45 percent experienced nausea. That’s close to a worst-case setup (one big dose, no food), and reactions vary a lot from person to person.
A 2026 review of 101 investigations concluded that stomach problems are tied to the dose, timing, and the form you take it in. Spreading the dose over several hours, using enteric-coated capsules, or following a multi-day protocol might help, although the research isn’t strong enough to say which strategy works best.
If you want to see whether baking soda works for you without the downsides, start with 0.2 g/kg with a carbohydrate-rich meal and plenty of water.
Test it on a normal training day, and take it 60 to 180 minutes before the workout. If that goes well, you can move toward 0.3 g/kg or stick with the lower dose if it makes a difference.
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