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?

The studies involving human participants were reviewed and approved by the Institutional Review Board at the University of Oregon. The patients/participants provided their written informed consent to participate in this study. Author contributions Delivery timescales are esimates in working days; Public Holidays, Saturday's and Sunday's are NOT classed as working days. McNaughton, L.R., J. Siegler, and A. Midgley, Ergogenic effects of sodium bicarbonate. Curr Sports Med Rep, 2008. 7(4): p. 230-6. Research exploring the impact of PR Lotion on DOMS examined cyclists performing a series of very high intensity exercise conditions, including a ramp protocol of progressively increasing intensity to near maximal exercise, a 30 second sprint, and a 5 min time trail with only 5 min of rest between conditions. The cyclists then completed a muscle soreness survey for 2 days following the exercise session. The findings, presented at the annual meeting of the American College of Sports Medicine in May 2018, demonstrated PR Lotion substantially reduced scores of delayed onset muscle soreness compared to the placebo control lotion. In fact, between the first and second days following the intense exercise session, the cyclists reported a 34% increase in muscle soreness while using the placebo lotion and a 54% decrease in muscle soreness while using the PR Lotion.

The Topical Edge investigators recruited eight volunteer competitive cyclists and put them to the test: each of the participants completed two sessions of high-intensity intervals two days apart. For the first session, half were randomized to PR Lotion and the other half to a control lotion that contained all the ingredients of the PR Lotion except the active ingredient. For the second session, the participants “crossed-over” to the alternate lotion so that each participant performed one session using the PR Lotion and the other session using the control lotion. Neither the investigators nor the participants knew which lotion they received in both instances. In other words, this was a double-blinded, randomized, controlled crossover trial, which is a particularly rigorous study design. Comments requesting medical advice will not be responded to, as I am not legally permitted to practice medicine over the internet. PR Lotion is the first and only topical lotion to deliver sodium bicarbonate directly through the skin. This enhances the buffering capacity of the body and the muscle while circumventing the potentially debilitating GI distress. In addition, PR Lotion removes much of the complexity required in pre-exercise ingestion protocol or strategies. In contrast to ingested sodium bicarbonate, there is little need for athletes to incorporate tedious pre-exercise protocols, strategies, or routines to combat negative side effects. This makes PR Lotion a very practical solution for delivering the performance benefits of sodium bicarbonate and a very scalable solution for athletes to use regularly during training and competition. PR Lotion effectively eliminates all problems associated with the ingestion of sodium bicarbonate, while providing athletes with the benefits described in over 40 years of sodium bicarbonate research.

Studies suggest that baking soda indeed offers a small benefit during hard exercise bouts lasting between about one and ten minutes, although the results are inconsistent. So why doesn’t everyone looking for an edge spike their water bottles with Arm & Hammer before a competition? Because of course, there’s a catch: many people using it experience gastrointestinal side effects which can limit its efficacy. In other words, cramping, vomiting, or diarrhea can more than offset any benefits from baking soda. But delivering the baking soda through the skin bypasses the GI tract and limits these adverse effects. In fact, the 2021 PR Lotion study described above notes that no side effects were reported by participants. Earlier Evidence All study visits were held in the morning hours and subjects were asked to arrive to the laboratory wearing typical exercise clothing, shorts and a t-shirt, having abstained from food for the 2h preceding testing, caffeine for 6h, alcohol for 12h, and strenuous exercise for 24h. Upon arrival at the laboratory, a urine sample was collected to screen for pregnancy (if applicable). Subjects were instrumented in the supine position with an antecubital intravenous catheter for blood sampling, 3-lead electrocardiogram, and intramuscular microdialysis probe in the vastus lateralis for interstitial sampling. Once the probe was placed, 90min was allowed for resolution of placement trauma prior to collection of baseline samples for blood and dialysate. Room temperature remained thermoneutral (∼23°C) throughout the study. Personally, I think Amp Human's claims of 16 per cent more power and being able to complete 25 per cent more max high-intensity intervals is a little ambitious. What I can say is that while using it I seemed less susceptible to cramping during race simulation rides, and consistently produced more power at the end of races and identical turbo interval sessions. We're talking in the region of five per cent rather than the claimed figures, but perceptible and impressive nonetheless. Value and conclusion

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 Subjects In a similar study, an elite cycling training center (Source Endurance) in Northern Colorado performed a placebo controlled, blinded, and randomized research study on the performance benefits of PR Lotion. A group of competitive cyclists rode at 140% of a predetermined 20 min time trial power for 30 seconds with 20 seconds of rest; then repeat the interval until exhaustion. They observed a 20% increase in the number of intervals completed before exhaustion when the cyclists used PR Lotion compared to applying a placebo control lotion. I typically do two hard training rides (60-120 minutes) per week, plus a long ride on Saturday. These are the rides where I’ve been consistently using PR Lotion this year. (It isn’t needed for my recovery rides since the goal then is to not push myself hard.) Sodium bicarbonate is a naturally occurring electrolyte in the body and it, along with all of the other ingredients of this lotion, is entirely legal under World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) rules. Comments that harass other posters will be deleted. Please be respectful toward other contributors.

Dr. Jason Siegler (University of Western Australia) examined the effect of PR Lotion on blood lactate concentration and performance outcomes with repeated 30 second cycling intervals at 120% of peak power (30 second rest) to exhaustion. A similar rise in blood lactate levels was observed compared to oral sodium bicarbonate ingestion (standard dose of 0.3g/kg body weight). Although the study did not observe the typical increase in blood bicarbonate (or increase in blood pH) usually associated with sodium bicarbonate ingestion, the results suggest PR Lotion was as effective as ingesting sodium bicarbonate at buffering H+ production in the muscle at high intensities. Furthermore, the cyclists performed similarly (defined by cumulative cycling time) compared to oral sodium bicarbonate ingestion. Similar performance outcomes, combined with the observation that blood lactate values were similar, suggests PR Lotion is an effective ergogenic aid during high intensity or repeated bouts of high intensity exercise. Now, if I was doing specific interval workouts I might find that I can complete those intervals with less suffering. But in my typical training ride situation (competitive outdoor group rides or indoor Zwift races) this means I just go harder and set new personal bests. Maughan, R.J., et al., IOC consensus statement: dietary supplements and the high-performance athlete. Br J Sports Med, 2018. 52(7): p. 439-455. 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. According to one study, participants experienced a 53.5% reduction in post-workout DOMS and a heart rate that was 3.1% lower than the control group.

There are two important benefits of increased buffering with sodium bicarbonate delivery through PR Lotion. First, enhanced buffering capacity to limit the negative impact of rapid acid production in the muscle. This can diminish the progression of fatigue during high intensity training session and competitions, thereby enabling high quality training and maintenance of performance during competition. Second, PR Lotion can reduce the sensation of post-exercise or delayed onset muscle soreness. That is, sodium bicarbonate may alleviate post exercise inflammation and edema or swelling following intense training, allowing athletes to recover more effectively and increase “readiness” for subsequent training sessions. Combined, PR Lotion can be an important tool to enhance the quality of training loads, allow effective recovery between training sessions, and enable the maintenance of desired performance outcomes. Amp Human's Science Advisory Board chairman Dr Brad Wilkins helps explain the science of bicarb, why PR Lotion works and why it's a must have training product for any athlete. 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. 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.

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. 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? So what is this magical lotion? It’s essentially nothing more than a topical delivery of sodium bicarbonate, more commonly referred to as baking soda. As it turns out, athletes have used baking soda for decades – it’s one of the most extensively studied ergogenic aids out there. But why would baking soda of all things improve performance? PR Lotion sidesteps the ingestion issue: instead of eating it, you rub it on your legs. No gastrointestinal distress. How Do You Use It?Used by Tour de France winners, MTB World Champions, IronMan professionals and marathon world record holders 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. Taken together, our observations support the idea that transdermal bicarbonate delivery may impact pH buffering both intramuscularly and systemically. In contrast to the observed changes in pH, alterations in [Na +] and [K +] in both intramuscular dialysate and serum were less clear. With PR Lotion application, serum [Na +] was significantly elevated ( Table 2) and tended to decrease in the placebo condition. However, other changes in Na + and K + concentrations were either inconsistent or were observed during both the primary study and the placebo time control ( Table 2). 4.1 Bicarbonate loading I've delved into this a bit deeper and there are plenty of studies to suggest that taking around 0.3g per kg 60-180 minutes before high-intensity exercise can enhance performance by decreasing the acidity of working muscles by buffering its production. In fact, professional athletes have been using this legal supplement since the 1970s. For decades, the bicarbonate buffering system has been a target of ergogenic supplements and interventions, primarily using oral loading of exogenous sodium bicarbonate in the hours to days preceding an intense exercise bout ( Galloway and Maughan, 1996; Marx et al., 2002; Carr et al., 2011; Calvo et al., 2021). While oral sodium bicarbonate loading increases blood pH and bicarbonate concentration and can result in improvements in exercise performance ( Hirche et al., 1975; Kesl and Engen, 1998), it has often been associated with performance encumbering gastric distress when consumed at “ergogenic” doses of 0.3g/kg to 0.5g/kg body weight ( Carr et al., 2011). Various strategies of oral loading have been employed to mitigate gastric distress, however, even when split doses are used deleterious side effects often persist ( Oliveira et al., 2017).