Dietary sodium citrate supplementation does not improve upper-body anaerobic performance in trained wrestlers in simulated competition-day conditions.

Purpose: Similarly to a wrestling match, upper-body intermittent sprint performance (UBISP) test elicits severe acidosis. This study aimed to determine whether sodium citrate (CIT) ingestion would help to better maintain peak power (PP) and mean power (MP) output across four consecutive UBISP tests simulating wrestling matches of a competition-day.

Methods: In a double-blind, counterbalanced, crossover manner, 11 trained wrestlers ingested either placebo (PLC) or CIT (900 mg kg(-1)) within a 17-h supplementation period. Thereafter they completed four (T1-T4) 6-min UBISP tests interspersed with 30-min recovery periods.

Results: Compared with PLC, CIT supplementation resulted in a persistent increase (P < 0.05) in blood HCO3 (-) concentration and pH: pre-T1 25.6 % and 0.08 units, post-T4 39.1 % and 0.14 units, respectively. Post-T1 blood lactate concentration in CIT (16.1 ± 3.8 mmol L(-1)) was higher (P = 0.037) than that in PLC (13.7 ± 2.3 mmol L(-1)). Decrease in plasma volume across the supplementation period and UBISP tests was greater (P = 0.03) in PLC (-6.91 ± 4.37 %) than in CIT (-1.51 ± 4.34 %). There was an overall decrease (P = 0.028) in ratings of perceived exertion in CIT compared with PLC, but no between-trial difference (P > 0.05) in PP or MP in any UBISP test occurred.

Conclusion: In trained wrestlers, CIT ingestion induces alkalosis, counteracts reduction in plasma volume, increases post-test blood lactate concentration and reduces perceived exertion, but does not improve PP or MP attained in consecutive UBISP tests simulating four wrestling matches of a competition-day.