Beta-Alanine Supplementation Improves Throwing Velocities in Repeated Sprint Ability and 200-m Swimming Performance in Young Water Polo Players

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of beta-alanine supplementation on specific tests for water polo. Fifteen young water polo players (16 ± 2 years) underwent a 200-m swimming performance, repeated-sprint ability test (RSA) with free throw (shooting), and 30-s maximal tethered eggbeater kicks. Participants were randomly allocated into two groups (placebo × beta-alanine) and supplemented with 6.4g∙dayof beta-alanine or a placebo for six weeks. The mean and total RSA times, the magnitude based inference analysis showed a likely beneficial effect for beta-alanine supplementation (both). The ball velocity measured in the throwing performance after each sprint in the RSA presented a very like beneficial inference in the beta-alanine group for mean (96.4%) and percentage decrement of ball velocity (92.5%, likely beneficial). Furthermore, the percentage change for mean ball velocity was different between groups (beta-alanine=+2.5% and placebo=-3.5%; p = .034). In the 30-s maximal tethered eggbeater kicks the placebo group presented decreased peak force, mean force, and fatigue index, while the beta-alanine group maintained performance in mean force (44.1%, possibly beneficial), only presenting decreases in peak force. The 200-m swimming performance showed a possibly beneficial effect (68.7%). Six weeks of beta-alanine supplementation was effective for improving ball velocity shooting in the RSA, maintaining performance in the 30-s test, and providing possibly beneficial effects in the 200-m swimming performance.

Systematic Review of the use of “Magnitude-Based Inference” in Sports Science and Medicine

“…At these sample sizes, the Type I error rate for the "possible" threshold is 22% to 45% and for the "likely" threshold is 12% to 22% (Fig 3A and 3B). Consistent with these calculations, we noticed numerous studies in which effects associated with large p-values (for H o =0)-often in the 0.2 to 0.3 range-were declared "likely" or higher by MBI [36][37][38][39][40][41][42][43][44][45][46][47][48][49][50][51][52]. See Fig 4 for "Although parametric analysis was unable to demonstrate significant differences, magnitude-based inferences indicated that the change in 1-RM squat showed a likely benefit from PA on increasing lower body strength and a very likely benefit for increasing lean body mass (LBM)."…”

Systematic review of the use of “magnitude-based inference” in sports science and medicine

“…At these sample sizes, the Type I error rate for the "possible" threshold is 22% to 45% and for the "likely" threshold is 12% to 22% (Fig 3A and 3B). Consistent with these calculations, we noticed numerous studies in which effects associated with large p-values (for H o = 0)-often in the 0.2 to 0.3 range-were declared "likely" or higher by MBI [36][37][38][39][40][41][42][43][44][45][46][47][48][49][50][51][52]. See Fig 4 for an example from the literature.…”

Effects of 4 weeks of β-alanine supplementation on aerobic fitness in water polo players

“…Due to the importance of repeated efforts in water polo, nutritional strategies to improve repeated effort ability have been a focus of some studies [ 6 – 8 ], especially ergogenic aids that could improve the buffering capacity [ 6 – 8 ], since repeated efforts can promote increases in muscular acidosis [ 9 ], which is considered an important factor to promote fatigue [ 10 ]. Initially, sodium bicarbonate supplementation was investigated [ 6 ], however no beneficial effects were found, while more recently, some studies investigated the effects of β-alanine supplementation [ 7 , 8 ], showing a small but substantial beneficial effect on performance [ 7 , 8 ].…”

“…Carnosine (β-alanyl-L-histidine) has multiple functions [e.g., antioxidant [ 14 ], anti-glycation of proteins [ 15 ], and muscle contractility regulation [ 16 ], of which the main function is as an intracellular acid buffer [ 12 ] due to a pKa of 6.83 [ 17 ]. Thus, 4 weeks of β-alanine supplementation is enough to improve muscle buffering capacity by ~4% [ 11 , 12 ], which promotes high accumulations of ions H + in muscle [ 10 ], and consequently improves high-intensity efforts that last between 1 and 4 min [ 10 , 18 ], such as repeated sprints in water polo [ 7 , 8 ] and total work done at 110% in cycling [ 12 ], among others.…”