Study Design 132A double-blind, placebo-controlled, crossover, counterbalanced study was conducted. 133Participants visited the laboratory on six separate occasions, separated by 2-7 days, to undertake 134 4 bouts of the upper-body Wingate anaerobic test. The first and second visits were performed to 135 familiarise the participants with the protocol, while the third session was undertaken following 136 no treatment (control). The remaining three sessions were undertaken following the acute 137 ingestion of calcium lactate, sodium bicarbonate or placebo. The order of the treatments was 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 P R O O F 6 chosen at random in a fully counterbalanced manner. To further confirm that the order of the 139 tests did not influence performance, we compared overall total mechanical work (TMW) 140 obtained in the experimental sessions between the three visits (see more details below). As 141 expected, no significant differences were found (visit 1: 33462 ± 5122 J; visit 2: 33813 ± 5371 142 J; visit 3: 33436 ± 4928 J; F = 0.70, p = 0.50). All tests were performed during the same period 143 of the day to account for circadian variation (Atkinson & Reilly 1996). 144The volunteers were instructed to arrive at the laboratory in a well fed and hydrated 145 state, without having ingested any food in the 2 h preceding the tests. In order to minimise the 146 influence of diet on performance, athletes were requested to maintain the same diet prior to all 147 trials and this was confirmed by the analysis of all individual's 72 h food recall prior to each 148 test. The participants were also informed to refrain from strenuous exercise and caffeine in the 149 24 hours preceding the experimental sessions. Compliance with these requests was verbally 150 confirmed before each trial. Body fat was estimated by hydrostatic weighing measuring body 151 volume density and calculating perceptual body fat using the equation proposed by Siri (1961). 152Participants performed four bouts of the Wingate upper-body anaerobic test during 153 every session. Blood samples were collected at rest (baseline), immediately after and 5 min after 154 the fourth bout of the Wingate test. The efficacy of the blind procedure was verified during all 155 trials; immediately after exercise, participants were asked to report which treatment they 156 believed they had received, and to describe all perceived side effects. 157 158
High-Intensity Intermittent Performance 159High-intensity intermittent exercise performance was assessed using 4 bouts of the 160 upper-body Wingate Anaerobic Test, a protocol that has been previously used to assess the 161 effects of metabolic induced alkalosis on performance in athletes (Artioli, Gualano 2007; 162 Tobias, Benatti 2013). Athletes warmed up by performing arm-cranking with no resistance for 3 163 ...