If your sport involves repeated maximal efforts lasting between thirty seconds and ten minutes, buffering is an intervention that can have a big impact on performance. It's also the one most often skipped, because of potential adverse effects from the main supplement that helps.
The problem being solved is acidosis. Sustained high-intensity work produces hydrogen ions faster than you can clear them. Falling muscle pH interferes with the enzymes that drive glycolysis and with calcium handling in your muscles. The result is the specific, unmistakable failure of a muscle that will not produce force no matter how hard you try. Buffering doesn't delay fatigue in general. It delays this specific type.
Sodium bicarbonate is the one that works
If you want the most effective alkalosis effect, take bicarbonate and dose it properly.
Carr and colleagues pooled 59 studies and found that at a dose of 0.3 g/kg, sodium bicarbonate improved high-intensity performance by around 1.7%.¹ It's a small average effect with a wide range of efficacy, and some people get little benefit.
The International Society of Sports Nutrition (ISSN) concludes that bicarbonate improves muscular endurance work and performance across combat sports specifically — boxing, judo, karate, taekwondo and wrestling all appear by name.² If you compete in one of those, this really does apply to you.
Dose. The ISSN puts the effective range at 0.2–0.5 g/kg.² For an 85 kg athlete that's 17–42 g (i.e a lot). Most protocols recommend around 0.3 g/kg, taken 60–180 minutes before competition.
The issue. Bloating, nausea, vomiting and abdominal pain are common side effects, and they're the main reason people don't use it. The side effects can be solvable. There are four strategies: use a smaller dose, take it around 180 minutes before exercise/adjust the timing to your own response, take it with a high-carbohydrate meal, and use enteric-coated capsules.² Enteric coating is the one most people haven't tried and it can be really effective but a bit harder to obtain.
The sodium. This gets forgotten. 0.3 g/kg for an 85 kg athlete is about 25 g of sodium bicarbonate, which carries roughly 7 g of sodium — around seven times what's in a litre of a strong electrolyte drink. That is a lot of sodium, this by itself can cause bloating and possibly even high blood sodium.
What the citrate and malate in DRVN threshold is for
DRVN threshold’s drink mix delivers a much smaller alkalosis dose than a high dose sodium bicarbonate protocol. Any product implying its buffer content does the same as the bicarbonate protocol does is exaggerating what their product is likely to achieve. It is not doing nothing however.
The World Health Organisations (WHO) oral rehydration formula contains 2.9 g of citrate per litre the same amount of buffering salts as in DRVN threshold.³ That citrate wasn't chosen for taste. WHO's own specification lists what the citrate is there to do: correct the acidosis that arises from diarrhoea and dehydration.³ Three grams of citrate salts is effective in managing mild metabolic acidosis.
Threshold provides 1300 mg sodium citrate, 1100 mg potassium citrate and magnesium malate per litre — around 7.8 mmol of citrate and 8.2 mmol of malate, or roughly 40 bicarbonate equivalents once metabolised. Slightly more than the WHO formula delivers.
So how does it work? Citrate and malate are metabolisable anions — when you oxidise them you consume hydrogen ions and generate bicarbonate, three equivalents per unit of citrate and two per unit of malate. This reduces acidosis, not to the same degree as the high dose sodium bicarbonate protocols, but without all the downsides
Chloride, which are a very common salt form in many electrolyte drinks, does none of this. It isn't metabolised; it stays as chloride until your kidneys deal with it. Beyond that, citrate and malate salts dissolve well, taste considerably less harsh than the chloride equivalents, and tend to sit better in the gut.
Beta-alanine-the other big buffering supplement.
Beta-alanine works in a different way. It's the rate-limiting precursor for carnosine, which is a significant buffer inside the muscle cell itself. Carnosine is less well absorbed so it's better to take beta-alanine.
Hobson and colleagues found a beta-alanine led to a median improvement of 2.85% in exercise capacity, with a range from −0.37% to 10.49% — the bottom end again touching zero.⁴ Saunders' review identified exercise duration as the single biggest factor in whether it works at all, with the effective window running from roughly thirty seconds to ten minutes.⁵ Shorter or longer exercise durations don't seem to be improved by beta-alanine.
The thing to understand is that this is a cumulative supplement, not an acute one. The ISSN recommends 4–6 g daily for at least two to four weeks before effects are seen.⁶ Hobson's effect was tied to a median total intake of 179 g — at 5 g a day, about five weeks of consistent dosing. Taking it once before a session does nothing at all.
Skin tingling is a common side effect and is considered harmless and dose-dependent but puts many people off using it. Split the daily dose into portions of around 1.6 g, or use a sustained-release form, and it largely disappears.⁶
Practical position:
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Bicarbonate is the one with the evidence. 0.3 g/kg, 60–180 minutes before exercise, tested in training and never trialled for the first time on competition day.²
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If the gut issues have stopped you before, try enteric-coated capsules and a carbohydrate-rich meal before you write it off.²
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Count the sodium. A bicarbonate dose is roughly 7 g of it.
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Beta-alanine: 4–6 g daily, split, for a minimum of four weeks. Think in total grams accumulated, not days elapsed.⁶
What's in DRVN Threshold
One serving mixed to a litre provides 1000 mg sodium, 400 mg potassium, 200 mg magnesium and 30 g of carbohydrate, with the minerals supplied as citrate and malate salts alongside sodium chloride.
References
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Carr AJ, Hopkins WG, Gore CJ. Effects of acute alkalosis and acidosis on performance: a meta-analysis. Sports Med. 2011;41(10):801–14.
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Grgic J, Pedisic Z, Saunders B, Artioli GG, Schoenfeld BJ, McKenna MJ, et al. International Society of Sports Nutrition position stand: sodium bicarbonate and exercise performance. J Int Soc Sports Nutr. 2021;18(1):61.
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World Health Organization. Oral rehydration salts: production of the new ORS. Geneva: WHO; 2006. Document WHO/FCH/CAH/06.1.
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Hobson RM, Saunders B, Ball G, Harris RC, Sale C. Effects of β-alanine supplementation on exercise performance: a meta-analysis. Amino Acids. 2012;43(1):25–37.
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Saunders B, Elliott-Sale K, Artioli GG, Swinton PA, Dolan E, Roschel H, et al. β-alanine supplementation to improve exercise capacity and performance: a systematic review and meta-analysis. Br J Sports Med. 2017;51(8):658–69.
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Trexler ET, Smith-Ryan AE, Stout JR, Hoffman JR, Wilborn CD, Sale C, et al. International Society of Sports Nutrition position stand: Beta-Alanine. J Int Soc Sports Nutr. 2015;12:30.