The Study
Short-Duration Beta-Alanine Supplementation Did Not Prevent the Detrimental Effects of an Intense Preparatory Period on Exercise Capacity in Top-Level Female Footballers
This study gave some athletes a supplement and others a sugar pill, then saw who ran better after 3 weeks of tough training. It’s like testing if a new snack helps you run faster during a sports camp. It can tell us if the snack made a difference here, but not if it would work for everyone or for longer.
Analysis score
Maximum 90 for a randomized controlled trial.
Where the score came from
Teen female soccer players trained super hard for 3 weeks and got slower at running back and forth. Some took a supplement called beta-alanine; others took a sugar pill.
Where does this study sit?
Reviews of RCTs (Meta-analyses)
Max 100Randomized Trials
Max 90Reviews of Cohort Studies
Max 85Cohort Studies
Max 72Reviews of Case-Control Studies
Max 63Case-Control Studies
Max 58Cross-Sectional & Case Series
Max 50Expert Opinion
Max 561 / 100
Quality score
Participants are randomly assigned to treatment or control groups, minimizing bias. The gold standard for testing whether an intervention causes an effect.
Key takeaways
Summary
Based on the study abstract and findings.
- 1A 7.4% drop in endurance performance is meaningful for elite athletes — it could mean losing a key possession or sprint in a match.
- 2All players got 7.4% slower on a running test.
- 3The supplement group didn't do any better than the sugar pill group on any sprint or endurance test.
Score breakdown, methodology, conflicts of interest, evidence analysis & raw study data
Publication
Journal
Frontiers in Nutrition
Year
2020
Authors
R. Ribeiro, B. Duarte, André Guedes da Silva, G. Ramos, Andreia Rossi Picanço, E. Penna, V. Coswig, Matheus Barbalho, P. Gentil, B. Gualano, B. Saunders
Related Content
Claims (6)
Taking beta-alanine increases exercise capacity during high-intensity efforts by an average of 2.85% compared to taking a placebo.
In elite female football players under 20, taking 6.4 grams of beta-alanine daily for three weeks does not stop the decrease in high-intensity running performance during a demanding training phase.
Without measuring muscle carnosine levels, it is not possible to determine if beta-alanine supplementation increased carnosine enough to affect performance in elite female U20 football players.
Elite female football players under 20 who undergo three weeks of intense training show a 7.4% decrease in their ability to perform high-intensity intermittent exercise, as measured by the YoYo IR1 test, whether or not they take beta-alanine.
Taking 6.4 grams of beta-alanine daily for three weeks does not improve how well elite female football players under 20 perform in repeated sprints or their top speed during a 20-meter sprint, even when they are in intense training.
Elite female football players under 20 showed reduced performance during a 3-week training camp, and this reduction was linked to lower initial fitness levels caused by fatigue from their previous competitive season.
Not medical advice. For informational purposes only. Always consult a qualified healthcare professional before making health decisions.