Can hyperventilation between sprints work like a buffer? It raised blood pH and slowed late power loss in one trial, but did not improve repeated sprints in another
Oct 27
3 min read
Hard intervals and repeated sprints flood the muscle with acid, and that acidity is part of why each effort gets worse. Athletes have long tried to buffer it from the outside. Hyperventilating, breathing fast and deep, does something similar from the inside: blowing off carbon dioxide makes the blood more alkaline. The appeal is obvious, since breathing costs nothing and has no gut side effects. The question is whether that shift in blood chemistry translates into better repeated-sprint performance.
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