A Randomized Crossover Trial Investigating Sodium Citrate Supplementation and Anaerobic Performance In Female Basketball Players

Wong, Khai Xuan (2025) A Randomized Crossover Trial Investigating Sodium Citrate Supplementation and Anaerobic Performance In Female Basketball Players. Final Year Project (Bachelor), Tunku Abdul Rahman University of Management and Technology.

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Abstract

Early studies have demonstrated that sodium citrate may act as a potential ergogenic aid to increase anaerobic capacity by delaying the onset of fatigue. However, current research on its acute effects during short-term, high-intensity, intermittent exercise, particularly among recreational female players remains limited. The purpose of this study was to investigate the acute effects of sodium citrate (SC) on anaerobic performance in recreational female basketball players. A double-blind, randomized, crossover design was used in this study. Nine university-level recreational female basketball players (age: 21 ± 1.9 years; weight: 53.1 ± 10.5 kg; height: 158.2 ± 6.7 cm; body fat percentage: 29.2 ± 7.5 %; skeletal muscle mass: 20 ± 3.5 kg; basketball experience: 4.8 ± 2.8 years) participated. Each participant underwent preliminary testing, one pre-supplementation trial (no supplement), and two post-supplementation trials (SC and placebo trials). Each trial involved a urine specific gravity (USG) test, RPE scale (6-20), heart rate monitoring (bpm), Running-based Anaerobic Sprint Test (RAST), and blood lactate test before and five minutes after exercise. For post-supplementation trials, participants ingested either SC or placebo (PLA) supplements at 0.5 g/kg of body weight, 3 hours before the RAST. Data were analyzed using IBM SPSS Statistics, version 26 in this study. Results indicated that there were no significant differences between the SC and PLA trials for maximum power, minimum power, average power, fatigue index, and post-exercise blood lactate concentrations (p > .05). The lack of significant findings may be attributed to the poor sleep quality, researcher negligence in supplement monitoring or inconsistent testing environment temperature. Hence, it was concluded that the sodium citrate (SC) ingestion before exercise did not affect the anaerobic performance and blood lactate clearance capacity among recreational female basketball players. Keywords: Anaerobic performance; Dietary supplement; Lactate; Female basketball player; Sodium citrate. ⅲ