THE BLUE PAPER: BETA-ALANINE
Cutting to the chase: peer-reviewed research demonstrates that daily beta-alanine elevates muscle carnosine stores to enhance high-intensity performance, delay fatigue, and provide intracellular buffering power.
What the Research Shows
What is beta-alanine?
Beta-alanine is a naturally occurring amino acid that forms the building blocks of muscle carnosine. Carnosine helps buffer acidity (from hydrogen ions) within the muscle cell, supporting the muscle’s ability to keep working during high-intensity exercise.
How it relates to bicarbonate
Beta-alanine and sodium bicarbonate support buffering in different ways. Carnosine is an intracellular buffer, working inside muscle cells. Bicarbonate is an extracellular buffer, acting mainly in our blood. The two mechanisms are therefore complementary, and studies have investigated taking them together.
Works directly inside muscle cells to neutralise protons and mitigate acidosis during surges and sprints.
Acts predominantly in the bloodstream to enhance the efflux of hydrogen ions out of fatigued muscles.
What the performance evidence says
The International Society of Sports Nutrition position stand concludes that daily beta-alanine supplementation can raise muscle carnosine and improve high-intensity exercise performance, with the clearest effects generally found in efforts lasting around 1 to 10 minutes.
A meta-analysis (a study of studies) cited in the position stand reported an average improvement of about 2.85% across the performance research it examined.
A race-relevant study
Bellinger and Minahan (2016) studied 14 trained cyclists who took 6g of beta-alanine or placebo each day for four weeks. In a test at 120% of VO₂max, beta-alanine significantly increased time to exhaustion by 8.6% (17.6 seconds) compared with placebo.
In the 4 km time trial, the beta-alanine group was 8 seconds faster, an improvement of 2.2%.
Strength and power
A 2025 systematic review of nine studies involving 197 participants reported strength and power output improvements with beta-alanine with daily intakes around 4–6.4 g.
Cognition and reaction time: an emerging area
A paper by Ostfeld and Hoffman (2023) reviews beta-alanine research in soldiers, including studies that assessed cognitive performance during demanding military tasks. One trial followed 19 men during a simulated 24-hour military operation after 14 days of supplementation. Reaction-time and decision making were better with beta-alanine.
Dosage, timing and side effects
Beta-alanine works through consistent daily intake. Research commonly uses around 4-6 g per day for at least four weeks; longer periods can continue to raise muscle carnosine, although the rate of increase slows over time.
The ISSN position stand reports increases of up to about 64% after four weeks and up to 80% after ten weeks in the protocols it reviewed.
After taking beta-alanine most people experience paraesthesia, a harmless temporary tingling sensation. This can be reduced by splitting your dose (e.g. 2 x 2g) and taking it with food. The tingling also reduces as you become acclimatised to taking beta-alanine.
The tingling sensation (paresthesia) is completely harmless and peaks 30–60 minutes post-dose. To minimise it, take 2g morning and 2g afternoon with meals. As muscle saturation increases over 2–4 weeks, paresthesia sensations typically become milder.
How we have applied the science
FLYCARB Beta-Alanine comes as a 300g pouch. Our suggested protocol is 2 g twice daily, giving 4g per day. Therefore, our pouch is a 6-week supply.
Taking beta-alanine daily for at least four weeks gives muscle carnosine time to build. So, if you are an athlete looking to use beta-alanine for your next season, start 4 weeks before your first race, and continue using it until your last race.
FLYCARB Beta-Alanine (300g)
100% pure pharmaceutical-grade beta-alanine powder. Single-ingredient, unflavoured, instant-dissolving, and formulated to deliver the optimal 4g daily intake across a full 6-week race-preparation cycle.
Interesting Research
- Trexler ET, Smith-Ryan AE, Stout JR, et al. (2015). International Society of Sports Nutrition position stand: Beta-Alanine. Journal of the International Society of Sports Nutrition, 12, 30. doi:10.1186/s12970-015-0090-y →
- Georgiou GD, Antoniou K, Antoniou S, et al. (2024). Effect of beta-alanine supplementation on maximal intensity exercise in trained young male individuals: A systematic review and meta-analysis. International Journal of Sport Nutrition and Exercise Metabolism, 34(6). doi:10.1123/ijsnem.2024-0027 →
- Grgic J. (2021). Effects of beta-alanine supplementation on Yo-Yo test performance: A meta-analysis. Clinical Nutrition ESPEN, 43, 217–223. doi:10.1016/j.clnesp.2021.03.016 →
- Ong SW, Chen WL, Chien KY, Hsu CW. (2025). Dosing strategies for beta-alanine supplementation in strength and power performance: A systematic review. Journal of the International Society of Sports Nutrition, 22(1), 2566368. doi:10.1080/15502783.2025.2566368 →
- Ostfeld I, Hoffman JR. (2023). The effect of beta-alanine supplementation on performance, cognitive function and resiliency in soldiers. Nutrients, 15(4), 1039. doi:10.3390/nu15041039 →
- Varanoske AN, Wells AJ, Kozlowski GJ, et al. (2018). Effects of beta-alanine supplementation on physical performance, cognition, endocrine function, and inflammation during a 24 h simulated military operation. Physiological Reports, 6(24), e13938. doi:10.14814/phy2.13938 →
- Hill CA, Harris RC, Kim HJ, et al. (2007). Influence of beta-alanine supplementation on skeletal muscle carnosine concentrations and high-intensity cycling capacity. Amino Acids, 32(2), 225–233. doi:10.1007/s00726-006-0364-4 →
- Grgic J, Rodriguez RF, Garofolini A, et al. (2021). Effects of beta-alanine and sodium bicarbonate co-supplementation on the body’s buffering capacity and sports performance: A systematic review. Critical Reviews in Food Science and Nutrition, 63(21). doi:10.1080/10408398.2021.2012642 →
- Bellinger PM, Minahan CL. (2016). The Effect of Beta-Alanine Supplementation on Cycling Time Trials of Different Duration. International Journal of Sport Nutrition and Exercise Metabolism, 26(3), 201–212. doi:10.1123/ijsnem.2016-0099 →