Orally ingested SRBA has a very high whole body retention (97%-98%) that is not declining throughout the 5-wk supplementation period, nor is it influenced by the coingestion of macronutrients. Thus, a very small portion (1%-2%) is lost through urinary excretion, and equally only a small portion is incorporated into muscle carnosine (≈ 3%), indicating that most ingested BA is metabolized (possibly through oxidation). Second, in soleus muscles, the efficiency of carnosine loading is significantly higher when PBA is coingested with a meal (+64%) compared with in between the meals (+41%), suggesting that insulin stimulates muscle carnosine loading. Finally, the chronic supplementation of SRBA versus PBA seems equally effective.

Human fast-twitch muscle fibers generate high power in a short amount of time but are easily fatigued, whereas slow-twitch fibers are more fatigue resistant. The transfer of this knowledge to coaching is hampered by the invasive nature of the current evaluation of muscle typology by biopsies. Therefore, a noninvasive method was developed to estimate muscle typology through proton magnetic resonance spectroscopy in the gastrocnemius. The aim of this study was to investigate whether male subjects with an a priori-determined fast typology (FT) are characterized by a more pronounced Wingate exercise-induced fatigue and delayed recovery compared with subjects with a slow typology (ST). Ten subjects with an estimated higher percentage of fast-twitch fibers and 10 subjects with an estimated higher percentage of slow-twitch fibers underwent the test protocol, consisting of three 30-s all-out Wingate tests. Recovery of knee extension torque was evaluated by maximal voluntary contraction combined with electrical stimulation up to 5 h after the Wingate tests. Although both groups delivered the same mean power across all Wingates, the power drop was higher in the FT group (−61%) compared with the ST group (−41%). The torque at maximal voluntary contraction had fully recovered in the ST group after 20 min, whereas the FT group had not yet recovered 5 h into recovery. This noninvasive estimation of muscle typology can predict the extent of fatigue and time to recover following repeated all-out exercise and may have applications as a tool to individualize training and recovery cycles. NEW & NOTEWORTHY A one-fits-all training regime is present in most sports, though the same training implies different stimuli in athletes with a distinct muscle typology. Individualization of training based on this muscle typology might be important to optimize performance and to lower the risk for accumulated fatigue and potentially injury. When conducting research, one should keep in mind that the muscle typology of participants influences the severity of fatigue and might therefore impact the results.

Carnosine occurs in high concentrations in human skeletal muscle and assists working capacity during high-intensity exercise. Chronic beta-alanine (BA) supplementation has consistently been shown to augment muscle carnosine concentration, but the effect of training on the carnosine loading efficiency is poorly understood. The aim of the present study was to compare muscle carnosine loading between trained and untrained arm and leg muscles. In a first study (n = 17), reliability of carnosine quantification by proton magnetic resonance spectroscopy ((1)H-MRS) was evaluated in deltoid and triceps brachii muscles. In a second study, participants (n = 35; 10 nonathletes, 10 cyclists, 10 swimmers, and 5 kayakers) were supplemented with 6.4 g/day of slow-release BA for 23 days. Carnosine content was evaluated in soleus, gastrocnemius medialis, and deltoid muscles by (1)H-MRS. All the results are reported as arbitrary units. In the nonathletes, BA supplementation increased carnosine content by 47% in the arm and 33% in the leg muscles (not significant). In kayakers, the increase was more pronounced in arm (deltoid) vs. leg (soleus + gastrocnemius) muscles (0.089 vs. 0.049), whereas the reverse pattern was observed in cyclists (0.065 vs. 0.084). Swimmers had significantly higher increase in carnosine in both deltoid (0.107 vs. 0.065) and gastrocnemius muscle (0.082 vs. 0.051) compared with nonathletes. We showed that 1) carnosine content can be reliably measured by (1)H-MRS in deltoid muscle, 2) carnosine loading is equally effective in arm vs. leg muscles of nonathletes, and 3) carnosine loading is more pronounced in trained vs. untrained muscles.

Balanced vegetarian diets are popular, although they are nearly absent in creatine and carnosine and contain considerably less carnitine than non-vegetarian diets. Few longitudinal intervention studies investigating the effect of a vegetarian diet on the availability of these compounds currently exist. We aimed to investigate the effect of transiently switching omnivores onto a vegetarian diet for 6 months on muscle and plasma creatine, carnitine and carnosine homeostasis. In a 6-month intervention, forty omnivorous women were ascribed to three groups: continued omnivorous diet (control, n 10), vegetarian diet without supplementation (Veg+Pla, n 15) and vegetarian diet combined with daily β-alanine (0·8-0·4 g/d) and creatine supplementation (1 g creatine monohydrate/d) (Veg+Suppl, n 15). Before (0 months; 0M), after 3 months (3M) and 6 months (6M), a fasted venous blood sample and 24-h urine was collected, and muscle carnosine content was determined by proton magnetic resonance spectroscopy (1H-MRS). Muscle biopsies were obtained at 0M and 3M. Plasma creatine and muscle total creatine content declined from 0M to 3M in Veg+Pla (P=0·013 and P=0·009, respectively), whereas plasma creatine increased from 0M in Veg+Suppl (P=0·004). None of the carnitine-related compounds in plasma or muscle showed a significant time×group interaction effect. 1H-MRS-determined muscle carnosine content was unchanged over 6M in control and Veg+Pla, but increased in Veg+Suppl in soleus (P<0·001) and gastrocnemius (P=0·001) muscle. To conclude, the body creatine pool declined over a 3-month vegetarian diet in omnivorous women, which was ameliorated when accompanied by low-dose dietary creatine supplementation. Carnitine and carnosine homeostasis was unaffected by a 3- or 6-month vegetarian diet, respectively.

Sex and body mass did not markedly affect the absolute increase during muscle carnosine loading, although they are determinants for the relative increase. In addition, we established for the first time an effective maintenance dose of ∼1.2 g·d(-1) BA to keep muscle carnosine content elevated at 30%-50% above baseline for a prolonged period.