I use it before hard workouts and seem to get good numbers. Just used it in a blind 20 minute Max effort (no looking at power or heart rate) on my TT bike and hit the same max as I can do on my road bike. Pretty great for me. AMP could absolutely be a placebo, but I’m sticking with it.
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Any more updates to homebrew recipes and their effectiveness? Too cheap for $35/month 
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The trick is that you really have to believe that the homebrew stuff works, otherwise it won’t work. The placebo (and nocebo) effect is real 
If their patent ever goes through then we’ll know more about what the claimed mechanism is.
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I started using AMP PR lotion last September. Clearest indication I’ve had that it works was running a hard 10K road race. Couldn’t tell if it was doing anything during the race, but I was less sore afterwards than would normally be the case. I’ve continued to use it for hard workouts (bike and run) but have not had as clear an indication of it working since although I do think it’s helped with faster recovery (again, less post-workout soreness) during Ramp tests. All that said, none of this is even remotely scientific so I’m totally open to the possibility that it’s all placebo effect. Two other comments: first, shake the tube really well (20 seconds vigorously) and it will go on much more easily with less slimy after feel. Second, it feels good probably due to menthol and with the discount codes it’s in the same price ballpark as other sports creams so I figure why not use it and hope it’s really doing something? Bottom line, I like it and am on my second tube and recently ordered more.
I used it for a pretty tough trainer ride to see how I would react and didn’t notice any major difference but I have another sample and am willing to try again. The stuff smells terrible.
I’d like to try it on a hard running race.
Also, only use it for the really hard stuff. FTP tests, TT, long sub threshold efforts, etc. Part of my mental “psych up” routine. Keeps the price reasonable. And the routine seems to work, so it doesn’t really matter to me if any particular part of it is placebo.
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I’ve used it on the harder end of workouts, I’ve pushed the VO2 Max workouts higher and still completed where previously I’d been really struggling. The time I noticed it most was over-unders I’d done one week without which was a gradual rise and fall to 105% and it felt like a real battle. A week later, remembering how that workout sucked I thought I’d see what it could do. My initial thought was that there was maybe a marginal gain, it felt a bit easier and the ‘burn’ coming down wasn’t as much. It was only near the end that I realised that Fang Mountain +2 went up to 110%. It helps buffer, the heart rate at which that flooding feeling occurs is higher.
My current concern is that if I continue to use it for over-unders, am I blunting the effect of them?
Seems like someone did a study on it. No benefits. Not to worry though, PRL fans, placebo effects can still occur even when the subject knows it’s a placebo 
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reading that study was worth it to get to the de Oliveira case study. 
It does something. I’ve found that I can push just that bit harder for longer when it really matters. I’m a convert.
Do the lactigo trick…put it on one leg and not the other. 
Seems to be like the CBD balm I use. I can’t really tell if it’s doing something but in my mind I feel like it does something because I expect it to. Snake oils are fun
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Don’t harsh your placebo. The placebo effect can be quite powerful.
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Full disclosure, I only read through the abstract, but the study is very underpowered to be detecting any differences. We are often looking for small 1-2% gains in cycling, and if Amp were to be able to deliver that it would be significant to many. However you would likely need a study powered by hundreds, rather than tens, to detect such small differences.
I just bought a tube of Lactigo. Excited to give it a try.
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To me the more interesting aspect of the study was looking for bicarb in the blood. They showed that bicarb from AMP doesn’t get into the blood. There could be other mechanisms that improve performance (placebo, menthol), but the lack of detectable bicarb in the blood directly counters the claimed mechanism of AMP. I agree this is too small to show that “AMP doesn’t provide performance gains”, however I think it does show that “AMP doesn’t provide performance gains by transdermal bicarb transport and corresponding buffering in the blood”.
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Here is my whole issue with the study:
No differences in cycling time occurred between PR lotion (349 [119] s) and oral NaHCO3 (363 [80] s; P = .697).
Well isn’t that good? Isn’t the topical supposed to perform the same as the oral w/o the gut issues? So what they are really saying is oral doesn’t work either, or they both work the same. Which is it?
And I think they need to do longer tests. I feel as if I can push harder, longer. That doesn’t mean I can exceed threshold over and over and over again. But rather stay at threshold longer before I feel the fatigue in my legs.
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I don’t know how the oral bicarb protocol or the exercise test compares to other studies that show oral bicarb improves performance. I however think this is the least interesting part of the paper.
Capillary blood was collected and analyzed for pH, bicarbonate, and lactate every 10 minutes throughout the 90-minute loading period and postexercise at 5, 10, and 15 minutes.
In Study A, pH and bicarbonate were significantly elevated from baseline after 10 minutes in the oral NaHCO3 condition and throughout recovery compared with no elevation in the PR lotion condition
In Study B, no differences in blood parameters, mean power ( P = .108), or peak power ( P = .448) were observed between conditions.
To me, the main interesting part of this study is the bloodwork, which is much less subjective and not subject to the vagaries of whether or not the exercise test was appropriate or likely to be affected by the bicarb. The bloodwork clearly shows that the mechanism promoted by AMP is not happening - there is no transdermal transport of bicarb into the blood (or so little it can’t be measured.)
If the real active ingredient is menthol (as Lactigo promotes), then this is really just a fancied up and very expensive version of a menthol cream.
$3.30/ounce for AMP, $0.88/ounce for TopCare.
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Hi Everyone,
I have a quick query which I have been pondering over.
I took the plunge and purchased AMP lotion (Bicabonate buffer) in an attempt to see if it improved my performance and endurance at high intensities.
I think it did have a positive effect when I used it, especially on longer rides. However, I didn’t apply it one ride and really struggled. Now this could have nothing to do with the lotion and more to do with nutrition, but it got me thinking…
As I understand it, exposing muscles to high lactate levels results in adaptive compensatory mechanisms which improve performance in the longer term. Therefore, my question is, does using these buffering solutions prevent this compensatory response and therefore hinder adaptation to higher lactate levels.
If it does, then surely that is far from ideal and I’m becoming reliant on it ???
I’d be really interested in peoples views.
Cheers
Nick
The placebo effect is incredibly powerful
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