Can beetroot juice be advantageous to endurance performance?

Question

Beetroot juice is something that I always read about and people praise its effectiveness in enhancing one’s performance. Does anyone have that kind of experience with it-- successfully?

Answer 1

Beetroot juice should be consumed by athletes involved in endurance sports due to its high levels of nitrate which is known to enhance performance. Some studies say that people who take liquid beetroot juice, particularly in high altitudes, have an increased likelihood of improving time trials as well as power output performances. Yet, that has been too many attempts in research studies been stated otherwise to be useful. Such estimates of the study anticipate minimal improvement and do not expect performance-enhancing cocktails to be synergistic including steroids, as their effects are minimal.

Comments

So we go for smoothie with beetroot beta alanine baking soda and cafeine?

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I am a runner and the best thing I ever used is beets juice. I tried the Sis Nitrate 500, but it didnt work somehow.
Best is to take 3 hours before a run, if you want a coffee just drink that 1 hour before run. It doesnt really lowering each other, atleast for me.

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I raced with a guy who was a researcher at UT.  He was working on beet root testing, and in their study it didn't work... so they didn't publish    Something to keep in mind when you find a couple studies saying supplement works. There might be 100 that found it didn't and were never published. The ones that did could be badly conducted etc.

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Another great science based look at these supplements, thanks Dylan.
Maybe covering 'additional protein' for muscle recovery and creatine with cycling/gym training?
Cav and beetroot juice, "pissing rainbows". Doesn't mean it actually played a positive role for him though, but likely not negative either.
I've tried drinking a litre of beetroot juice between breakfast and the start of a 4-hour race and figured that at least I'm well hydrated, with no notable side effects for me either. Gotta hydrate with something, right? Beats (ha ha) carrying all the hydration in bottles or stopping in feed-zones.

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Great content, once again Dylan. It’d be great to hear your opinion on taking creatine during training for Neuromuscular/VO2Max power increase and short events (1-5 mins).

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I would suggest go easy on beet juice if you want to try. It contains high level of oxalates which cause kidney stone. The recommended intake is like 2 baby fist size beet per week. Best to juice it with slow juicer, the kins that slow crush the beet. I like to mix it with carrot and pineapple.

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raw garlic has more nitric oxide than beet juice. It also helps with pumps in the gym, natural cialis too!

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Prof Andy Jones is one of the leaders on beetroot juice and he says that it mostly has a benefit on highly trained athletes. Giving those that are already well trained a tiny bit of a boost, but won't see too much difference for those that aren't well trained. I was involved in one of the studies he oversaw and I did have a slight increase in v02max. I believe this was seen across the other participants too. The way we drank it though was much more consistent than that study Dylan showed that said a single dose didn't have an effect. I was chucking pints of the horrible stuff every day/every other day.