Beetroot juice research goes from strength to strength

Background

Elite endurance athletes, including the likes of Eliud Kipchoge and the NN Running Team, have long used Beet It Sport beetroot juice as part of their pre-race preparation

Beetroot juice research has mostly been focussed on endurance and sprint-type exercise, with the performance potential recognised by the Australian Institute of Sport and the International Olympic Committee

Emerging evidence now supports the use of beetroot juice supplementation for strength and power sports such as weightlifting.

Systematic review paper

An independent systematic review (San Juan et al., 2020), examined the existing evidence basis for beetroot juice supplementation to improve strength and power production during weightlifting exercise (i.e., bench press and squat)

Four studies were selected and included a total of 49 resistance trained males (i.e., performed resistance exercise at least twice a week)

In two of the studies, participants consumed one Beet It Sport shot ~2hrs before exercise, whilst the remaining two studies used longer-term dosing strategy of either three or six consecutive days intake.

Results

One Beet It Sport shot ~2hrs before led to:

• 4% (60 vs 46) and 17.7% (89 vs 75) increase in number of repetitions during back squat and combined bench press and back squat exercise, respectively – Ranchal-Sanchez et al. (2020)
• 7% (31 vs 28) increase in repetitions to failure during bench press and 19.5% (607 vs 508 Watts) increase in peak power during bench press exercise – Williams et al. (2020)

          One Beet It Sport shot per day for six consecutive days led to:

• 4% increase in repetitions to failure during back squat exercise and 18.9% (2584 vs 2172 kg) increase in total weight lifted – Mosher et al. (2016)Two nitrate-rich bars (32.5mg nitrate per bar) for three consecutive days led to: no change in box squat performance – Flanagan et al. (2016)

Perspectives and Conclusion

Typically, it can take up to 6-7 weeks of resistance training to achieve a ~25% improvement in muscle power output – remarkably, a similar improvement has been shown in the above research findings from drinking Beet It Sport shots ~2hrs before training

Short-term supplementation of concentrated beetroot juice has been shown to increase muscle power and velocity, and the number of repetitions to failure during bench press exercise in resistance-trained males

Concentrated beetroot juice supplementation therefore holds promise to enhance weightlifting performance in resistance-trained males.