Beetroot & Caffeine: 1000m Kayak Time Trial Study

If you've ever wondered whether stacking a beetroot shot with caffeine before a race actually changes your finishing time, a 2025 study in the Journal of the International Society of Sports Nutrition put that exact question to the test on highly trained kayak athletes.

This is a core question in sports nutrition research: does dietary nitrate, alone or paired with caffeine, meaningfully change performance on a 1000m kayak ergometer? Here is exactly what the researchers did, the precise protocol they used, and what the data showed no extra spin added.

A Closer Look at How the Study Was Run

This was a tightly controlled study, and the timing of each supplement mattered as much as the dose:

• 12 highly trained male kayak athletes took part
• Randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled, crossover design — every athlete cycled through every condition, and neither athletes nor researchers knew which supplement was being given at each visit
• Four conditions were tested: Nitrate + Caffeine, Nitrate + Caffeine placebo, Caffeine + Nitrate placebo, and Placebo + Placebo
• Nitrate dose: 140 ml beetroot concentrate (~12.5 mmol nitrate), taken 2.5 hours (150 minutes) before the time trial
• Caffeine dose: 3 mg per kg of bodyweight, taken 60 minutes before the time trial
• These two timings were chosen deliberately so that peak nitrate and peak caffeine concentrations would both align with the start of the time trial
• Each athlete completed a 1000m kayak ergometer time trial (on a Dansprint Pro ergometer) once per condition, a week apart, aiming for their own best effort each time

You can check the full paper yourself on:tandfonline

What Was Measured, and How

Beyond finish time, researchers broke the 1000m effort into seven predefined sections (0–50 m, 50–100 m, 100–150 m, 150–250 m, 250–500 m, 500–750 m, 750–1000 m) and tracked:

• Cardiorespiratory measures  heart rate, oxygen uptake (VO2), and ventilatory ratios (VE/VO2, VE/VCO2)
• Muscle oxygenation of the deltoid muscle, measured with near-infrared spectroscopy (mNIRS)
• Muscle activity via surface electromyography across nine muscles: deltoideus, serratus anterior, triceps brachii (lateral head), trapezius, infraspinatus, latissimus dorsi, obliquus externus, flexor carpi radialis, and vastus lateralis
• Perceptual responses  fatigue, effort, and exercise-induced pain, rated by the athletes themselves after each trial

Statistical significance was set at p ≤ 0.05 throughout the analysis.

What the Numbers Actually Showed

1000m Time Trial Performance Was Unchanged

Across all four conditions, there was no statistically significant difference in 1000m kayak ergometer time trial performance (p > 0.05). Athletes did not finish meaningfully faster or slower whether they had nitrate, caffeine, both, or neither.

A Small, Section-Specific Respiratory Shift

While overall performance didn't change, a couple of section-specific respiratory differences did reach statistical significance. In the beetroot-only (BR+PLA) condition, VE/VO2 was 5.00% lower during the 150–250 m section (p = 0.02) and 3.49% lower during the 250–500 m section (p = 0.03), compared to placebo. Separately, in the caffeine-only (CAF+PLA) condition, VE/VCO2 was 4.19% higher during the 150–250 m section (p = 0.04) compared to placebo. These are narrow, section-specific respiratory findings they did not translate into a faster overall finish time.

Muscle Oxygenation, Muscle Activity, and Perceived Effort Were Largely Unaffected

Deltoid muscle oxygenation (via mNIRS), electromyography readings across the nine tested muscles, and the athletes' own ratings of fatigue, effort, and pain were all similar across the four conditions.

Why the Results May Have Come Out This Way

The study's authors offered a few possible explanations for the lack of an overall performance effect:

• A possible ceiling effect, where highly trained athletes may already have very efficient vascular and muscle function, leaving less room for a supplement to add further benefit
• Differences in dose, timing, or protocol compared with other dietary nitrate studies
• The short, maximal-intensity nature of a 1000m effort, which is different from the longer or submaximal exercise where nitrate has shown effects in other sports nutrition research

Where This Sits Within the Wider Research

The authors point out that the wider body of dietary nitrate research is genuinely mixed. Some studies in kayaking and paddling sports have reported small improvements in certain settings, while others including this one have not found a significant effect on 1000m kayak ergometer performance. Training status, dosing protocol, and the specific type of effort tested all appear to be relevant factors across this area of sports nutrition research.

A Note on Dosing: Single Acute Dose vs. Everyday Nitrate Loading

It's worth pointing out exactly what was tested here: a single, one-off acute dose of ~12.5 mmol nitrate, taken 150 minutes before an all-out maximal effort. Interestingly, both the nitrate concentrate and its placebo used in this study came from Beet It, the same brand behind Beet It Sport products. That single-dose research protocol is different from how many athletes actually use beetroot concentrate day to day  building nitrate intake gradually over several days as part of a regular routine, rather than a one-time dose immediately before a single race. For reference, the Beet It Sport Nitrate 400 Shot delivers 6.4 mmol of nitrate per serving and is commonly used by athletes as part of a consistent, everyday nutrition routine, rather than a single race-day acute dose.

The Bottom Line

In this specific study, on this specific group of highly trained kayak athletes, a single acute dose of dietary nitrate and caffeine  alone or combined  did not produce a statistically significant change in 1000m kayak ergometer time trial performance. A small number of section-specific respiratory measures did shift significantly, but these did not carry through to a faster overall time. It's one study among many in an ongoing, evolving area of sports nutrition research, and it adds a precise, honest data point rather than a final answer.
Browse the full Beet It Sport range, or dig deeper into the research on our Science page.

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