Effect of beetroot juice supplementation on 10-km performance in recreational runners

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of chronic beetroot juice (BRJ) supplementation on 10-km running performance in recreational runners. In a double-blind, placebo-controlled, crossover-designed study, fourteen male recreational runners (age: 27.8 ± 3.4 y) performed three 10-km running tests at baseline, under the conditions of BRJ supplementation and placebo (PLA). Supplementation was administered for three days, and on the day of the assessments, the ingestion occurred two hours before each test and consisted of a dose of 420 mL of BRJ in natura (8.4 mmol NO3-/day) or PLA with depleted NO3- (0.01 mmol NO3-/day). The mean velocity (MV) was calculated and the following variables were determined: maximum heart rate (HRmax), maximal rating of perceived exertion (RPEmax), and determined at pre and post test glucose concentrations (Glycpre, Glycpost), and lactate peak. There was no main effect between conditions regarding to 10-km running time performance (BRJ: 50.1 ± 5.3; PLA: 51.0 ± 5.1 min, p = 0.391) and total MV (BRJ: 12.1 ± 1.3; PLA: 11.9 ± 1.2 km·h-1, p = 0.321), as well as in the other analyzed variables. The time to complete the first half of the test (5 km) was statistically lower in the BRJ compared to that in the PLA (P = 0.027). In conclusion, chronic supplementation with BRJ increasing MV in the first half of the test and improves the final test time of ten of the fourteen runners, although we did not find a statistically significant difference in the performance of 10-km.

No longer beeting around the bush: a review of potential sex differences with dietary nitrate supplementation

“…The same group also demonstrated that the acute ingestion of 6.2 mmol NO 3 in BRJ improved cycling time trial (TT) performance in 9 male cyclists over 4 (2.8%) and 16.1 km (2.7%) versus a PL (Lansley et al 2011b). Other research groups were able to corroborate the exercise economy/performance findings in trained and recreationally active male subjects (Bond et al 2012;Cermak et al 2012a;Porcelli et al 2015;Whitfield et al 2016;de Castro et al 2019).…”

Effects of Dietary Nitrates on Time Trial Performance in Athletes with Different Training Status: Systematic Review

“…The most common form of DN supplementation is beetroot juice concentrate (BJC) [27,58,71,78,[82][83][84]. Other forms of DN supplementation include raw beetroot juice (BJ) [85], encapsulated potassium nitrate (PN) [75,80] and beetroot crystals (BC) [79] or a water solution containing sodium nitrate (SN) [68,81]. All these variables in the supplementation protocol could potentially interfere with the ergogenic effects.…”

“…Therefore, even the most considerable TT performance changes observed during cycling ergometry measurements in elite athletes may not be relevant (improvement is lower than SWC + TEM, therefore unclear) in real sports events [103]. Interestingly only 5 of the 13 reviewed studies observed performance improvement after DN supplementation ≥ 1.3% [68,75,81,84,85].…”

Physiological Effects of Beetroot in Athletes and Patients

“…A recent double-blind, placebo-controlled, crossover-designed study measured the effect of BRJ on 10 km performance in recreational runners (n=14) [30]. No significant effect of timetrial performance was observed between placebo and BRJ, however there was a significant difference in the first 5 km (24.3 vs. 24.9 min, p = 0.027).…”