Beetroot juice is not only a good supplement for endurance athletes. Bodybuilders and other strength athletes can train more intensively by adding beetroot juice to their daily diet, researchers at edge hill university in England discovered.
Beetroot juice
Beetroot juice is a natural source of inorganic nitrate, and nitrate functions as a precursor of nitrogen monoxide in the body. Nitrogen monoxide widens the blood vessels and it boosts the supply of nutrients and oxygen to the muscles.
There are indications that nitrogen monoxide plays a role in muscle growth too – and so manufacturers of bodybuilding supplements have started to market a wide range of Camiseta Everton FC products that are supposed to boost Camiseta Selección de fútbol de Corea del Sur the concentration of nitrogen monoxide in the blood. You’ll find an overview of our posts on nitrogen monoxide and supplementation here.
Study
Beetroot juice is not only a good supplement for endurance athletes. Bodybuilders and other strength athletes can train more intensively by adding beetroot juice to their daily diet, researchers at edge hill university in England discovered.
The researchers got twelve male students, all of whom had been doing strength training for a long time, to drink a bottle of Beet It sport shot every day for six days. Beet It sport shot is a product made by James White [jameswhite.co.uk] and contains 70 ml concentrated beetroot juice and 400 mg nitrate. James White did not finance the study.
On another occasion the students drank a berry juice – without nitrates.
Before and after each supplementation period the subjects had to do three sets of bench presses to failure, using 60 percent of the weight with which they could just manage 1 rep. The students rested for two minutes between sets.
Results
The beetroot juice concentrate boosted the total number of reps the subjects could do by twenty percent.
Conclusion
“Coaches and their athletes alike, could make use of nitrate supplementation since our evidence suggests it, can be used within healthy male resistance trained population to increase exercise tolerance and improve performance”, the researchers wrote.
“Further studies are necessary to investigate long term use and possible adaptations to resistance training with longer periods of dosing with nitrate.”
Ingestion of a nitric oxide enhancing supplement improves resistance exercise performance.
Abstract
Studies have established that supplementation of nitrate increases nitrous oxide which in turn improves exercise performance. The current study aimed to investigate the effects of nitrate ingestion on performance of bench press resistance exercise till failure. Twelve recreationally active (age, 21 +/- 2yrs, height, 177.2 +/- 4.0 cm, weight, 82.49 +/- 9.78 kg) resistance trained males participated in the study. The study utilised a double blind randomized cross-over design, where participants ingested either 70 ml of “BEET It sport (R)” nitrate shot containing 6.4 millimoles (mmol/L) or 400 mg of nitrate; or a blackcurrant placebo drink. participants completed a resistance exercise session, consisting of bench press exercise at an intensity of 60% of their established 1 repetition maximum (1-RM), for three sets until failure with 2 minute rest interval between sets. The repetitions completed, total weight lifted, local and general rate of perceived exertion (RPE), and blood lactate were all measured. The results showed a significant difference in repetitions to failure (p < 0.001) and total weight lifted (p < 0.001). Camiseta Cerezo Osaka however there were no significant difference between blood lactate over the two trials (p = 0.238), and no difference in local (p = 0.807) or general (p = 0.420) indicators of fatigue as measured by RPE. This study demonstrates that nitrate supplementation has the potential to improve resistance training performance and work output compared to a placebo.
Copyright (C) 2016 by the national strength & Conditioning Association.
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