Research

Hormonal

Beetroot juice supplementation improves cardiorespiratory endurance in athletes by increasing nitric oxide bioavailability, which enhances blood flow, mitochondrial efficiency, and exercise economy, particularly in normoxic conditions.

If you are a trained endurance athlete, consuming beetroot juice providing 5-8 mmol of nitrate 2-3 hours before exercise may improve your efficiency and time to exhaustion, particularly in normal oxygen conditions. However, do not expect guaranteed results, especially if you are training at high altitude or consuming caffeine simultaneously, as these factors may negate the benefits.

ModerateSupportsMEDIUM confidence
Beetroot juice increases levels of nitric oxide (NO), which serves multiple functions related to increased blood flow, gas exchange, mitochondrial biogenesis and efficiency, and strengthening of muscle contraction. These biomarker improvements indicate that supplementation with beetroot juice could have ergogenic effects on cardiorespiratory endurance that would benefit athletic performance.
Raúl Domínguez et al. · Nutrients · 2017

Why this rating

Systematic review of 23 studies, but results are mixed/controversial, especially in hypoxia.

Source

Effects of Beetroot Juice Supplementation on Cardiorespiratory Endurance in Athletes. A Systematic Review

Raúl Domínguez et al. · Nutrients · 2017

DOI 10.3390/nu9010043

systematic_reviewCited 216×
Read the paper
DOI resolved against Crossref · corpus check 2026-06-10

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