Research
Mixed
Dietary nitrate supplementation (typically via beetroot juice) improves exercise efficiency by reducing the oxygen cost of submaximal exercise and enhances muscle power/sprint performance, primarily through the nitrate-nitrite-nitric oxide pathway.
If you are a recreational runner or cyclist, try 5-8 mmol of nitrate (approx. 500mg) from beetroot juice 2.5 hours before exercise. You may see a small but meaningful boost in endurance. If you are an elite pro cyclist, it likely won't help you, but if you do kayaking or rowing, it might.
GoodSupportsHIGH confidence
Recent studies indicate that dietary nitrate supplementation, administered most commonly in the form of beetroot juice, can (a) improve muscle efficiency by reducing the O2 cost of submaximal exercise and thereby improve endurance exercise performance and (b) enhance skeletal muscle contractile function and thereby improve muscle power and sprint exercise performance.
Why this rating
Based on multiple meta-analyses and consistent findings in recreational/moderately trained subjects, though mixed in elites.
Source
Dietary Nitrate and Physical Performance
Andrew M. Jones et al. · Annual Review of Nutrition · 2018
DOI 10.1146/annurev-nutr-082117-051622
narrative_reviewCited 194×
Read the paper DOI resolved against Crossref · corpus check 2026-06-10
More from this paper
- Dietary nitrate supplementation does not improve performance in highly trained endurance athletes during cycling or running, likely due to higher baseline nitric oxide bioavailability.Good
- Dietary nitrate supplementation improves performance in highly trained athletes engaged in upper-body dominant sports (kayaking, rowing) or intermittent sprint sports.Moderate
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