Beetroot juice for strength and endurance

Whether a beetroot shot is worth drinking before a workout depends on what that workout measures. In Poon and colleagues' 2025 umbrella review, pooled trials favored nitrate for time to exhaustion, muscular endurance and peak power. The estimates for maximal strength, mean power and self-paced time trials did not reach significance.¹ A 2026 review limited to athletes drinking beetroot juice did report a positive pooled estimate for mean power, so the mean power evidence is mixed.⁵ A bigger dose cannot guarantee a better result. In an October 12, 2026 trial, sixteen resistance-trained women took 12.8 mmol of nitrate, above the common sports protocol, with no significant bench press or leg press repetition advantage over placebo or no drink.²

Match the shot to an outcome where the evidence is positive, read the nitrate amount in milligrams or millimoles, take it two to three hours out, and compare a few similar sessions with and without it.

01Match nitrate to the performance test

Start with the number your session produces. In Poon's analyses, time to exhaustion and muscular endurance have positive pooled estimates. Maximal strength, time-trial performance and mean power did not show a significant pooled advantage.¹ These are different questions, even when the same athlete asks them.

Those estimates come from Poon and colleagues' 2025 umbrella review of 20 meta-analyses covering 180 unique primary studies and 2,672 participants.¹ The same trials recur across those reviews, so the authors ran their own outcome-specific meta-analyses of the primary studies, plotted below. They rated 2 of the 20 reviews moderate quality, 6 low and 12 critically low, and a trial that appears in five reviews is still one trial.

Six of the outcome-specific meta-analyses of primary studies from Poon and colleagues' 2025 umbrella review. Blue filled markers are the three estimates whose 95% confidence intervals sit above zero. Gray open markers have intervals that cross zero. Time-trial results are elapsed times, so the raw estimate of −0.03 [−0.14, 0.09] is plotted as +0.03 [−0.09, 0.14], with the sign and interval ends reversed, to keep positive values favoring nitrate. Most of the 20 included reviews were rated low or critically low quality, and overlapping primary studies do not count as independent replications.¹

The six outcomes in the chart are a selection from Poon's analyses, which also favored nitrate for total distance covered, SMD 0.42 [0.09, 0.76], and for time to peak power, SMD −0.76 [−1.18, −0.33], where a shorter time favors nitrate.¹

Each value is a standardized mean difference. An SMD of 0.48 for muscular endurance means nitrate conditions averaged about half a pooled standard deviation above placebo across many different tests. It does not convert to a percentage or a count of extra reps, and it cannot say how much one lifter will improve.

A higher best sprint and a higher average across repeated sprints are different results. In Poon's analyses, peak power reached significance and mean power did not, and the VO₂max estimate was also not significant.¹ A nonsignificant pooled estimate leaves the effect uncertain. It does not show that nitrate has no effect.

Cai and colleagues' 2026 meta-analysis reached a different result on two of those outcomes. It pooled 33 papers on beetroot juice in professional and amateur athletes and reported positive estimates for mean power, SMD 0.43 [0.21, 0.64] from 13 experiments, VO₂max, SMD 0.30 [0.05, 0.55] from 11, and high-intensity interval sprint performance, SMD 0.38 [0.17, 0.59] from 9.⁵ Cai limited the analysis to beetroot juice and athletes, and the two reviews may include overlapping trials and group outcomes differently. Their estimates do not answer exactly the same question. Cai's authors rated the evidence moderate and noted unclear randomization and possible blinding concerns. For mean power and VO₂max, the evidence is mixed, with a positive estimate in athletes taking beetroot juice and a nonsignificant one across Poon's larger pool.

The Australian Institute of Sport lists intermittent team-sport protocols and running/cycling events of about 4 to 30 minutes among nitrate's applications.³ The team-sport fueling guide covers the carbohydrate base that comes first. Training-status patterns describe groups, not an individual response test.

02More nitrite does not guarantee more reps

One resistance trial found more squat reps after nitrate. Two later trials included higher-dose conditions and found no significant gain on the lifts they tested, even though nitrite rose with nitrate in one of them.

Ranchal-Sanchez and colleagues gave 12 men a 70 mL shot reported as 400 mg nitrate, approximately 6.4 mmol, or a blackcurrant placebo two hours before incremental back squat and bench sets to failure at 60%, 70% and 80% of one-rep max.⁶ Total reps rose by an average of 13.8, almost all from the squat at 13.4. Bench reps changed by 0.4 (P = .785), and the 80% comparison was not significant. That is a squat endurance finding at moderate loads, and the trial showed no significant benefit for the bench.

Teodoro and colleagues gave 16 recreationally resistance-trained women 12.8 mmol of nitrate, a placebo drink containing 0.92 mmol, or no drink, 2.5 hours before four sets each of bench press and 45-degree leg press to failure at 60% of one-rep max, with two-minute rests.² Total bench reps were 55.6 with no drink, 58.9 with placebo and 56.0 with nitrate (P = .785). Leg press totals were 82.6, 80.4 and 79.3 (P = .945). The placebo contained nitrate, and the no-drink condition cannot be fully blinded. This acute trial found no significant repetition advantage. It cannot establish equivalence, long-term muscle growth or sex-specific nonresponse.

Tan and colleagues, first published April 24, 2025, gave 18 resistance-trained men about 6, 12 or 24 mmol of nitrate or a nitrate-depleted placebo 2.5 hours before jumps and explosive squat and bench triples at 50% and 75% of one-rep max.⁴ Washouts lasted at least five days, and participants were instructed to avoid antibacterial mouthwash. Plasma nitrate rose with dose and nitrite rose in each nitrate condition, without significant performance differences. These were power tests, not sets to failure. They show that the pathway can respond without the tested output improving, even with instructions to avoid mouthwash.

The creatine guide covers a better-established option for repeated hard efforts. Citrulline malate supports the nitric oxide pathway through arginine, with a smaller, lower-certainty performance signal.⁷⁸ A stronger pump is not a measurement of more work.

03Longer hard efforts and faster cycling trials

The positive endurance findings still stand. In Bailey and colleagues' 2009 crossover trial, eight men took 500 mL of beetroot juice daily for six days, about 5.6 mmol of nitrate. Their oxygen uptake response to moderate cycling was reduced. Severe-intensity cycling time to exhaustion was 675 seconds with beetroot juice versus 583 with placebo, about 16% longer.⁹

Wylie and colleagues then tested 4.2, 8.4 and 16.8 mmol in ten healthy men. The lowest dose did not change measured exercise responses. The 8.4 and 16.8 mmol doses extended severe cycling time to exhaustion by 14% and 12% against placebo, and the larger dose added no further tolerance.¹⁰ It is a small study of one cycling task, so it sets no dose ceiling for lifting and does not guarantee that everyone benefits at 8.4 mmol.

Lansley and colleagues gave nine club-level male cyclists about 6.2 mmol 2.5 hours before testing. They rode 2.8% faster over 4 km and 2.7% faster over 16.1 km, with higher mean power.¹¹ That result sits beside a pooled time-trial estimate near zero, and both can hold. Small trials vary, and the pooled figure averages 42 comparisons across very different athletes and protocols. The 2.7% belongs to those nine cyclists and is no forecast for your next race.

The positive tolerance findings make nitrate reasonable to rehearse for hard, sustained sessions. A self-paced race remains a separate performance test.

04Read the nitrate dose on the label

Two products can both say beetroot on the front and differ by hundreds of milligrams of nitrate. Find nitrate in milligrams or millimoles, and divide milligrams by 62 to get millimoles, so 400 mg is about 6.45 mmol. Beetroot grams, bottle volume and color do not give you the dose, and AIS notes that few beetroot products have had their nitrate content independently tested.³

Both labels are constructed examples rather than real products, and the 18:00 session is an example schedule rather than a required protocol. The 400 mg figure converts to about 6.45 mmol at 62 mg per mmol. The powder label states no nitrate amount, so its dose is unknown.³

The powder in that example may hold a useful dose or almost none, so keep it out of any test where the dose has to match from day to day. Whole foods have the same problem. AIS places beetroot, beet juice, celery, lettuce, rocket and spinach in its very high class at a nominal 2,500 mg per kilogram of fresh vegetable, and Hong Kong's Centre for Food Safety reports concentrations from 1 mg per kilogram in peas to more than 4,000 mg per kilogram in rocket.³¹² Plant variety, soil, climate and time since harvest all change the figure.

Cooking effects depend on the vegetable and method. Boiling can leach nitrate into water, while water loss during frying can increase its concentration. There is no single cooking-loss factor to apply to every serving.¹³

Leafy greens and beets still belong in a training diet. For a pre-session dose you want to compare across days, use a product that states its nitrate content.

05Time the dose and protect the oral pathway

Swallowed nitrate is absorbed, and plasma nitrate peaks about an hour later. Some is taken up into saliva, where oral bacteria reduce it to nitrite. More conversion happens in the acidic stomach, and nitrite in the blood can be reduced to nitric oxide in tissues, with plasma nitrite peaking at about 2.5 hours.³ Wylie's data put that peak at two to three hours.¹⁰ Nitric oxide widens blood vessels and may lower the oxygen cost of muscle work, which fits the endurance results above. The route explains how a benefit could arise, and Tan's rising nitrite with flat performance shows it cannot predict your own session.

That timeline is the basis for the common protocol of 6 to 8 mmol, about 350 to 500 mg, two to three hours before exercise.³ Use this as a starting protocol for your training test. For an 18:00 session, a dose between 15:00 and 16:00 fits the window. Nitrate can lower blood pressure.¹⁵ As a precaution, if yours runs low or you take blood pressure medication, discuss regular use with your clinician.

In Govoni and colleagues' study of seven healthy volunteers, antibacterial mouthwash used before a sodium nitrate dose left saliva and plasma nitrate unchanged and markedly reduced the rise in plasma nitrite.¹⁴ That is a biomarker result. It did not measure exercise or show how often mouthwash explains a flat session, and Tan's null followed instructions to avoid mouthwash. For a clean test, skip over-the-counter antibacterial rinse on test days. If a dentist or doctor prescribed a rinse, keep using it and raise the nitrate question with them.

Caffeine usually goes in closer to training than nitrate. The pre-workout stack guide shows how the two windows fit together and which sessions call for nitrate at all.

06Test it in sessions you can compare

Choose a familiar session with a repeatable output, such as squat sets at the same load and rest, or a fixed cycling time trial. Run it at least twice with nitrate and twice without, keeping conditions as similar as you can.

Sleep, food, fatigue and knowing which days you took the shot all affect the numbers, so compare sessions where those were similar. The log shows whether the shot sits well and whether your reps or times move enough to matter. If several matched sessions show no useful change, keeping the same dose or dropping the shot are both reasonable choices. A larger dose is harder to justify, because the cycling and lifting dose comparisons above found no added benefit from their largest doses.⁴¹⁰ Run the trial during training, the same way you would rehearse race fueling, well before race week.

07Account for blood pressure and stomach tolerance

Webb and colleagues found that 500 mL of beetroot juice lowered systolic blood pressure by about 10 mmHg at around three hours.¹⁵ At 24 hours systolic pressure was 4.4 mmHg lower than after water, a difference that missed statistical significance (P = .058). That blood-pressure effect is separate from the performance results above. If your blood pressure already runs low, or you take blood pressure medication, discuss regular use with the prescribing clinician first. The blood pressure glossary covers how diet patterns rich in vegetables relate to blood pressure more broadly.

Concentrated beetroot can cause mild stomach upset, and it can turn urine and stool pink or red, which is harmless. AIS notes that long-term supplement use has not been well studied and warns against dosing sodium or potassium nitrate salts at home or confusing nitrate with nitrite.³ A shot that unsettles your stomach before a session has already failed that session, whatever it might do for nitrite.

Keep nitrate-rich vegetables in your everyday diet. They also provide antioxidants and polyphenols, a food context AIS distinguishes from nitrite in processed meats.³ For the sports shot, choose the performance test first, check the nitrate amount, and rehearse the dose in training before you rely on it in a race.