Anyone still ‘loading’ beet juice within a few days of race day? Taking altred capsules before race?
Or is that a BS fad that has gone bye bye?
it was never not a thing; the science is still there. what’s probably no longer a thing is the breathless hyping of beets as god’s answer to EPO and sure-fire ticket to the podium.
it was never not a thing; the science is still there. what’s probably no longer a thing is the breathless hyping of beets as god’s answer to EPO and sure-fire ticket to the podium.
Got it, I should still use EPO.
I can confirm it’s still a thing as far as the cool bag of mine my buddy spilled a pint of it down, the morning of a full distance race 5 years ago.
There’s feck all chance that stain is EVER coming out.
Don’t know if I ever actually saw any real performance improvements, but it does seem to do a better job of keeping my blood pressure in check than anything my doctor has prescribed over the last decade with fewer side effects. So I still drink a glass every morning, along with another before a hard workout…
Don’t know if I ever actually saw any real performance improvements, but it does seem to do a better job of keeping my blood pressure in check than anything my doctor has prescribed over the last decade with fewer side effects. So I still drink a glass every morning, along with another before a hard workout…
I could def believe it is healthy to drink it on a regular basis. I just wish I didn’t hate the taste so much!
Don’t know if I ever actually saw any real performance improvements, but it does seem to do a better job of keeping my blood pressure in check than anything my doctor has prescribed over the last decade with fewer side effects. So I still drink a glass every morning, along with another before a hard workout…
I could def believe it is healthy to drink it on a regular basis. I just wish I didn’t hate the taste so much!
There’s several powdered brands that have cherry, pomegranate, or acai juice mixed in, those are actually pretty tasty…
Could never tolerate the smell, taste or view down the glass as I drank it. Nasty.
A little secret from the trade:
Arugula.
Wasn’t the whole purpose of using the capsules the fact that you couldn’t get a concentrated enough amount in liquid form or from foods?
Don’t know if I ever actually saw any real performance improvements, but it does seem to do a better job of keeping my blood pressure in check than anything my doctor has prescribed over the last decade with fewer side effects. So I still drink a glass every morning, along with another before a hard workout…
I could def believe it is healthy to drink it on a regular basis. I just wish I didn’t hate the taste so much!
There’s several powdered brands that have cherry, pomegranate, or acai juice mixed in, those are actually pretty tasty…
I just don’t know how confident I am that a powder version is the same benefits as the real thing. Kind of like pill vitamins vs eating fruits/veggies…
Don’t know if I ever actually saw any real performance improvements, but it does seem to do a better job of keeping my blood pressure in check than anything my doctor has prescribed over the last decade with fewer side effects. So I still drink a glass every morning, along with another before a hard workout…
I could def believe it is healthy to drink it on a regular basis. I just wish I didn’t hate the taste so much!
There’s several powdered brands that have cherry, pomegranate, or acai juice mixed in, those are actually pretty tasty…
I just don’t know how confident I am that a powder version is the same benefits as the real thing. Kind of like pill vitamins vs eating fruits/veggies…
You could always try mixing in cherry or pomegranate juice with the fresh stuff.
When I was still on BP medication, if I used the powder, my BP would often drop even lower. Just using the powder kept my BP at the same level as the medication did, and I felt a lot better as well. My doctor pulled me off the medication and told me to just keep using the juice (but still keep an eye on the BP). So at least from that aspect, it works…
Beets HAVE to be eaten raw if you want the benefits of the nitrates.
Supps and beet juice do NOT provide the nitrates. Nitrates are very delicate, and degrade rapidly once outside their natural environment. You need about 500mg of nitrates a day for several weeks to really reap the benefits, and you can get 500mg of nitrates out of 200g of raw beets, which is a beet about the size of your fist.
I eat beets everyday, and have for years. I finely grate them on a microplane, about 150g twice a day. They taste great with a bit of vinegar, digest really well and does a lot to smooth out the system
Beets do work, they are a great source of sugars, fibers and nitrates. They are not the end all though, there are plenty of vegetables that contain nitrates, especially things like spinach and arugula. There are plenty of other great benefits to beets though, and I eat them for a lot more than just the nitrates
Get this idea of ‘loading’ out of your head. RIDICULOUS. You won’t reap significant benefits by ‘loading’ nitrates into a race, vegetables that provide nitrates should be a daily part of your diet year round
A note for those getting raw beets - it will make everything red, but it is completely water soluble. Beet juice does NOT stain
I load with Beet It shots leading up to races - placebo or real, I feel like I feel a difference.
I think it’s still the best legal gains on the market. My wife hates it because of potential laxative effects.
Get this idea of ‘loading’ out of your head. RIDICULOUS. You won’t reap significant benefits by ‘loading’ nitrates into a race, vegetables that provide nitrates should be a daily part of your diet year round
It’s not RIDICULOUS. There are research papers that show acute beetroot juice supplementation can increase time to exhaustion, decrease 2km running time, decrease rate of perceived exertion, increase bench press power and total reps etc.
I don’t think that many papers have looked at acute Vs chronic supplementation. Two that have (boorsma 2014 and Wickham 2019) found no overall difference between acute and chronic supplementation - neither improved performance significantly more than placebo. However, both papers noted that some people appear to be responders while others don’t. It does look like the likelihood of responding (defined in the wickham study as ≥3% reduction in VO2) increases following chronic supplementation - at 70% VO2peak, 25% of the subjects were defined as responders to acute supplementation vs 33% to chronic. So theoretically only 8 people out of 100 are going to need chronic supplementation to get a positive effect (25 will get an effect from just acute loading pre event, and 67 won’t respond regardless).
Get this idea of ‘loading’ out of your head. RIDICULOUS. You won’t reap significant benefits by ‘loading’ nitrates into a race, vegetables that provide nitrates should be a daily part of your diet year round
It’s not RIDICULOUS. There are research papers that show acute beetroot juice supplementation can increase time to exhaustion, decrease 2km running time, decrease rate of perceived exertion, increase bench press power and total reps etc.
I don’t think that many papers have looked at acute Vs chronic supplementation. Two that have (boorsma 2014 and Wickham 2019) found no overall difference between acute and chronic supplementation - neither improved performance significantly more than placebo. However, both papers noted that some people appear to be responders while others don’t. It does look like the likelihood of responding (defined in the wickham study as ≥3% reduction in VO2) increases following chronic supplementation - at 70% VO2peak, 25% of the subjects were defined as responders to acute supplementation vs 33% to chronic. So theoretically only 8 people out of 100 are going to need chronic supplementation to get a positive effect (25 will get an effect from just acute loading pre event, and 67 won’t respond regardless).
I believe this may be due to how the inorganic nitrates must be converted to nitric oxide in the mouth and small intestine by bacteria, and there are always variations in the flora from person to person
As to loading, I will hold my ground. Most people ‘load’ with supps, powders, pills, commercial juices etc where there inorganic nitrates are long destroyed, so its all trash anyway. If you load with fresh beet juice that you make daily, then yes, i’m sure acutely loading in the weeks preceding a race will help out, but this is ridiculous.
Nitrate rich foods should be a part of your daily diet…keeping your blood vessels loose, open and supple should be a part of your training plan no matter the block you are in. I am sure most of the benefits you find in studies are instances where participants went from rarely receiving nitric oxide to getting a ton of them in a short amount of time.
I make a fresh juice with beets plus other vegetables and an apple thrown in every day pretty much just for health but leading into and for my A races I dose up on these concentrate bottles. I’ve read the studies, just feel better on it than not, and it’s cheap so I go with it.
Get this idea of ‘loading’ out of your head. RIDICULOUS. You won’t reap significant benefits by ‘loading’ nitrates into a race, vegetables that provide nitrates should be a daily part of your diet year round
It’s not RIDICULOUS. There are research papers that show acute beetroot juice supplementation can increase time to exhaustion, decrease 2km running time, decrease rate of perceived exertion, increase bench press power and total reps etc.
I don’t think that many papers have looked at acute Vs chronic supplementation. Two that have (boorsma 2014 and Wickham 2019) found no overall difference between acute and chronic supplementation - neither improved performance significantly more than placebo. However, both papers noted that some people appear to be responders while others don’t. It does look like the likelihood of responding (defined in the wickham study as ≥3% reduction in VO2) increases following chronic supplementation - at 70% VO2peak, 25% of the subjects were defined as responders to acute supplementation vs 33% to chronic. So theoretically only 8 people out of 100 are going to need chronic supplementation to get a positive effect (25 will get an effect from just acute loading pre event, and 67 won’t respond regardless).
I believe this may be due to how the inorganic nitrates must be converted to nitric oxide in the mouth and small intestine by bacteria, and there are always variations in the flora from person to person
As to loading, I will hold my ground. Most people ‘load’ with supps, powders, pills, commercial juices etc where there inorganic nitrates are long destroyed, so its all trash anyway. If you load with fresh beet juice that you make daily, then yes, i’m sure acutely loading in the weeks preceding a race will help out, but this is ridiculous.
Nitrate rich foods should be a part of your daily diet…keeping your blood vessels loose, open and supple should be a part of your training plan no matter the block you are in. I am sure most of the benefits you find in studies are instances where participants went from rarely receiving nitric oxide to getting a ton of them in a short amount of time.
Your description of loading in the weeks prior would be chronic loading not accute. In the case of these studies accute means one drink. There are a whole load of studies showing performance benefits off one drink, so I’m not sure why you are so adamant it’s not possible.
Does chronic supplementation produce better results? Probably, but I’m not sure the science has demonstrated this conclusively - I’d be happy to be shown otherwise though as I’ve certainly not read all the studies.
I do agree with you though that there is no reason to not eat nitrate containing vegetables year round. The research seems to indicate only 5-9mmol nitrate per day is efficacious, and additional intake produces no benefits. No reason you can’t consume that in a normal diet without any kind of beetroot juice supplementation.
Get this idea of ‘loading’ out of your head. RIDICULOUS. You won’t reap significant benefits by ‘loading’ nitrates into a race, vegetables that provide nitrates should be a daily part of your diet year round
It’s not RIDICULOUS. There are research papers that show acute beetroot juice supplementation can increase time to exhaustion, decrease 2km running time, decrease rate of perceived exertion, increase bench press power and total reps etc.
I don’t think that many papers have looked at acute Vs chronic supplementation. Two that have (boorsma 2014 and Wickham 2019) found no overall difference between acute and chronic supplementation - neither improved performance significantly more than placebo. However, both papers noted that some people appear to be responders while others don’t. It does look like the likelihood of responding (defined in the wickham study as ≥3% reduction in VO2) increases following chronic supplementation - at 70% VO2peak, 25% of the subjects were defined as responders to acute supplementation vs 33% to chronic. So theoretically only 8 people out of 100 are going to need chronic supplementation to get a positive effect (25 will get an effect from just acute loading pre event, and 67 won’t respond regardless).
I believe this may be due to how the inorganic nitrates must be converted to nitric oxide in the mouth and small intestine by bacteria, and there are always variations in the flora from person to person
As to loading, I will hold my ground. Most people ‘load’ with supps, powders, pills, commercial juices etc where there inorganic nitrates are long destroyed, so its all trash anyway. If you load with fresh beet juice that you make daily, then yes, i’m sure acutely loading in the weeks preceding a race will help out, but this is ridiculous.
Nitrate rich foods should be a part of your daily diet…keeping your blood vessels loose, open and supple should be a part of your training plan no matter the block you are in. I am sure most of the benefits you find in studies are instances where participants went from rarely receiving nitric oxide to getting a ton of them in a short amount of time.
Your description of loading in the weeks prior would be chronic loading not accute. In the case of these studies accute means one drink. There are a whole load of studies showing performance benefits off one drink, so I’m not sure why you are so adamant it’s not possible.
Does chronic supplementation produce better results? Probably, but I’m not sure the science has demonstrated this conclusively - I’d be happy to be shown otherwise though as I’ve certainly not read all the studies.
I do agree with you though that there is no reason to not eat nitrate containing vegetables year round. The research seems to indicate only 5-9mmol nitrate per day is efficacious, and additional intake produces no benefits. No reason you can’t consume that in a normal diet without any kind of beetroot juice supplementation.
If an individual gains a detectable performance advantage from a single glass of beet juice, then they are not an athlete. Nitrates are found in pretty much any vegetable, we only hear about beets because they’re a ‘super container’ for nitrates, as are things like spiniach. Nitric oxide is a very natural thing, bacteria produce in naturally during fermentation in the gut of fibrous vegetable material.
A serious athlete dosing on beet juice wouldnt experience much benefit because their diet was sufficient in nitric oxide to begin with, as in just eating vegetables