A key effect of nitrate is that it reduces the oxygen demand of exercise, meaning the muscles need less oxygen to maintain a given work rate, thereby improving exercise efficiency, fatigue resistance and exercise performance.

It is like having a more fuel-efficient car – more fuel is left in the tank at the end of the race, which delays fatigue and enables you to push harder for longer – aka PB juice!

After consuming nitrate-rich beetroot juice, nitrate is absorbed into the bloodstream and taken up by the salivary glands, before being converted into nitrite by bacteria in the mouth. Nitrite is then swallowed, absorbed into the blood, and transported around the body. Nitrite can be converted to nitric oxide in the blood and in various organs including muscle. Nitric oxide is important for several processes that influence exercise performance, including vasodilation (widening of blood vessels) and muscle contractility (increase in the force of contraction).

Consume 2-3hrs before exercise and for up to six days before competition.

Nitrate is stored in the muscle, like how we store glucose (carbohydrate) as muscle glycogen – by consuming nitrate for 3 to 6 days before you are maximising the muscle stores. It is like how we carb-load before a marathon – we maximise the muscle stores for it to be available during exercise.

During exercise, the body uses nitrate from the blood and draws it from the muscle stores as and when needed. This allows the body to maintain the blood nitrate levels and therefore the beneficial effects. If you have low stores of nitrate in the muscle, the blood levels will decline, and the benefits will diminish – hence why it is important to pre-load with nitrate before exercise.

After consuming beetroot juice, the nitrate is absorbed into the blood after 2-3hrs and stays elevated for ~6hrs before returning to baseline after 12-24hrs. Unless you are exercising for more than 6hrs, you should not need to consume any during exercise.

According to the International Olympic Committee (2018 Consensus Statement), nitrate intake has been associated with improvements of up to 25% in exercise time to exhaustion, 3% in time-trial performances and 5% in high-intensity, intermittent team-sport exercise. To put these into perspective, the difference between 1st and 12th places in the 10,000m men’s running final at the 2012 London Olympics was only 0.66%.

Beet It Sport products either contain 100% concentrated beetroot juice (Nitrate 3000) or 98% concentrated beetroot juice with 2% lemon juice (Nitrate 400) – 100% natural. The only side-effect reported is beeturia (pink urine and stools) which is harmless and dissipates within 12 hours of consumption. Beet It Sport products contain no fibre, which makes them very easy on the stomach – you are also consuming your last dose 2-3hrs before you start, which is plenty of time for your body to digest.

There are no added benefits from consuming more than 2 shots per day or for more than 6 days before an event - we can only absorb and store so much nitrate per day.

You would need to consume ~500ml of regular beetroot juice or 6-8 whole beets, to get 400mg of dietary nitrate, which is a lot to consume before exercise!

Another issue is that nitrate fluctuates in regular beetroot juice, due to differences in how the beets are grown, harvested, and manufactured – you never know much nitrate you are going to get and if it is enough to benefit exercise performance. Beet It Sport products are concentrated for your convenience – no mess, no unwanted fibre, no unreliable doses of nitrate.

Most anti-cavity fluoride-containing mouth rinses have no effect on the conversion of nitrate, however there is evidence to show that some antibacterial mouth rinses containing chlorhexidine might disrupt the conversion of nitrate to nitrite in the mouth. You should consider avoiding these if you are using Beet It Sport to improve performance.

Beet It Sport products contain no preservatives or additives due to their 100% natural ingredients. All Beet It Sport products can be stored ambient or chilled. Our Nitrate 400 and Regen shots should be consumed within the same day of opening; our Nitrate 3000 concentrate should be kept refrigerated and consumed within 21 days of opening.

Beet It Sport is Informed Sport certified and is the most researched and trusted natural nitrate product in the world. We have been manufacturing beetroot juice since 2005 and since 2008 have supplied over 300 universities and research institutions around the world who use our products for research into the health and sports benefits of natural dietary nitrate supplementation. Over 150 professional sports teams use Beet It Sport and since 2016, we have supplied the NN Running Team, which includes world record holders Eliud Kipchoge and Joshua Cheptegei.

We believe our products are the best – researched by the best, used by the best; that’s who we are – James White: Bold By Nature.