EndurElite Chief Endurance Officer Matt Mosman discusses new research that demonstrates beetroot supplementation can improve high-intensity endurance exercise performance.
Video Transcription:
Matt: Alexa, play Beat It.
Alexa: Here is a sample of Beat It by Michael Jackson.
[00:00:11]
So beat it, just beat it
You better run, you better do what you can
Don't want to see no blood, don't be a macho man
You want to be tough, better do what you can
So beat it, but you want...
[00:00:28]
Matt: Alexa, turn off. Man, it would be awesome if my kids listened to me as good as Alexa did. Good afternoon, my endurance friends, Matt Mosman, Chief Endurance Officer over at EndurElite, the maker of premium supplements for endurance athletes and endurance training and supplement expert.
So I have to admit it, I totally was going to get my Bedazzler out today, and make a sequined glove, and do the moonwalk, and grab my crotch and all that gross stuff, but I didn't think anybody would probably want to see that, let alone my wife on Facebook later. Besides, we have more important things to talk about today, more specifically, beet root powder supplementation and a new research study that actually came out on it that we are going to discuss here in a little bit.
How Does Beet Root Powder Improve An Endurance Athlete's Performance?
Now, from previous videos, you know beet root powder supplementation does a couple things. One, it turns your poop red. But, a lot of you don't have to worry about that, and if it does happen to you, it's a harmless side effect called beeturia, due to the red pigments in the beets. So, don't freak out and go to the emergency room if you poop red or pee red after taking a beet root supplement.
Two, and more importantly, we know that beet root supplementation taken acutely or chronically prior to endurance exercise can improve endurance performance at moderate intensities due to lowering the ATP cost and oxygen cost of exercise, endurance exercise specifically, basically meaning the same amount of work requires less ATP or less energy when you take a beet root supplement.
Beet Root Powder Can Improve HIIT
The third thing we're gonna talk about, and this is where the new research comes in, is that a new research study was released last week showing that beet root supplementation can improve high-intensity endurance exercise performance, so things like sprinting, doing intervals, jumping, climbing up a rope for all you obstacle course crazies, things of that that are more, I guess, powerful in nature, if you will.
So, in this study, the scientists got their little geeky goggles on and their lab coats on, and they performed something called a meta-analysis. And what this is is they basically scoured a lot of different research papers looking at the effects of beet root supplementation on endurance performance and, specifically for this research study, beet root supplementation and high-intensity exercise performance. And what they ended up with was nine research studies, and after examining all these, they found that beet root supplementation, again, taken acutely, or right before exercise, or taken chronically, every day, can improve high-intensity exercise performance by 2% to 16%, which, in scientific slang, that's pretty damn significant. If you think about cutting 2% to 16% off a race time, that's really the difference between winning and losing.
And why this research is really cool, and just to repeat myself, is up until this point nobody ever really looked at how beet root supplementation affected high-intensity exercise performance. So now we know, or at least it has been demonstrated at this point, that, in addition to improving endurance performance at moderate intensities, beet root supplementation can also improve endurance performance at high-intensity exercises.
How Much Beet Root Powder Should I Take?
Now, if you want to take a beet root supplement, or give it a try, there is a few ways to do that. One, you can drink 0.5 liters of beet root juice daily, which that is enough to gag a horse probably. It is probably pretty darn disgusting, no offense to any of you who like beets or beet root juice.
Two, and my preferred way, is to take beet root in powder or supplemental form. For example, PerformElite has beet root powder in it in addition to a lot of other ergogenic aids. The key thing here, though, is if you are taking a product with beet root powder in it, you want to make sure you are at least getting 1600 milligrams of beet root powder in it. That's the only way it's really going to be effective.
The third way you can get beet as a supplement is you can do just a standalone, single-ingredient beet root product.
Beet Root Powder May Lower Blood Pressure
As kind of a fun fact, beet root powder by itself is being recommended to people with hypertension, or high blood pressure, and this is because when you take beet root powder it promotes endothelial relaxation, or relaxation of the blood vessels. So, it can actually help lower blood pressure. Something if you're interested in, definitely talk to your doctor about.
So, that's about enough talking about beets for today, and until next time, stay fueled, stay focused, stay fast, and eat your vegetables.
