Everybody knows about the importance of being physically active. Overall health benefits a lot from physical activity. However, there is a difference between people who are just active and those who are competitive athletes. Competitive athletes take things more seriously and are always looking for ways to improve their performance. People who participate in such physical activities like swimming, bicycle racing, running or cross-country skiing are in constant lookout for various nutrients that will improve their performance.
Beet root juice
Competitive athletes are happy because of the new researches being done on the beet root juice. It is said that this juice can significantly improve a person’s performance and abilities. The reason why beet root juice is so popular at the moment is because it is rich in the anion, nitrate. A lot of researches have been done on dietary nitrate in order to be seen whether it is an enhancing substance and can actually aid the competitive athletes.
When a person intakes nitrate, it is converted in the body into nitrite and then to nitric oxide. This particular pathway is bettered when a person exercises because then his or her oxygen tension and acidosis are low. A certain study claims that an intake of up to 300 g of nitrate rich vegetables like spinach or beet root for instance, in the form of nitrate sodium prolongs the time until a person will get exhausted. However, this study is not that good because there were only 9 healthy participants which significantly limited the power of the study.
In a previous study which involved 8 healthy participants, they were given 500 ml of beet root juice daily for 6 days. This study was determined to see how much this supplement would improve the tolerance to high-intensity exercise and reduce oxygen cost of submaximal exercise. The subjects exercised intensively in the last three days. It was found out that plasma nitrate levels increased and the reduction in blood pressure levels was a small one.
How does beet root juice improve athletic performance?
A certain study discovered that a lessened amount oxygen cost of exercise pertaining to the intake of nitrate through a diet is somehow connected with reduced ATP cost for muscle force production. A lot of people do not know that ATP is an energy molecule. The intake of nitrate lessens the amount of energy in the form of ATP that people use during their exercises.
According to these information people who participate in such physical activities like swimming and cycling should use beet root juice because it will probably enhance their exercise tolerance.
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