This week, we’re doing a deep dive into the 30 hour nitrate load.
Beetroot, the ever so popular, yet soil tasting vegetable is very high in the compound nitrate.
When nitrates are consumed and converted in the body to nitrite and nitric oxide, can improve high intensity performance under anaerobic conditions. In other words, when the oxygen supply to the muscle does not meet the muscles oxygen demand.
Therefore, nitrate based products such as Beet It shots have been shown to;
1) Improve muscle efficiency.
2) Increase fatigue resistance.
3) Regulate blood flow, blood glucose and the muscle oxygen supply.
Since these favourable characteristics are vitally important in team sports, it would be extremely beneficial to consume nitrates in the form of beetroot based products. Now, many athletes would have come across this, but few would have thought about taking them 30 hours before an event.
Introducing, the nitrate load.
Wylie et al (2012) recruited 14 team sport athletes and wanted to find out if taking Beet It shots 30 hours before improved intermittent exercise that resembled the demands of a football game, albeit this is a test to exhaustion (The Yo-Yo test).
Here’s what they did;
Day before testing = they consumed 2 x 70mL Beet It shots in the morning (10am) and 2 x 70mL shots in the evening (7pm).
Testing day = they consumed 2 x 70mL shots 2.5 hours before testing and another 1 x 70mL shot 1.5 hours prior.
After drowning themselves with beetroot products for a day, they covered 4.2% more distance. Now, this doesn’t sound much, but when you look at this in a game of football or rugby where they’ll cover around 10km, it may add up to make a big difference.
The main reason being that supplementation helped;
1) Offset the increase in certain metabolites associated with fatigue.
2) The uptake of glucose into the muscle.
3) Improved muscle excitability.
So, the next time you’re about to play, combine a 30 hour nitrate load with your carb load to get that winning Pre-Game day formula.