Before we dive into the science of how beets increase athletic performance, we will start with this.
- Beets have a lot of nitrates and nitrites.
- Nitrates and nitrites are an endurance athlete’s best friend.
How beet juice can give you an advantage in Crossfit
Improve your lactate threshold (Max sustainable pace)
One source states that beet juice allows you to perform the same high intensity workouts while consuming less oxygen than normal, meaning it will take longer for you to hit that lactate threshold during a metcon. And it’s not just by a few seconds, drinking beet juice regularly slowed the time to exhaustion by 15%. Taking 15% longer to actually hit redline during a workout is a HUGE advantage for any Crossfit athlete.
YOU CAN CREATE THE SAME ENERGY WHILE CONSUMING LESS OXYGEN
From RunnersWorld:
“On average, the subjects were able to run for 7.6 minutes at high intensity after six days of drinking nitrate-depleted beetroot juice. But after six days on regular beetroot juice they lasted 8.7 minutes.”
That’s 1.2 minutes longer of a high intensity pace and that 1.2 minutes could be a huge difference especially in shorter, faster metcons.
Another source proves that beet juice is most effective for workouts lasting between 5-30 minutes, which basically describes all of Crossfit. The studies included in that source claim that improvements in oxygen efficiency are more around only a 3% increase, compared to the 15% increase in time to exhaustion claimed in the previous source.
Let’s say that you do only get a 3% increase, that would still take a 10:00 time to a 9:42 time, which is only 18 seconds, but in an Opens workout that can be a lifetime. And don’t forget that you are producing the same results while consuming less oxygen, meaning that we can keep our ideal pace for longer than usual just by drinking a vegetable.
Beet juice for power and strength
Another great benefit of beets is that they not only help with our conditioning but also something we all like a little bit more, our strength.
Drinking beet juice increases muscle power output and improves sprint performance.
Crossfit athletes don’t necessarily do a whole lot of sprints but instead do many sprint type workouts that last only a couple of minutes such as Fran and Grace.
Beet juice supposedly helps us do both of these because in conditions of low oxygen availability, nitrite can be converted into nitric oxide and that’s exactly what beet juice does.
Even if beet juice doesn’t provide you with the most phenomenal of results if it’s going to give you even the slightest advantage over the next guy you should probably give it a try.
All Sources:
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