The effect of acute beet root juice supplementation on anaerobic power in females

Abstract

Beet root juice (BRJ) contains a high concentration of inorganic nitrates, previously shown to improve blood flow to skeletal muscle. Recent studies in males have found that acute BRJ supplementation can improve anaerobic exercise performance. However, the effects of BRJ supplementation on exercise performance in females currently unknown. PURPOSE: The purpose of this study was to determine the effect of BRJ supplementation on anaerobic performance in females. METHODS: 18 healthy, recreationally trained females (22.8 ± 1.58 years, 167.6 ± 6.12 cm, 68.0 ± 0.87 kg) performed a countermovement jump (CMJ) test and a Wingate anaerobic power test on two different occasions to observe potential differences between treatments. Results were examined under two isoenergetic conditions which required supplementation of either 1) BRJ (10g) or 2) placebo (10g) before testing. A within subject paired samples t-test using SPSS with the level of significance set to alpha <0.05 was used to examine differences in performance measures between condition. RESULTS: It was found that BRJ ingestion did not result in significantly different measures of peak power output, average power output, minimum power, time to peak power, fatigue index, or vertical jump height compared to the placebo (p > 0.05). CONCLUSIONS: The main finding of this study indicate that an acute dose of BRJ does not influence anaerobic power or fatigue index in either a Wingate maximal effort test or a vertical jump test. More work is needed to determine the timing, dosage and length of performance and subject population best optimized by the ingestion of BRJ as an effective ergogenic aide.