Beet juice isn’t new—and the science behind it keeps getting stronger.
Beet juice has officially moved from being an “interesting idea” to an essential tool for athletes chasing better performance. Research has shown that beet juice can improve VO₂ max, increase time to exhaustion, reduce the oxygen cost of exercise, and enhance blood flow. Now, new studies are adding even more to the list—from small improvements in strength to better recovery in older athletes, and even caffeine-level benefits for runners.
If you already use Beet It Sport Nitrate 400 before hard sessions or races, the science keeps backing that up. If you don’t, and you’re wondering whether it’s worth it—here are five recent studies that explain why you should consider adding beet juice to your training tool kit.
1. Beet Juice Helps Delay Fatigue During Strength Training
Most beet juice research has focused on endurance where it's been shown to improve VO₂ max, boost blood flow, and extend time to exhaustion—but a new study found it might also help you squeeze out more reps in resistance training. Athletes doing leg extensions to failure were able to perform more reps when they took beet juice beforehand compared with a placebo group—especially in later sets where fatigue usually sets in. It didn’t increase max strength, but it helped delay the drop-off in performance.
2. Beet Juice and Caffeine Make a Powerful Pair for Speed Work
Beet juice and caffeine are both proven ergogenic aids, but now there’s evidence they’re even better together—at least when it comes to short-distance running. A 1000m sprint study tested four supplement combos—placebo, caffeine, beet juice, and both combined. Both caffeine alone and beet juice alone helped, but together they worked better than either on their own. The caffeine likely ramped up intensity (higher heart rate, more lactate), while beet juice supported oxygen delivery and vascular function. For athletes chasing seconds, pairing a Beet It Sport Nitrate 400 shot with your usual morning coffee might be worth trying.
3. It’s Not Just for Endurance—Beet Juice May Also Improve Strength in Trained Athletes
Beet juice has earned its place with endurance athletes, but a new umbrella review shows it might offer strength benefits too—especially for trained athletes. The review covered 15 meta-analyses and found that nitrate supplementation can improve both aerobic capacity and, to a smaller extent, strength performance. VO₂ max and time-to-exhaustion improvements were more pronounced in recreational athletes, but strength benefits showed up more in trained athletes. For hybrid athletes juggling endurance and strength, that’s worth noting.
4. Female Athletes May See Bigger Cardiovascular Improvements from Beet Juice
Most studies on beet juice have focused on male or mixed-gender athletes—but this one looked at how beet juice affects female endurance athletes. After a single dose of beet juice, participants saw nearly a 5% jump in VO₂ max, as well as better oxygen efficiency and heart rate response during effort. The placebo group saw no improvements. These kinds of cardiovascular shifts matter when you’re trying to hold a pace, recover quickly, or just get more from the same training volume. Beet juice may offer female athletes a particularly efficient way to support better aerobic output without adding extra training stress.
5. Beet Juice Improves Recovery and Slows Age-Related Performance Declines
Post-menopause, many women experience a frustrating slowdown in training progress. Strength gains stall, aerobic fitness is harder to build, and recovery takes longer. In a study on late postmenopausal women doing circuit training where some took beet juice pre-workout and others didn’t, the group taking beet juice saw bigger improvements in aerobic capacity, distance walked in a fitness test, and heart rate recovery. These changes point to better cardiovascular efficiency and faster adaptation to training. If you’re 6+ years post-menopause, pre-workout beet juice might be one of the easiest tools to keep moving forward.
Key Takeaways
Beet juice continues to show that it’s more than just an endurance aid. These new studies highlight how it may improve performance across multiple areas—from improving fatigue resistance in strength training, aiding in speedwork, supporting cardiovascular performance in women, and helping older athletes stay responsive to training—especially when used consistently and timed right.
- Fatigue resistance in strength workouts: Athletes pushed through more reps, especially when fatigue usually hits.
- Caffeine and Beet Juice combo: Helped runners sprint faster and recover better than either supplement alone.
- Strength support for trained athletes: Small gains in power were seen in experienced lifters—likely due to lactate buffering.
- Cardio Boost for Women: A single dose led to a nearly 5% VO₂ max increase in female endurance athletes.
- Better Recovery in Post-Menopause: Beet juice helped older women recover faster and gain more from training.
If you learned something new from this article and are curious to know more, check out our post on How Nitrate Supplementation Improves Your Strength Training, or head to our growing list of weekly research summaries where we help you further improve your athletic performance by keeping you up to date on the latest findings from the world of sports nutrition.
— That’s all for now, train hard!
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