Beetroot juice did not make sprinters faster: 12 athletes, zero effect.

Beetroot juice has been sold for years as a legal boost to explosive power and speed. A new randomised experiment tested this on trained sprinters. Nitrates in their saliva soared 27-fold. Their 100-metre times didn't budge. This is further proof of a simple thesis: «working biochemistry» and «working supplement» are different things. And a reason to figure out who really needs beetroot juice and who is overpaying for a pink tongue.

The study showed that beetroot juice

A Spanish group led by López-Samanes (Journal of the International Society of Sports Nutrition, 2026) recruited 12 trained male sprinters. The average age was 24 years. They had about 11 years of experience in athletics. These were not novices, but athletes of regional and national level, training almost 8 hours per week.

The design is rigorous. Randomised, double-blind, placebo-controlled, crossover. Each athlete underwent both protocols: with beetroot juice and with placebo. Nobody—neither the athlete nor the on-site researcher—knew what had been drunk this time.

The industry standard dose: 70 ml of concentrate with 6.4 mmol of nitrates over 150 minutes before tests. This is the classic timing – the peak of nitrites in the blood occurs after 2–3 hours. The placebo was the same juice with nitrates removed, identical in taste, appearance, and packaging.

Blindness tests revealed near-perfect occlusion. The athletes could not guess what they were drinking. Then came the tests: 60 and 100-meter sprints, a counter-movement jump, a squat jump, and my tensiomyography of leg muscles before and after exercise. The conclusion is right there in the article title: the supplement improved nothing.

Why nitrates in the blood don't mean anything yet

Biochemically, beetroot works exactly as advertised. Nitrates are converted into nitrites, and then into nitric oxide. Nitric oxide dilates blood vessels. Theoretically, it also improves the contraction of fast-twitch muscle fibres, type II, which are responsible for explosive power.

In this study, the first step in the chain worked flawlessly. The concentration of nitrates in saliva after the juice increased from 230 to 6164 micromoles. This is approximately 27 times higher than in the placebo. Nitrites shot up even more sharply – more than thirty times. This means the supplement was absorbed, and the body clearly «saw» it. To ensure a clean result, the athletes avoided nitrate-containing products for two days before the tests and even refrained from brushing their teeth with antiseptic – bacteria on the tongue are needed for the conversion of nitrates, and the researchers protected this pathway.

But there's a big gap between «nitrates in saliva have increased» and «the athlete ran faster.» The biomarker changed dramatically. The result didn't move at all. This is a classic schism upon which half the sports nutrition industry rests. It's enough to show that something is stirring in the blood, and it's passed off as an effect on the outcome. The strength of this work is precisely that the authors measured both ends of the chain, not just the convenient first one.

Which specific figures have not moved

It’s the specifics that matter here, so here they are. Over 60 metres, the beetroot group clocked 7.55 seconds compared to 7.58 for the placebo group. Over 100 metres — 12.57 versus 12.51. So with beetroot, they were actually slightly slower. All differences are within the range of 0.03–0.061 seconds and are statistically insignificant.

The jumps also told the same story. Countermovement jump: 44.1 cm vs 43.6. Squat jump: 42.0 vs 41.9. These are metrics that correlate strongly with sprint times, so their immobility confirms the main result, rather than falling out of it.

Tensiomyography directly measures muscle contractile properties, without the influence of motivation or technique. It did not record any significant changes in the four key leg muscles. The exception was one marginal indicator in one muscle, which the authors themselves attributed to chance. When both behavioural tests and direct mechanical measurement yield zero, the conclusion becomes robust.

The subjective feeling of effort also remained unchanged. Athletes rated the difficulty of the runs equally in both conditions. This means the beetroot neither made the effort feel easier, nor made the run faster in reality. The runs, incidentally, were conducted on a real track with standard starting blocks – conditions as close as possible to a competition.

The only «advantage» of beetroot was un-sporting. A third of the athletes complained of stomach problems – compared to one in twelve on the placebo. For a supplement that offers no gain, this is a poor trade.

Why beetroot juice still works, but not here

It can be argued: but there's a ton of research where beetroot works. Yes, there is. And here hides a detail that marketing erases.

Beetroot juice has the most consistent effect in two situations: for endurance and in untrained individuals. In efforts lasting less than 40 minutes, nitrates provide approximately 1–3%. This works by conserving oxygen and improving blood flow. An amateur on an exercise bike can certainly benefit from this. The threshold at which the effect becomes consistent starts at around 5 mmol of nitrates — so the dose here was sufficient; the problem isn’t with the dose.

Sprinting has a different physiology, and this is where beetroot juice hits a ceiling. The authors themselves explain the mechanism of failure. Beetroot helps where metabolic stress accumulates: repeated sprints, hypoxia, fatigue, phosphocreatine deficiency. A single maximum burst with fresh legs does not create such conditions. The muscle works on stored phosphocreatine for a few seconds. There is simply no reason for nitric oxide to help.

There is also a ceiling effect. A trained sprinter already has a maximally adapted vascular and muscular system. It is difficult to add a few tens of millilitres of juice on top of that. An untrained person has more room for improvement, which is why supplements often «shine» more on them. This is a separate trap: an effect observed in beginners is applied to elites, where it no longer exists.

What do broader reviews reveal?

The most interesting thing is that the researchers themselves cite Esen's (2023) meta-analysis. According to it, beetroot supposedly improves anaerobic power in efforts of up to 10 seconds. It was on this basis that the authors hypothesised that the juice would help sprinters. The experiment disproved the hypothesis.

This is neat science. Take a positive expectation from the literature. Test it on the most sceptical population – trained speed athletes. And honestly record a zero. Another meta-analysis (Senefeld, 2020) shows the same: the ergogenic effect of nitrates exists, but it concentrates in endurance, not maximal power.

This echoes our discussions about supplements with weak or narrow evidence bases — from BCAAs for endurance, where 15 studies found no stable effect, in contrast to creatine in menopause, which works precisely thanks to a solid foundation. The rule is simple. A working supplement is one that has evidence for your specific case, not for some sport in general.

It is worth honestly naming the limitations of this work. The sample size was small – twelve athletes, a pilot scale where a minor effect can easily be missed. Only men were tested, with a single dose, and simulated races rather than actual competitions. However, this is not an isolated result against an ocean of positivity. It is a neat full stop where one is most often avoided, and it aligns with the direction of larger reviews.

What to do with this if you are not a marathon runner

The practical conclusion is simple. If your sport is explosive, high-speed, short maximal efforts, beetroot juice will almost certainly give you nothing. Apart from a pink tongue and wasted money.

If your sport is endurance and you're not a professional, beetroot juice remains one of the few supplements with a decent foundation. The benchmark is around 6–13 mmol of nitrates 2–3 hours before the start. Concentrated «shots» are more convenient than a litre of normal juice and provide a predictable dose. But even here, it's a supplement to training, not a replacement for it.

It's worth separately dispelling three typical expectations of beetroot juice. It won't make you stronger in the gym – strength and explosive exercises are not its forte. It won't compensate for lack of sleep or a poor training plan. And it almost certainly won't have a measurable effect if you are already a well-trained athlete in a speed discipline. Beetroot juice is a tool for a specific task, not a universal enhancer.

And the main takeaway is: a change in a biomarker doesn't necessarily mean a change in outcome. Nitrates in saliva don't equate to seconds on the track. This is precisely what this new study demonstrates once again, and this is precisely why it is useful.

[personal detail here - did you try beetroot yourself before starting, and what did you feel]

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Sources

• López-Samanes Á, Moreno-Pérez D, Aguilar-Navarro M, et al. Acute beetroot juice ingestion fails to improve sprint performance and neuromuscular function in trained male sprinters: a randomised, double-blind, placebo-controlled study. Journal of the International Society of Sports Nutrition. 2026;23(1):2674220. DOI: 10.1080/15502783.2026.2674220
• Esen O, Dobbin N, Callaghan MJ. The effect of dietary nitrate on the contractile properties of human skeletal muscle: a systematic review and meta-analysis. Journal of the American Nutrition Association. 2023;42(4):327-338. DOI: 10.1080/07315724.2022.2037475
• Senefeld JW, Wiggins CC, Regimbal RJ, et al. Ergogenic Effect of Nitrate Supplementation: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis. Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise. 2020;52(10):2250-2261. DOI: 10.1249/MSS.0000000000002363