Miks peaksid sportlased jooma peedimahla?

In 2012, when the London Olympics were held, beet juice turned out to be a legitimate booster for athletes. They took it to heart and began to improve performance with it. Olympic marathoner Ryan Hall regularly drank beet juice and ran faster. Even the Finnish national soccer team “taps” more than one beet shot before the game. Scientists confirm the usefulness of the natural ingredient and say that it improves athletic performance by as much as 16%.

Nutrioloog

Beet juice improves cardiorespiratory endurance, and performance in sports depends on it.

How does beet juice improve athletic performance?

The humble beet only caught the attention of athletes in 2009, when the first study on its benefits in sport was published. What did scientists notice then? The fact that beet juice reduces energy expenditure and thus increases the duration of training. For competitors, time is crucial – even a fraction of a second can take them away from the gold medal.

In one of the experiments with beet juice, athletes covered distances 20-30 seconds faster than usual. Marathon runners included this product in their diet every day and increased their running speed by 5%. And cyclists who drank two cups of beet juice before a competition became more energetic and pedaled 3% more intensely.

While this isn’t much for fitness enthusiasts, they too will benefit from the product. Beet juice improves the cardiovascular and respiratory systems, which is important when exercising. Moreover, consumption of the juice is also beneficial after sports. Antioxidants in the composition reduce muscle pain and accelerate their recovery.

Beets are literally “stuffed” with nitrates, and vegetables with a high content of these substances improve sports performance. The fact is that it increases the level of nitric oxide in the body, which improves blood supply and enhances muscle contraction. This combination of important properties increases endurance. This is largely why nitric oxide is used in sports nutrition. Athletes use it to increase muscle volume. Here’s how it works:

• nitrates, which beets contain, are converted into nitric oxide in the body;
• nitric oxide passes through the arterial walls and sends signals to the muscle cells, which relax under its influence;
• Meanwhile, the blood vessels dilate, which increases blood flow to the muscles – a kind of “beet pumping”.

fitness treener

Since nitric oxide improves blood flow, it reduces the body’s need for oxygen during exercise, increases the efficiency of energy processes in mitochondria, and reduces blood pressure. Especially positive effects are observed in athletes who train at altitude. The nitrates contained in beets and beet juice affect the rapidly contracting fibers. This increases endurance in sports that require sudden accelerations and spurts (short-term increase in the pace of movement).

How much beet juice should I drink?

Scientists say that 300-500 ml of beet juice before training will be enough to improve your sports performance. You should not drink more, as you will not be able to increase the benefits anyway.