Should hybrid athletes use beetroot juice before training?

Beetroot juice has a stronger evidence base than its earthy taste suggests. Its dietary nitrate can raise nitric oxide availability, influencing blood flow, muscle contraction and the oxygen cost of exercise. For a hybrid athlete, that creates plausible uses before a hard run, race or repeated high-intensity session.

The benefit remains context-dependent. A nitrate shot cannot rescue poor fuelling, accumulated fatigue or a badly arranged week. Research also gives a mixed answer across sprint, strength and highly trained endurance populations. Treat beetroot juice as a session-specific experiment with a measurable protocol, rather than another daily habit acquired from a supplement shelf.

What does beetroot juice do during exercise?

Dietary nitrate follows a nitrate–nitrite–nitric oxide pathway. After ingestion, nitrate enters the circulation and is concentrated in saliva. Oral bacteria convert some of it to nitrite; after swallowing, that contributes to nitric oxide production in the body.

Nitric oxide has roles in blood-flow regulation, mitochondrial respiration and muscle contraction. The Australian Institute of Sport places dietary nitrate in Group A: supplements with strong scientific evidence for use in specific sporting situations under evidence-based protocols.

That classification does not promise a performance gain for every athlete or workout. The clearest practical question is whether nitrate matches the demand of the next important session.

Which hybrid sessions have the best case for nitrate?

The AIS reports performance or capacity benefits in studies covering running and cycling efforts lasting roughly 4–30 minutes, alongside intermittent protocols designed around team-sport demands. Those categories map onto several hybrid-training situations:

• a 5K or shorter time trial;
• threshold intervals with sustained hard efforts;
• hard cycling intervals;
• repeated high-intensity work for football, padel or a hybrid fitness event;
• selected resistance sessions built around repeated submaximal sets.

The resistance evidence deserves careful wording. A 2023 systematic review and meta-analysis found small improvements in repetitions to failure, mean power and mean velocity across six studies of resistance-trained men. It found no significant effect on peak power or peak velocity, while the limited study count and variable findings reduced confidence in broad conclusions (Alvares and colleagues, 2023).

Newer sprint evidence is similarly selective. A 2026 meta-analysis of 23 randomised trials found an improvement in time to peak power and handgrip strength, but no significant improvement in 10 m or 20 m sprint performance, peak or mean power, perceived exertion, heart rate or blood lactate. The authors rated most outcomes as low-certainty evidence and did not support routine use for short-distance or repeated-sprint performance (Eroglu and colleagues, 2026).

For a hybrid athlete, nitrate has a better case before a defined performance session than before an easy run, mobility session or routine low-stress lift. Save the test for work where a small change in economy, capacity or repeated effort has a reason to matter.

How much beetroot juice should you take, and when?

The AIS protocol gives a useful starting point:

• Nitrate dose: about 6–8 mmol, equivalent to roughly 350–500 mg nitrate.
• Timing: consume it 2–3 hours before exercise.
• Format: use a product that declares and reliably provides its nitrate content.
• Competition use: test the exact product, dose and timing during training first.

The nitrate figure matters more than the size of the bottle. Beetroot powders, juices and concentrates can contain different amounts, and a label led by “beetroot” without a quantified nitrate dose leaves the active protocol unclear. The AIS notes that a guaranteed dose of at least 5–6 mmol is important, while taking more than 10–12 mmol has not shown greater benefit than 6–8 mmol.

A normal serving of beetroot remains nutritious, but its nitrate content varies with growing conditions, storage and preparation. That makes food a poor way to reproduce a precise pre-race dose. Rocket, spinach, lettuce and other leafy vegetables also contribute dietary nitrate and belong in a varied diet without needing to become a performance ritual.

Why mouthwash can change the protocol

Oral bacteria perform a necessary step in converting nitrate to nitrite. Antibacterial mouthwash can interfere with that process and blunt the rise in circulating nitrite after nitrate intake, according to the AIS.

Avoiding antibacterial mouthwash around the dosing window preserves the mechanism being tested. That detail also explains why judging beetroot juice from one improvised attempt produces weak information: an uncertain dose, wrong timing and interrupted conversion can all sit behind the result.

Does beetroot juice work as well for trained athletes?

Training status changes the expected return. The AIS reports that highly trained endurance athletes with a VO2 max above 65 ml/kg/min have not shown a significant benefit in the research it summarises. Female athletes are underrepresented in the evidence, which limits the confidence of sex-specific recommendations.

A 2024 review comparing beetroot juice with nitrate salts found evidence that both sources can support exercise outcomes. It also identified possible added effects from beetroot’s other compounds, including effects on high-intensity oxygen use, training adaptations and recovery. Direct comparisons remain too limited for firm conclusions about beetroot juice being superior to nitrate salts (Zoughaib and colleagues, 2024).

This is a useful boundary for decision-making. Recreational and trained athletes can run an individual trial; elite endurance athletes should set a higher bar before adding another intervention to a mature performance system.

A practical three-session test

One session cannot separate a supplement effect from sleep, weather, route, motivation or normal performance variation. Use three comparable sessions before deciding whether beetroot juice earns a place.

Test	Session	Protocol	What to record
Baseline	4–6 x 4-minute hard running intervals with fixed recovery	Normal pre-session meal; no nitrate product	Pace or distance, RPE, heart rate, recovery quality
Nitrate trial 1	Repeat the same interval structure in similar conditions	Declared 350–500 mg nitrate, 2–3 hours before	Same measures plus taste and gut comfort
Nitrate trial 2	Repeat once more after normal recovery	Same product, dose and timing	Performance consistency and any side effects

Keep caffeine, pre-session carbohydrate, route, time of day and footwear as stable as real life allows. The comparison will never become a laboratory experiment, but consistent inputs produce a more useful personal decision.

This example is illustrative, not prescriptive. Health status, medication, training history and the demands of the session can change the decision. Speak to a sports dietitian or qualified healthcare professional where individual risk or uncertainty exists.

Side effects and supplement safety

Concentrated beetroot juice can cause mild gastrointestinal discomfort. It can also turn urine or stools pink temporarily; the AIS describes this as harmless. Trial it away from race day so taste and gut response do not become competition surprises.

Athletes subject to anti-doping rules also need to consider contamination risk across supplements. Choose a batch-tested product and verify its nitrate content. Do not improvise with sodium or potassium nitrate products: dosing errors create avoidable risk, and nitrate must not be confused with nitrite.

Dietary nitrate can also affect blood pressure. Anyone with a health condition, relevant medication or clinical concern should get individual guidance before using a concentrated supplement.

Where beetroot juice fits in a hybrid week

Nitrate belongs beside the session with the clearest performance demand, not automatically beside every workout. An illustrative week could place one tested dose before Thursday intervals while leaving easier training alone:

Day	Session	Nitrate decision
Monday	Full-body strength	Skip unless resistance performance is the specific test
Tuesday	Easy run	No performance supplement needed
Wednesday	Rest or mobility	Focus on normal meals and recovery
Thursday	Threshold intervals	Candidate session for the 2–3-hour nitrate protocol
Friday	Upper-body strength	Judge recovery from Thursday before adding load
Saturday	Social sport or event-specific session	Test only if repeated high-intensity performance is the target
Sunday	Easy endurance	Keep the effort controlled and fuel the duration appropriately

The schedule protects the quality session and keeps the experiment interpretable. It also prevents supplement interest from displacing the basics covered in fuelling hybrid training when you run and lift and how to progress hybrid training without overloading the week.

Where Telos Fitness fits

Telos Fitness builds personalised 14-day plans across running, strength, endurance and 24 supported sports. Your sports, goals, available hours, intensity preference and schedule shape the block. Recent training, adherence, recovery and performance signals inform the next recalibration.

Day-by-day sessions include warm-up, main-set, cool-down and RPE guidance. Connected wearable activity can add context, while fuelling guidance keeps the nutrition decision attached to the work ahead.

That structure helps keep beetroot juice in proportion. Choose the important session, test a credible protocol, record the result and judge it alongside the rest of the block. If the effect is absent or the gut cost is high, remove it without disturbing the plan.