Welcome to our weekly summary of the latest research from the world of sports nutrition.
In this week’s summary:
Beets Help Reduce Post-training Inflammation
This study explored how a beet-based supplement can reduce inflammation after intense exercise. Researchers compared the effects of this supplement, containing nitrates, caffeine, vitamin C, B vitamins and a mushroom blend, with a placebo in 20 cyclists. Over two weeks, participants took either the supplement or a placebo before completing a 2.25-hour cycling session. Blood samples revealed that the supplement increased levels of beneficial nitrates and anti-inflammatory compounds while decreasing proteins associated with inflammation. The findings suggest that taking this beet-based supplement for two weeks can help mitigate exercise-induced inflammation in athletes.
Our thoughts: Yet another feather in the cap for beet juice supplementation and products like Beet It Sport. Head over to our article about how beet juice benefits your performance to learn more about it. The links between inflammation and recovery are continually developing, with recent research showing that it could be an important part of muscle adaptation and recovery.
Citrulline Delays Fatigue During Intense Exercise
This study explored how citrulline malate (CM) affects sprint performance in male university-level team sport athletes. Over three days, 13 athletes took either CM or a placebo before performing a series of ten 40-meter sprints with short rest intervals. The results showed that athletes taking CM had a smaller decrease in performance over the sprints compared to those taking the placebo. While CM did not change the average or slowest sprint times, blood lactate levels, or heart rates, it did help maintain better overall performance during repeated high-intensity sprints. This suggests that citrulline malate can help reduce fatigue during short-duration, intense exercise.
Our thoughts: Citrulline has several effects on the body. It helps clear toxins like ammonia and enhances the effects of nitric oxide—the stuff your body makes with nitrates from beet juice—which is shown to improve endurance performance. The research on citrulline is hit and miss, however, and at this time, we're not fully convinced it has a significant impact. Do you take citrulline? We’d love to hear your thoughts!
Restricting Blood Flow Doesn’t Improve Performance, But Caffeine Does
This study examined whether a technique called ischemic preconditioning (IPC) combined with caffeine could boost short-term cycling performance. In a series of trials, 11 trained men completed a 4-minute cycling test after different treatments: IPC with caffeine, IPC with a placebo, caffeine alone, and a placebo alone. IPC involved briefly restricting blood flow to the legs before exercise. Results showed that while caffeine alone improved performance, IPC did not provide any additional benefits, either by itself or when combined with caffeine. The study concluded that ischemic preconditioning is not effective in enhancing short-term high-intensity cycling performance, whereas caffeine alone does improve performance.
Our thoughts: Ischemic preconditioning is like an attempt to hack training at altitude. It may have an impact if done regular basis (daily? for months?), but then it feels like quite an extreme way to hack performance. A pre-training coffee sounds far more enjoyable, don’t you think? For more on caffeine, check out our article about how caffeine improves your athletic performance.
If you learned something new from this article and are curious to know more, head to the Blonyx Blog or 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!