Effect of Beetroot Juice Supplementation on Aerobic Response during Swimming

Nutrients

Marco Pinna¹  Silvana Roberto¹  Raffaele Milia¹  Elisabetta Marongiu¹  Sergio Olla¹  Andrea Loi²  Gian Mario Migliaccio²  Johnny Padulo³  Carmine Orlandi⁴  Filippo Tocco¹  Alberto Concu¹ 

[1] The Department of Medical Sciences, Sports Physiology Lab, University of Cagliari, Via Porcell 4, 09124 Cagliari, Italy; E-Mails:;Regional School of Sport of Sardinia, Italian Olympic Committee, Cagliari, Italy; E-Mails:;Tunisian Research Laboratory “Sports Performance Optimisation” National Centre of Medicine and Science in Sports (CNMSS), Tunis, Tunisia; E-Mail:;Faculty of Medicine and Surgery, University of Tor Vergata Rome, Rome, Italy; E-Mail:

关键词: exercise;    nitric oxide;    aerobic energy cost;    anaerobic threshold;    oxygen uptak;   

DOI  :  10.3390/nu6020605

来源: mdpi

【 摘 要 】

The beneficial effects of beetroot juice supplementation (BJS) have been tested during cycling, walking, and running. The purpose of the present study was to investigate whether BJS can also improve performance in swimmers. Fourteen moderately trained male master swimmers were recruited and underwent two incremental swimming tests randomly assigned in a pool during which workload, oxygen uptake (VO₂), carbon dioxide production (VCO₂), pulmonary ventilation (VE), and aerobic energy cost (AEC) of swimming were measured. One was a control swimming test (CSW) and the other a swimming test after six days of BJS (0.5l/day organic beetroot juice containing about 5.5 mmol of NO₃⁻). Results show that workload at anaerobic threshold was significantly increased by BJS as compared to the CSW test (6.3 ± 1 and 6.7 ± 1.1 kg during the CSW and the BJS test respectively). Moreover, AEC was significantly reduced during the BJS test (1.9 ± 0.5 during the SW test vs. 1.7 ± 0.3 kcal·kg⁻¹·h⁻¹ during the BJS test). The other variables lacked a statistically significant effect with BJS. The present investigation provides evidence that BJS positively affects performance of swimmers as it reduces the AEC and increases the workload at anaerobic threshold.

【 授权许可】

CC BY   
© 2014 by the authors; licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland.