GradedHealth

Does beetroot juice improve exercise performance?

Beetroot juice may add a little to endurance in healthy adults. Time trials, sprints and training gains show little or mixed benefit.

Published October 2026

Short answer

It may add a small amount to endurance in healthy adults. Results for time trials, sprints and training gains are weak or mixed. Evidence grade C (Limited). Several meta-analyses of mostly small trials; downgraded for inconsistency across tests and for low-quality reviews in the umbrella review.

Key takeaways

  • Several meta-analyses found that beetroot juice or dietary nitrate extended time to exhaustion in healthy adults, by a small to moderate amount [1][2].
  • Time trials, where people cover a set distance as fast as they can, showed no significant gain in pooled analyses [3][4].
  • For sprints and high-intensity intervals the evidence conflicts: a 2021 review of 17 studies found no significant gain [5], while a 2026 review of 33 studies found gains [6].
  • When nitrate was added to endurance training, it did not significantly improve VO2peak or time to exhaustion in nine small studies [7].
  • A 2020 review of 80 studies found the overall effect small, and found no significant benefit in women or in well-trained endurance athletes [8].

The short version

Beetroot juice may help healthy adults a little in endurance tests. Meta-analyses found people kept going longer after taking it [1][2]. For exercise performance more broadly the picture is weaker: beetroot juice did not significantly improve time trials [3][4], and sprint results conflict [5][6]. The full evidence is on the beetroot juice topic page.

What the studies show

Beetroot juice is rich in nitrate, which the body can convert into nitric oxide, a compound that relaxes blood vessels [9].

Endurance to exhaustion. A 2017 meta-analysis of 76 trials in healthy adults found a significant gain in time to exhaustion, with an effect size of 0.33 [1]. The same 2017 review pooled trials of dietary nitrate supplements, which include beetroot juice [1]. An umbrella review of 20 systematic reviews, covering 180 studies, found the same pattern for time to exhaustion, with a standardised mean difference of 0.33 [2].

Time trials. A 2021 meta-analysis found no significant difference in time-trial performance [3]. A 2018 review found no significant effect on the time taken to cover a set distance [4]. The 2017 review concluded that nitrate is less likely to help time-trial performance than time-to-exhaustion tests [1].

Sprints and high-intensity intervals. A 2021 meta-analysis of 17 studies found no significant change in mean or peak power output during high-intensity or sprint interval training [5]. A 2026 systematic review and meta-analysis of 33 studies found significant gains in high-intensity sprint performance (standardised mean difference 0.38) and in mean power output (0.43) [6].

Training. Adding nitrate to at least three weeks of exercise training did not significantly improve VO2peak or time to exhaustion, in nine studies with 228 people [7].

Blood pressure. In adults with hypertension, a 2024 meta-analysis of 11 trials found that clinic systolic blood pressure fell by about 5.3 mmHg compared with placebo, but the certainty of evidence was rated low [10]. In the same review, diastolic and 24-hour readings showed no significant change [10]. A 2017 meta-analysis found the systolic drop only in clinic readings, not in 24-hour or home readings [11]. In older adults, a 2026 meta-analysis of six trials found no significant drop in blood pressure [12].

Heart, lung and metabolic disease. A 2024 meta-analysis of 22 crossover trials in people with heart, lung or metabolic disease found no significant effect on time to exhaustion, oxygen uptake or six-minute walk distance [13]. In COPD, a 2021 meta-analysis of eight trials found no significant difference in six-minute walk distance, cycling endurance time or maximal oxygen uptake [14].

The nuances

Who may benefit. The overall effect in healthy young adults is small: a 2020 review of 80 studies found an effect size of 0.174 and called it objectively small [8]. The six women-only studies in that review did not show a significant effect [8], and neither did well-trained endurance athletes [8]. A review of foods rich in nitrate found no effect in females and said highly trained endurance athletes do not appear to benefit from nitrate-rich foods [15].

Dose and timing. Benefits to time to exhaustion were larger with at least 6 mmol of nitrate a day (about 372 mg) and more than three days of use [2]. An umbrella review of 15 meta-analyses found significant gains with a single dose 2 to 3 hours before exercise, and with doses of 8.3 to 16.4 mmol (515 to 1,017 mg) a day, but described most of these effects as small or negligible [16].

Limits. Most included reviews were rated low or critically low in quality [2]. The power of many trials is low [7]. The 2026 review calls its subgroup findings, including differences by athlete status and timing, hypothesis-generating [6]. A 2021 meta-analysis disclosed grants from Bayer and Roche and other drug-company ties, which its authors said were outside the submitted work [3].

What this means for you

For healthy adults, the studies suggest beetroot juice may add a small gain in tests to exhaustion, and may not reliably improve time trials or sprints [1][3][6]. Because beetroot juice can lower blood pressure in some trials, people who take blood pressure medicines should talk to a doctor before using it regularly [10].

Go deeper

  • Beetroot Juice — Beetroot juice may give healthy adults a small gain in tests of endurance to exhaustion.

References

  1. The Effect of Dietary Nitrate Supplementation on Endurance Exercise Performance in Healthy Adults: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis.. Sports Med, 2017.
  2. Dietary Nitrate Supplementation and Exercise Performance: An Umbrella Review of 20 Published Systematic Reviews with Meta-analyses.. Sports Med, 2025.
  3. The effects of dietary nitrate supplementation on endurance exercise performance and cardiorespiratory measures in healthy adults: a systematic review and meta-analysis.. J Int Soc Sports Nutr, 2021.
  4. The Effect of Nitrate Supplementation on Exercise Tolerance and Performance: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis.. J Strength Cond Res, 2018.
  5. The Effect of Beetroot Ingestion on High-Intensity Interval Training: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis.. Nutrients, 2021.
  6. Effectiveness of beetroot juice on aerobic and anaerobic exercise performance: systematic review and meta-analysis.. Front Nutr, 2026.
  7. Limited Effects of Inorganic Nitrate Supplementation on Exercise Training Responses: A Systematic Review and Meta-analysis.. Sports Med Open, 2023.
  8. Ergogenic Effect of Nitrate Supplementation: A Systematic Review and Meta-analysis.. Med Sci Sports Exerc, 2020.
  9. The benefits and risks of beetroot juice consumption: a systematic review.. Crit Rev Food Sci Nutr, 2021.
  10. Effects of beetroot juice on blood pressure in hypertension according to European Society of Hypertension Guidelines: A systematic review and meta-analysis.. Nutr Metab Cardiovasc Dis, 2024.
  11. Medium-term effects of dietary nitrate supplementation on systolic and diastolic blood pressure in adults: a systematic review and meta-analysis.. J Hypertens, 2017.
  12. Effects of chronic nitrate supplementation on blood pressure in adults: a systematic review and meta-analysis of randomized clinical trials.. Nutr Res, 2026.
  13. Ergogenic Effect of Nitrate Supplementation in Clinical Populations: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis.. Nutrients, 2024.
  14. Efficacy of dietary nitrate-rich beetroot juice supplementation in patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD): A systematic review and meta-analysis.. Clin Nutr ESPEN, 2021.
  15. Effect of food sources of nitrate, polyphenols, L-arginine and L-citrulline on endurance exercise performance: a systematic review and meta-analysis of randomised controlled trials.. J Int Soc Sports Nutr, 2021.
  16. Effects of Beetroot Juice on Physical Performance in Professional Athletes and Healthy Individuals: An Umbrella Review.. Nutrients, 2025.