How Does Fuelling with Beet It Sport Improve Performance?

Beet It Sport is trusted by thousands of athletes and over 300 independent research projects - and for good reason. Its controlled dose of dietary nitrate, derived from concentrated beetroot juice, plays a powerful role in optimising performance during training and competition.

Here’s how it works—and why it matters for endurance athletes as well as power and sprint-focused athletes.

1. Supports Oxygen Efficiency

Beet It Sport's Nitrate 400 product provides 400mg of dietary nitrate per shot - a dose proven to improve the body’s use of oxygen during exercise. When you take a shot, the natural nitrate is converted to nitrite by bacteria on the tongue. As nitrite enters the blood stream it is converted to nitric oxide. Nitric oxide is a vasodilator responsible for boosting blood flow which increases oxygen supply to the working muscle, thereby enhancing endurance performance. 

2. Enhances Training Output in Race Build-Up

When used in the days leading up to a race or key training effort, nitrate loading with Beet It Sport products have been associated with increasing time-to-exhaustion by up to 25%, and dietary nitrate supplementation (400-800mg) over 5-7 days, has been shown to improve sprint performance by 3-5%, and improve reaction time and decision making by 3.5%.

This makes it especially valuable during race week, when athletes are tapering and priming for performance, while also useful for training sessions when taken 2-3 hours prior to the session.

When used in the days leading up to a race or key training effort, nitrate loading with Beet It Sport products has been associated with increasing time-to-exhaustion by up to 25% (Gao et al., 2021), and dietary nitrate supplementation (400–800mg) over 5–7 days has been shown to improve sprint performance by 3–5% and enhance reaction time and decision-making by ~3.5%.

Nitrate helps reduce the oxygen cost of exercise, making muscles more efficient during submaximal endurance efforts (Jones et al., 2018). In longer efforts, it can even boost final sprint performance after 2 hours of cycling by ~6.8%—equating to a mean power of 390 W vs. 365 W (Rowland et al., 2022).

This makes it especially valuable to start nitrate loading during race week, when athletes are tapering and priming for performance—while also useful for training sessions when taken 2–3 hours prior to the session.

3. Supports Sprint Power and High-Intensity Efforts

Nitrate isn’t just for endurance athletes. Research shows it can significantly enhance short-burst power and sprint performance, making it a key tool for team-sport athletes, sprinters, and hybrid competitors.

Here are some of the findings, with links to the research:

📈 Improves sprint times by 1.2–2.3% over 5–20m in trained team-sport athletes

⚡ Raises power output during 5–15 second all-out cycling sprints

🏃 Increases total sprint work output by ~3.5% during intermittent sprint sessions

⏱ Improves time-to-peak power in 30s cycling sprints, especially with acute dosing

🚀 Enhances max work rate by ~8.7% after 3 weeks of sprint interval training (vs. 4.7% with placebo)

Whether you’re building speed, sharpening explosive efforts, competing in multi-modal formats like HYROX or CrossFit, or competing in invasion games like football and rugby, nitrate can give your performance an extra edge.

4. Dosing That Matches the Science

Beet It Sport products are Informed Sport certified and used across elite sports and research because of their precisely standardised nitrate content. Each Nitrate 400 Shot or Crystals sachet contains 400mg of nitrate - Beet It Sport is the only brand that guarantees an adequate dose of dietary nitrate per serving because every batch is tested and controlled for this level of nitrate.

This is done by sourcing beetroots that have higher nitrate levels, then, by balancing the nitrate amounts in each batch of beetroot and testing to ensure the consistent 400mg dose is reached every, single time.

👉 See the full guide on how to optimise your nitrate dosing

5. Backed by the Strongest Science Yet

In 2025, the largest-ever review on dietary nitrate for exercise performance analysed 180 studies and reaffirmed what elite athletes and researchers already knew: beetroot-derived nitrate improves endurance, oxygen efficiency, and sprint performance—with no major side effects.

👉 Read our breakdown of the landmark review

👉 Explore the science behind Beet It Sport

Bottom Line

Beet It Sport isn’t just a filler supplement - it’s a performance optimisation tactic led by the science and trusted by top professionals globally. Taken following our optimal dosing guidelines up to 5 days before a race or key training session, it helps you go further, push harder, and finish stronger—all backed by real science and proven results.

Order and optimise your nitrate levels for performance gains.