Bang Goes The Theory

Pross

Anyone else watch this last night? There was quite a bit of cycling related science on it as they were building a pedal powered aeroplane and the presenter who is going to fly it needed to build his cycling ability to provide enough power to get it off the ground and hold that power level for a long enough period to keep it in the air. Interesting testing of the benefits of beetroot juice in boosting power output, I'm off to stock up on a load!

bompington

I am thinking of using it as a substitute for training for this year's Etape Cal :?

GrantTaylor

I was wondering if the extract in capsule form would offer the same benefit? Seems better value than the juice, and more palatable, as I am not a big Beetroot fan.

Pross

bompington wrote:

I am thinking of using it as a substitute for training for this year's Etape Cal :?

I'm thinking of using it as a substitute for my EPO and blood doping regime

Aggieboy

I love beetroot but it does - ooooh, hang on.....................................................................................make you fart a lot.

team47b

I read...

"scientists found cyclists who drank a half-litre of beetroot juice several hours before setting off were able to ride up to 20% longer"

Power assistance Aggieboy style?

In the event of an 'off' do you think filling the bidons with it would be a bad idea? :shock:

Pross

team47b wrote:

I read...

"scientists found cyclists who drank a half-litre of beetroot juice several hours before setting off were able to ride up to 20% longer"

Power assistance Aggieboy style?

In the event of an 'off' do you think filling the bidons with it would be a bad idea? :shock:

The test they ran on there was to get the presenter to ride as long as he could at a prescribed power level (8 minutes) and then the next day he went back and did the same test having drunk a couple of beetroot shots which went over 9 minutes. I think they said something like a 17% increase. Apparently that is backed up by their long-term research. I guess the only problem is that everyone will start using it and then you no longer have an advantage. Might give it a go though.

GiantMike

What is it about the Beetroot juice that improves performance?

Is it a fuel source? Does it affect the way the body uses other fuel sources? Is it that, having spilt it down the front of your white lycra, you have to get home ASAP to wash it out?

Aggieboy

This isn't new. As I do genuinely like beetroot, I remember reading about this a few years ago on another forum. Here are a couple of quotes -


Beetroot eases pain of red-faced runners
BY: SAM LISTER From: Times Online August 07, 2009
POUNDING the streets for hours every day in preparation for a marathon? Sit down and drink some beetroot juice instead.

Drinking a glass has been found to boost stamina, allowing people to endure strenuous physical exercise for longer.

Research shows that the nitrate in beetroot juice leads to a reduction in oxygen uptake, slowing the rate at which a person becomes exhausted. Those drinking the juice can exercise for 16 per cent longer.

The scientists behind the study said that the reduction in oxygen use was greater than that achieved by any other known means, including training. The findings could be of interest to endurance athletes, elderly people or those with cardiovascular, respiratory or metabolic diseases, they added.

But there is a side-effect, albeit harmless. Drinking beetroot juice can lead to beeturia, when urine turns pink or red because of acidity levels in the stomach.


The research team, led by the University of Exeter, conducted the study with eight men aged 19 to 38. They were given 500ml a day of organic beetroot juice for six consecutive days before completing a series of tests, involving cycling on an exercise bike. On another occasion, they were given a placebo of blackcurrant cordial for six consecutive days before completing the same cycling tests. After drinking beetroot juice the group was able to cycle for an average of 11 minutes, 25 seconds - 92 seconds longer than when using the placebo. This translates into a 2 per cent reduction in the time taken to cover a set distance. The group that consumed the beetroot juice also had lower resting blood pressure.

The researchers are not sure of the mechanism that causes the nitrate in the beetroot juice to boost stamina. However, they suspect that it could be a result of the nitrate turning into nitric oxide in the body, reducing the oxygen cost of exercise. Nitrate is high in other foods, such as lettuce, but can be introduced in larger quantities because beetroot can be juiced, the researchers said.

The study follows research by Barts and the London School of Medicine and the Peninsula Medical School, published last year, which found that beetroot juice reduced blood pressure. The researchers found that in healthy volunteers blood pressure was reduced within an hour of drinking.

The latest research was carried out by the University of Exeter and Peninsula Medical School and published in the Journal of Applied Physiology. The team hopes to conduct further studies to try to understand in more detail the effects of nitrate-rich foods on exercise physiology.

Professor Andy Jones, lead researcher from the University of Exeter School of Sport and Health Sciences, said the work showed that nitrate-rich food could increase endurance.

"We were amazed by the effects of beetroot juice on oxygen uptake because these effects cannot be achieved by any other known means, including training," he said. "I am sure professional and amateur athletes will be interested in the results."

Experts welcomed the findings but cautioned that both studies to date had been small and called for trials on a larger scale, including research into long-term benefits or potentially harmful effects.

The Times

....................................................


When Chris Carver ran an ultra-marathon in Scotland last year, which challenges athletes to run as far as possible within 24 hours, he ran 225 kilometres.

Determined to do better in this year's race, Carver added something extra to his training regime: beetroot juice. For a week before the race, he drank the dark purple juice every day. Last month, Carver won it by running 238 kilometres.

"The only thing I did differently this year was the beetroot juice," said Carver, 46, a professional runner based near Leeds, in northern England.

He said more exercise would have improved his endurance, but to get the same result he attributes to the juice - an extra 13 kilometres - it would likely have taken an entire year.

Some experts say adding beetroot juice to your diet could provide a performance boost even beyond the blood, sweat and tears of more training.

In two studies conducted at Exeter University on 15 men, Stephen Bailey and colleagues found cyclists who drank a half-litre of beetroot juice several hours before setting off were able to ride up to 20 per cent longer than those who drank a placebo blackcurrant juice.

By examining the cyclists under a scanner that analyses how much energy is needed for a muscle to contract, Bailey and colleagues discovered beetroot juice allows cyclists to exercise using less oxygen than normal.

"The beetroot juice was effective even without any additional training," Bailey said. "It reduces the energy requirements on your muscles so you can last longer." While the beetroot juice was provided free by its manufacturer, Exeter University paid for the research.

Bailey said the high nitrate content of beetroot juice is responsible for its athletic benefits. Scientists aren't exactly sure how it works, but suspect having more nitric oxide in your body, a byproduct of nitrate, helps you exercise with less oxygen. Bailey said the same effects might be possible if people ate more nitrate-rich foods like beetroot, lettuce or spinach.

Bailey and colleagues calculated beetroot juice could translate into a 1 to 2 per cent better race time, a tiny improvement likely only to matter to elite athletes. They are still tweaking the dosage but say athletes should consume the juice a few hours before training so their body has time to digest it. Their latest study was published in June in the Journal of Applied Physiology.

"Drinking beetroot juice is not going to turn a recreational runner into an Olympic champion, but it might make tolerating more exercise easier so you can train more," said Dr Andy Franklyn-Miller, a sports medicine expert at the Centre for Human Performance in London. He was not connected to the research and has not received any funding from beetroot juice makers.

Franklyn-Miller said since people often reach an athletic plateau where more training doesn't help, beetroot juice could give you an extra edge you wouldn't get otherwise.

"It's not banned, so there's no reason not to try it," he said. Still, he warned drinking too much of the juice could lead to side effects like abdominal cramps, diarrhea or purple urine.

Previous studies in Britain and the US have found beetroot helps the heart by lowering blood pressure.

Other experts warned manipulating your diet can't replace the benefits of training. "Certain foods can help you maximise the benefits from exercise, not reduce the amount you're doing," said Roger Fielding, director of the Nutrition, Exercise Physiology and Sarcopenia Laboratory at Tufts University. He was not connected to any research on beetroot or any other nutritional supplements.

For serious athletes, Fielding said changing your diet could help. "If a very small improvement is valuable to you, it's possible something like beetroot juice could do that," he said.

Other studies have shown drinking things like pickle juice or having a small carbohydrate snack during a marathon, can prevent cramps and improve performance. Scientists have also found cherry juice, which helps reduce exercise-induced swelling, could be strong enough to reduce some athletes' use of anti-inflammatory pain medication.

Fielding said the benefits of beetroot juice and other foods and drinks could have wider benefits and might one day be used to help elderly people with muscle weakness.

Some elite athletes warned beetroot juice may not be to everybody's taste. "A few of my friends think it's really disgusting," said Colin McCourt, 25, a British runner competing at the Commonwealth Games in New Delhi this month.

In April, McCourt started drinking cherry and beetroot juice, which he credits with helping him train longer and more often. "I feel like I get a benefit from it, even if it's minimal," he told Associated Press Television.

McCourt said he will continue to adjust his training regimen in preparation for the London 2012 Olympics, but plans to maintain his juice habit. "There will be a lot more beetroot juice if my stomach can take it."

izza

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-17754246

First test

y33stu

I saw that, well, the second half anyway. I'm definitely going to give it a try. Results spoke for themselves.

nevman

I think is the relevant info here

drinking too much of the juice could lead to side effects like abdominal cramps, diarrhea or purple urine.

napoleond

I was using beetroot juice before events and I did see a slight step up in performance.
However I had a bad crash at the end of a race last year and, well, my bladder emptied when I went in to shock at the hospital. Unfortunately due to the beetroot juice it was rather red causing some concern for the doctors...
Quite amusing now I look back at it...

BillyMansell

The programme's called Bang Goes The Theory.

The theory of cycle powered flight went bang a long time ago.

Shouldn't the programme be called P!ssing The (Beetroot Coloured) Licence Fee Up The Wall?

Cleat Eastwood

you can buy little shots of beetroot drink. i saw them in holland and barret a while back - not seen them for a while though, and they do a beetroot drink in morrisons and asda. I love beetroot - not ya pickled variety i mean ya earthy cut em and they bleed veg, yeah.

OffTheBackAdam

Reckon the UCI will add it to their list of proscribed substances?

rick_chasey

Dope testers in cycling have noted that lots of riders are now drinking a lot of beetroot!

Pross

BillyMansell wrote:

The programme's called Bang Goes The Theory.

The theory of cycle powered flight went bang a long time ago.

Shouldn't the programme be called P!ssing The (Beetroot Coloured) Licence Fee Up The Wall?

It's hardly the biggest waste of licence fee money out there. At least it can help to get people, especially youngsters, interested in science and engineering. Surely a better use of the icence fee and more in keeping with the Beebs charter than the vast majority of programmes on BBC TV and radio.

mrc1

I've seen the little shot bottles but is that enough to have any effect? The study that Aggieboy references above says they were drinking 500ml a day so it seems to me that you would have to drink quite a lot of the stuff to get the effect shown in the studies?

Pross

mrc1 wrote:

I've seen the little shot bottles but is that enough to have any effect? The study that Aggieboy references above says they were drinking 500ml a day so it seems to me that you would have to drink quite a lot of the stuff to get the effect shown in the studies?

They used two of the little shot bottles in the test on this programme.