Acute and Chronic Dietary Nitrate Supplementation on Weightlifting Performance in Healthy Resistance-Trained Men

Dietary nitrate supplementation can enhance muscle contractility and force production in type II (fast-twitch) muscle fibers; however, its impact on weightlifting performance and optimal dosing strategies remains unclear. The purpose of this study is to determine whether acute and chronic nitrate ingestion, provided as nitrate-rich beetroot juice (BR), improves weightlifting performance in healthy resistance-trained men. In a randomized, double-blind, crossover design, eighteen resistance-trained males will be assigned to consume: 1) nitrate-depleted beetroot juice placebo (PL) or 2) BR (~6 mmol of nitrate) for 15 consecutive days. On days 1 and 15, participants will consume their allocated beverage 2.5 hours prior to performing barbell back squat and bench press at 55%, 60%, and 65% of their one-repetition maximum. A linear transducer will be used to assess peak and mean power and velocity. A two-way repeated-measures ANOVA will evaluate differences in performance across conditions. A subset of data (n=9) for all performance outcomes is presented. These findings will provide insight into the efficacy of dietary nitrate as an ergogenic aid for resistance exercise performance in healthy men. They will also advance strength and conditioning practices by evaluating a novel nutritional strategy to enhance power and velocity in explosive exercise modalities, while addressing the current limited understanding of its chronic dosing effects.