Impact of Beetroot Juice Ingestion on Female Rugby Performance

Rugby is a team sport characterized by high-intermittent efforts, thus, to the importance of realizing intermittent and explosive efforts in field hockey is crucial. For this reason, the use of nutritional strategies in field hockey should be explored with the aim to enhance the capacity for repeating high-intensity actions. However, scientific evidence supports only a few numbers of dietary supplements that have reported good evidence for improving sports performance, between we can mention beetroot juice supplementation with doses > 5 mmol of NO3-. Beetroot juice is a NO3- precursor with recognized effectiveness to elicit performance due to different physiological mechanisms associated with its ingestion such as increment in vasodilatation, skeletal muscle contractility, or delaying fatigue development that could be linked with an enhance or performance in team-sports athletes. However, the majority of the studies has been realized in male athletes being female athletes underrepresented in beetroot juice supplementation research. Thus, the aim of this study was to analyze the effects of beetroot juice ingestion on neuromuscular performance in female rugby players.

Inclusion criteria

• More than 5 years of rugby training experience.
• Active rugby player

Exclusion criteria

• Concurrently participating in other studies.
• Contraindications to beetroot juice ingestion.
• Physical limitations, health problems, or musculoskeletal injuries.