This weeks issue is powered by The Performance Nutrition Network
Dear Performance Nutrition Leaders,
This week: Nitrate + BFR, the latest news, and an important supplement partnership model.
💡 LATEST RESEARCH
Beetroot juice has a well-established evidence base in endurance sport. Its application in strength and power contexts is less settled.
A new randomised, double-blind, placebo-controlled study tested whether beetroot juice supplementation could amplify the adaptive response to blood flow restriction training.
Twenty male university students were assigned to either a BFR training group or a BFR plus beetroot juice group, with the supplemented group receiving 8 mmol of dietary nitrate per day throughout a one-week pre-loading phase and a four-week bilateral knee extensor and flexor BFR programme.
Both groups improved from baseline. Under fatigued conditions, the BFR plus beetroot juice group showed significantly greater improvements in bilateral CMJ height (p = 0.012, d = 1.307), peak force, and rate of force development compared to BFR alone.
Dietary nitrate is reduced to nitrite via the enterosalivary cycle and subsequently to nitric oxide through the nitrate-nitrite-NO pathway, improving muscle blood flow and reducing the oxygen cost of contractions.
The sample was small and drawn from a university sports cohort rather than elite athletes. Habitual dietary nitrate intake from food was not controlled for.
For practitioners using BFR in rehabilitation or load-managed training blocks, nitrate supplementation should be considered as a concurrent nutrition strategy.
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📈NEWS
Ohio State Football recruiting Sports Dietitian
Duke hiring Assistant Direct of Sports Nutrition Football
Charlotte FC recruiting Sports Nutritionist via Atrium Health
Lilly Dabin appointed performance nutritionist at Reading FC
Texas Tech Athletics is searching for an Associate Sports Dietitian
USOPC hiring Sports Dietitian at the Olympic Training Center, Colorado Springs
Celsius Q1 revenue up 138% — brand now claims one-fifth of the US energy drink market
Ally Spillane delivers a fuelling for performance workshop for Shinrone Senior Camogie players
Whey protein shortage and price pressure reported as consumer demand outpaces supply
Ashwagandha faces formal safety review in Europe and India over hepatotoxicity signals
Torsten Demeyere shares inspiring story transitioning from semi-professional sport to performance nutrition
Runner's World covers new research on physiological resilience in marathon runners — and why it may be the decisive performance variable
Dietitian Approved examines GLP-1 drug effects on triathlete performance — and the muscle-mass risks practitioners need to advise around
💡Performance Tech
Most supplement partnerships in elite sport work the same way. Brand pays a fee. Club wears the logo. Athletes post on social.
The IM8 and Inter Miami deal is structured differently.
IM8 is a daily performance supplement brand co-founded by David Beckham and owned by Prenetics. Inter Miami is the MLS club Beckham co-owns.
Under the multi-year agreement, IM8 becomes the club's exclusive Official Health Supplements Partner — and according to the club, Inter Miami has taken an equity stake in Prenetics, the first time it has taken an ownership position in a brand partner.
And important for us, it shows the value of sports nutrition.
The flagship product, Daily Ultimate Essentials, is an all-in-one powder containing 92 ingredients, engineered to replace 16 separate supplements in a single daily serving.
The product is NSF Certified for Sport.
Prenetics has confirmed it will be made available to all Inter Miami players and staff at the Florida Blue Training Center, with a dedicated IM8 Nutrition Center being built inside the facility.
Practitioners are often under-resourced. A well-structured brand partnership can be one of the few realistic routes to upgrading the environment they work in.
