22g Baking Soda 60min Before a Old-School 4 x 12RM Leg Workout Allow for a 22 Rep Volume Increase on Hypertrophy Oriented Squat + Leg Press + Leg Extension Quads Routine

Image 1: Squats, 8 x 12, Leg Press 6 x 12, Leg Ext. 6 x 12; that's the Quads routine Serge Nubret trained twice a week in conjunction with chest – it stands out of question that this is the kind of workout that benefits most from an acid buffer like NaHCO(3)!

As a diligent student of the SuppVersity you are no stranger to the ergogenic value of sodium bicarbonate, NaHCO(3) or baking soda, and though I still believe that I have to do a lot of persuading in terms of its stand-alone benefits (click here to read more), many of you will at least have been impressed by its ability to boost the uptake and subsequent performance benefits from creatine supplements (cf. "Supercharging Creatine With Baking Soda"). And while I am not sure if the soon-to-be-published study by Carr et al. will be last straw that's finally going to break your back... ah, I mean your resistance, or I should say, unwillingness to accept that something as cheap and simple as baking soda could outperform 90% of the overpriced supplemental non-starters on the market and will not make you draw water or increase your blood pressure, although it has the bad word "sodium" in its name, I cannot tell, what I can tell you though, is that Benjamin M. Carr and his colleagues from the School of Human Performance and Recreation at the  University of Southern Mississippi in Hattiesburg are spot on, when they say (or write) that their "findings demonstrate ergogenic efficacy for NaHCO(3) during [hypertrophy-type resistance training]" (Kerr. 2013).

The benefits of baking soda start at high intensity aerobic exercise, and end right where your willpower ends ;-)

That baking soda can be an effective ergogenic aid, especially when it comes to high volume workouts has actually long been established. Still many, if not most of the trials involved sprinters or cyclists performing HIIT-esque protocols on the track or cycle ergometer (e.g. 11.5% increase in sprint performance in Price. 2003), whereas researchers such as Portington et al. or Webster et al. totally missed the boat or, I should say, what it means to train, when they had their study participants perform laughable 5 sets of leg presses and measured nothing but a (yet significant) difference in blood pH in response to pre-supplementation (105 min before the test) with sodium bicarbonate (Webster, 1993; Portington. 1998).

Figure 1: Overview of the experimental protocol that was used in the study (based on Carr. 2013)

With four sets of three exercises at the 12RM (not yet Serge Nubret style, I know; see image 1 ;-) and the king of all leg exercises, the squat being one of them, as well as resistance trained study participants who were actually able to lift a weight that would be taxing enough to see a difference, the study design of the Carr study (see figure 1) is yet more of what I would expect to yield results with real world significance for trainees who are not at the gym to chat and show off their latest gymwear, but to train... and as the data in figure 2 goes to show, the results were what these very trainees are looking for:

Figure 2: Lactate, pH, ratio of hydrogen carbonate ions to NaHCO(3) and base excess in blood after, as well as number of total reps performed during the leg workout (data adapted from Carr. 2013)

I freely admit, an overall plus of ~22reps, in other words 1.83 reps per set does not sound like much, but if you think about how long you would have to train to achieve this improvement and/or compare it to the median effect size of weeks of beta alanine supplementation, of which you can hardly say that it was one of the aforementioned supplemental non-starters, and still offers a performance increment of only 2.87% (Hobson. 2013), the 22 +/- 13 reps or 4% increase in total volume the participants in the Carr study achieved within about 2min (by drinking their 22-32g of baking soda) are more than just a bit of alright.

"But isn't the increase in lactate a bad thing?"

"Lactate...?" I knew this would be your next question. I mean it is already hard enough to believe that anything that has the word "sodium" (by the way you Americans are the only ones who don't get that this ought to be "natrium" and not "sodium" ;-) in its name is not per se bad for you, and now the guys in the baking soda group had higher lactate levels!

Image 2: "Cholesterol is the devil and sodium is his little brother!" Everyone who still believes everything the medical orthodoxy says, please raise your hands!

A note on the dangers of "salt": Firstly, baking soda is "only" ~28% sodium, which means that for every 4 grams you ingest you get roughly 1 g of sodium. Secondly, it is arguable how much of the sodium is effectively taken up and will be floating around in your blood. As T. Lakhanisky points out in his dossier for the Belgian government: "The uptake of sodium, via exposure to sodium carbonate, is much less than the uptake of sodium via food. Therefore, sodium carbonate is not expected to be systemically available in the body." (Lakhanisky. 2002) And thirdly, there is more and more evidence that suggests that the chloride rather than the sodium content of common table salt (NaCl = Natrium + Chloride) is the root cause of "sodium induced hypertension" in "sodium sensitive" individuals / animal models. Only recently, a study by Schmidlin et al. showed that chloride loading induced hypertension in the stroke-prone spontaneously hypertensive rat despite profound sodium depletion (Schmidlin. 2010). So, if you asked me, rather than pointing at salt as the #2 on the list of greatest evils (obviously cholesterol is still #1, here) the medical orthodoxy would be better advised to address the imbalances between sodium and potassium (click here to learn more about the ratios), which are so characteristic of the western diet, instead of painting yet another black and white picture where sodium is the bad guy and potassium the dangerous mineral that cannot be sold OTC in dosages >80mg.... but hey, this would be the topic for a whole new blogpost and as gross as it may sound, the chance that you get diarrhea from the baking soda is probably 1000x higher than the remote possibility of increases in blood pressure. A 1990 study by Luft et al. even found that the blood pressure of 10 mildly hypertensive and normal subjects decreased by 5mmHg after 7 days in the course of which they drank 3 liters of sodium bicarbonate containing water per day (Luft. 1990)

Now, you would have reason to be concerned if we were talking about lactic acid, which is basically lactate + a proton (you can also say, lactate is the negative ion of lactate acid if you want to). Contrary to the latter, which increases during exercise when the acid buffer of your musculature is exhausted, lactate is however not just benign, but actually beneficial.

"So lactate is a bonus... really?"

Figure 3: Mean plasma lactate, GH, and prolactin responses to intravenous infusion of 250ml 1M sodium lactate in 7 untrained healthy volunteer; note: the respective increase in GH is more pronounced with natural = exercise induced increases in lactate.

While it's still debated whether lactate is only a beneficial co-factor in the mitochondrial energy chain, as Van Hall proposes in his Y2K review of the research (Van Hall. 2000) or rather a mitochondrial energy substrate in its own right that cannot be used only in the mitochondria of your skeletal and heart muscle but also in your brain, as Pellerin et al. suggest (Pellerin. 2007), it is indisputable that the decreased formation of lactic acid, due to the perseverance of an overall higher alkalinity in the presence of a 4% higher workout volume is a beneficial things. Not the least, by virtue of the its ability to trigger the release of growth hormone (cf. figure 3; Luger. 1992), which could - in conjunction with the increased workout capacity and the supposedly faster post-workout recovery give trainees on a hypertrophy-oriented volume training regimen an edge over the salt-o-phobic competition.

In view of the fact that Carr et al. arrive at the exact same conclusion, before they state that the "ergogenic efficacy" of sodium bicarbonate during "hypertrophy-type resistance exercise" would "warrant further investigation into chronic training applications" (Carr. 2013), we can expect to see a future trial investigating exactly that: How much more will you gain if you repeat this practice for 6-8 weeks? ... I guess, I don't have to tell you that the SuppVersity is going to be the place, where you are going to read about the results of that study, first!

References:

• Carr BM, Webster MJ, Boyd JC, Hudson GM, Scheett TP. Sodium bicarbonate supplementation improves hypertrophy-type resistance exercise performance. Eur J Appl Physiol. 2013 Sep 4.
• Lakhanisky T. Sodium Bicarbonate. OECD SIDS. UNEP Publications. 2002.
• Luger A, Watschinger B, Deuster P, Svoboda T, Clodi M, Chrousos GP. Plasma growth hormone and prolactin responses to graded levels of acute exercise and to a lactate infusion. Neuroendocrinology. 1992 Jul;56(1):112-7.
• Luft FC, Zemel MB, Sowers JA, Fineberg NS, Weinberger MH. Sodium bicarbonate and sodium chloride: effects on blood pressure and electrolyte homeostasis in normal and hypertensive man. J Hypertens. 1990 Jul;8(7):663-70.
• Pellerin, L., Bouzier- Sore, A.-K., Aubert, A., Serres, S., Merle, M., Costalat, R. & Magistretti, P. 2007. Activity-dependent regulation of energy metabolism by astrocytes: an update. Glia 55, 1251–1262. 
• Price M, Moss P, Rance S. Effects of sodium bicarbonate ingestion on prolonged intermittent exercise. Med Sci Sports Exerc. 2003 Aug;35(8):1303-8. 
• Portington KJ, Pascoe DD, Webster MJ, Anderson LH, Rutland RR, Gladden LB. Effect of induced alkalosis on exhaustive leg press performance. Med Sci Sports Exerc. 1998 Apr;30(4):523-8.
• Schmidlin O, Tanaka M, Sebastian A, Morris RC Jr. Selective chloride loading is pressor in the stroke-prone spontaneously hypertensive rat despite hydrochlorothiazide-induced natriuresis. J Hypertens. 2010 Jan;28(1):87-94.
• Van Hall G. Lactate as a fuel for mitochondrial respiration. Acta Physiol Scand. 2000 Apr;168(4):643-56.

Maximal Intra- & Post-Workout Fat Oxidation With Pause or 90min LISS Between 2x40min Incremental Exercise Bouts?

Image 1: You better don't even think about losing fat, while you cycle!

As a regular reader of the SuppVersity  you know that I don't believe in the idea of "working out to lose fat", at least not if that implies that you would actually try to burn the fat while you are working out ... yeah, right! I am talking about the hilarious concept of the "fat burning zone". I was still amazed, when I came across a paper that's scheduled for the October issue of Journal of Applied Physiology Nutrition and Metabolism (thanks to my friend Sean Casey from CasePerformance, who helped me out on this one) and investigates the effects of two different modes of what initially looked like a novel torture method and then turned out to be somewhat of a comparison of a twice-a-day cardio-workout, as you could perform it during a contest preparation to make weight and it's evil twin brother.

Train insane... and for nothing?

Enough of those metaphors, let's take a closer look at what the 15 healthy, moderately trained male subjects (age 27.4 +/-1; BMI 23.1; body fat 14.4%; fat free mass 63.7kg) were put through (note: all subjects performed both protocols in random order; see figure 1):

Figure 1: Outline of the study protocol; the two trials differed only with respect to the medial part, where the heavy group kept on working out, while the "light" group waited for their second incremental exercise trial.

I guess I don't have to tell you that the upper path, with the additional light intensity steady state exercise in-between was the "evil twin", while the lower one with "only" two bouts of exercise to the anaerobic threshold (when the respiratory ratio RER reaches RER=1) was the lullaby version.

Image 2: Train hard, but make it smart!

Parenteral, ... ah I mean SuppVersital Advisory: Please don't take any of the results or the whole discussion here as an incentive to perform either of these protocols on a daily basis for the rest of your life - especially if the only thing you are allowed to consume during and in between the trial which started at 7-8AM fasted is water (it should be said that this was an experimental necessity here, as everything else would have skewed the results). If you do, I can guarantee that you will be joining the rest of the pack who's sitting in your Dr's complaining about low thyroid, chronic fatigue, or whatever other self-diagnose people who don't want to admit to themselves that they are overtraining will be en vogue then.

So what do you expect the outcome did look like? No, wrong. None of the subjects collapsed... or at least the scientists don't mention that. And let's be honest it's not impossible. I know a couple of people who still believe they had to exercise the fat away who follow a similar protocol ;-) That said, let's see if that's even worth it - I mean do you really burn fat at all when you exhaust yourself like that?

Figure 2: Fat oxidation during the 40min incremental exercise bouts on the cycle ergometer at the beginning (Incr 1) and end (Incr 2) of the trial (data based on Chenevière. 2013)

As the data in figure 2 shows, the answer is straight forward: YES! You do. And surprisingly much, in fact. This is by the way partly mediated by the surprising effect the 90min of LISS had on the "fat max" exercise intensity which is now, in the 2nd incremental exercise trial (Incr 2) 60.9 % of the VOmax, while it is in the "low intensity" trial with the 90min PAUSE instead of LISS at 56.9%. This may sound bad at first, but if you can go faster without shifting to glucose as your preferred fuel this does obviously allow you to burn more fat - and that's exactly what the subjects did during the heavy trial: They derived 9% more of their total energy expenditure from fat and burned 34% more total fat minute per minute - that this would have been meager 8g even if they had been cycling at that high intensity for the whole 45min incremental exercise bout is yet further evidence of the futility of trying to "exercise the fat away"...

So if you can't burn it while you train, what can you do to burn more after you train?

By now, I guess I will have convinced all of you that you won't get ripped by burning an additional 8g of fat while you work out, but what about this EPOC thingy... I mean that "burn fat after you workout concept", what about that? Does it make sense to literally run around all do to make use of that?

Figure 2: Respiratory exchange ratio (lower values = higher percentage of fatty acids oxidized), lactate and heart rate after the second incremental exercise bout (Incr 2; data based on Chenevière. 2013)

Well, if we are honest, the post-exercise data collected right after the incremental exercise bout # (Incr 2, figure 1) is even more disappointing. Ok, the respiratory exchange ratio is minimally, yet statistically significantly lower, but the heart rate the exertion and the lactate levels are much higher. Plus, you cannot tell me that any sane individual would keep on fasting after this torture and in the very same moment you start eating your the "RER advantage" will be lost, anyway.

Image 3: These abs were not sculpted in the "fat burning one"! Click here to read the original article I used this image with, the "Fat Loss Support Routine" from the Step By Step to Your own Workout Routine guide.

So what's the bottom line, here? Aside from another primer on the fallacy of trying to do more, more and once again more, instead of simply getting your diet in check and sticking to it, to lose weight, there is actually a take home message you could derive from the results of this study: Let's assume that - hypothetically, of course - you got to make weight fast and still have more than enough time to recover after this quick weight loss fix before your performance must be back to it's usual heights. In a situation like this, and only as a short time intervention, the additional total energy expenditure during the 90min of LISS and the increased fat oxidation, combined, would make the "evil twin" protocol, with its 2x incremental exercise regimen interspersed by 90min of relatively light cycling in the fasted state, an option, you could even  improve on by replacing the 2x 45 min bouts with 2x20min of HIIT + 2x10min cool-down and guzzling some non-gluconeogenic BCAAs (max. 10g-15g / 45min) while you are putting yourself through this torturous regimen.

References:

• Chenevière X, Borrani F, Droz D, Gojanovic B, Malatesta D. Effects of 2 different prior endurance exercises on whole-body fat oxidation kinetics: light vs. heavy exercise. Appl Physiol Nutr Metab. 2013 Oct;37(5):955-64.

With Beetroot Juice to the SuperBowl XLVIII: 490ml Beetroot Juice Will do the Ergogenic Trick in Team Sports. Plus: Brief Research Overview to Identify Who Else Will Benefit

There are a couple of important confounding factors which will determine whether or not you or anyone else can benefit from nitrate supplementation. Sex is yet - as far as I know know - not one of them... ah, by the way, there may be other benefits to nitrates that are "sex-specific", but in this case the semantics are somewhat different ;-)

You know that the SuppVersity is all about self-education (hence "-versity" as in University), so what would be better than using the publication of the latest paper on the purported ergogonic effects of nitrates as an incentive to "inform" you about the current state of the research? Sounds good? I would think so. Let's take a look, then. What's this nitrate business all about? Contrary to the argument many supplement vendors have been bringing forward to make muscleheads buy their products, the idea is not to use the vasodilating effects for cosmetic pumps that will make you feel - as Arnold said it - better than you felt last night with your significant other (or whom ever else you may have picked up). It's rather their purported effect on the VO2max, which is the maximal oxygen consumption during a workout and the downstream performance effects that puts scientists on -- scientists like Lee J. Wylie and colleagues from the department of Sport and Health Sciences at the University of Exeter, for example (Wylie. 2013).

The latest on dietary nitrate supplementation: Focus on team sport athletes

The paper we are taking a closer look at today has just been published ahead of print in the European Journal of Applied Physiology and investigated the acute effects 490 mL of concentrated, nitrate-rich beetroot juice (BR) and nitrate-depleted placebo juice (PL) had on the performance of fourteen male recreational team-sport players during a Yo–Yo intermittent recovery level 1 test (Yo–Yo IR1) that was performed ~30h after the ingestion of the purported ergogenic (the Yo-Yo IR1 test has been found to mirror the physical demands encountered during team sports, like soccer, football, basketball, rugby etc petty accurately.; cf. Atkins. 2006; Veale. 2010; Vernillo. 2013).

Would dosages as high as in the study at hand (or even higher) provide similar muscle gains, as they were observed with "real" nitrate in rodents (read more).

A note on the "optimal" dosage: The dosage that was used in the study at hand is equal to  ~29 mmol of nitrate, which is 4x more than the current recommended daily allowance in the UK and 6x more than what was most in the majority of previous. Aside from the subjects' training status, which has emerged as a possible confounding factor determining whether athletes will benefit from the consumption of beet-root juice / dietary nitrates, the dosage, as well as the plasma nitrate response (+400% vs. 50-150% in other trials), which was likewise much higher in the Wiley study than in most previous studies, could thus be another important, if not the most important confounding factor. Whether the "more helps more principle" actually holds, whether athletes need more than normalos and if / at which dosages negative side effects occur will yet still have to be elucidated in future trials.

As it was to be expected, the resting plasma nitrite concentration NO2(-) was ~400 % greater in the active compared to the passive trial of this double-blind, randomized cross-over trial (remember: Cross-over means, all participants completed two tests sessions on seperate occasions, one w/ the active, one with the placebo supplement).

Figure 1: Effects of 490ml beetroot juice on serum NO2/3(-) levels, performance and mean glucose concentration during the Yo-Yo R1 test (Wylie. 2013)

As you will learn from the comprehensive research overview further down, the fact that this increase in plasma NO2(-) did also translate into performance increases, on the other hand, was not really to be expected:

Betaine (TMG) increses IGF-1 & lowers cortisol (read more)

"Plasma [NO2 -] declined by 20 % in PL (P\0.05) and by 54 % in BR (P<0.05) from pre-exercise to end-exercise. Performance in the Yo–Yo IR1 was 4.2 % greater (P<0.05) with BR (1,704±304 m) compared to PL (1,636 ±288 m). Blood [lactate] was not different between BR and PL, but the mean blood [glucose] was lower (3.8 ±0.8 vs. 4.2±1.1 mM,P\0.05) and the rise in plasma [K+] tended to be reduced in BR compared to PL (P=0.08)." (Wylie. 2013)

That being said the study at hand confirms that the consumption of a significant bolus of nitrate with all the natural co-factors in beetroot, i.e. >20 betacyanins + derivatives, 11 betaxanthins, highly bioavailable folate, various carotenoids, and, of course betaine has beneficial ergogenic effects on the performance of recreationally active men (Nemzer. 2011). As we are about to see both, the training status of the subjects, as well as the nutrient combination (or absence of the latter) may be a confounding factor due to which this trial was a success whereas ostensibly similar ones were failures.

How does that stuff actually work?

Before we go over to the comparison phase, let's yet briefly check out what the scientists have to say about the underlying mechanism(s) of the ergogenic effects they observed:

• reduction of NO3(-) to NO2(-) and in (sub-)hypoxic or acidic conditions to NO (nitric oxide) - Based on their data, the researchers speculate that this it is likely that this reduction took place during the Yo-Yo  IR1 test (it''s about as likely in most similar high intensity exercise protocols). Base on previous data from Dreissigacker et al. who found signficantly higher baseline NO3(-) and NO2(-) levels in trained vs. untrained subjects an the results of Totzeck et al., who found that baseline NO2(-) correlates with lactate threshold and predicts exercise capacity during an incremental cycle test in highly trained athletes, Wiley and his colleagues argue that it is more than likely that the ability to produce more NO quasi 'on demand' is the underlying cause of the performance increases (Dreissigacker. 2010, Totzeck. 2013).
• dietary nitrate supplementation can protect the phosphocreatine (PCr) stores from being depleted - With PCr being the most readily available energy source for short burst activities like sprinting the preservation of the PCr stores (similar to their "supercharging" via supplemental creatine; click here to learn all about creatine supplementation) would certainly explain why the nitrate supplement delay, what the scientists label as "the attainment of a ‘critical’ intramuscular environment"  and would thus "extend the tolerable duration of high-intensity constant-work-rate exercise". This hyptothesis woul be supporte by the fact that NO increases skeletal muscle glucose uptake, the correspondingly lower blood glucose levels the researchers observed in the active arm of the study and the fact that readily available glucose will spare the PCr stores.
• decreased leakage of K+ (potassium) from the muscle - As the post hoc analysis revealed significantly lover plasma K+ levels during the beetroot juice condition of this double-blind ranomized cross-over study after 600 m of the test, a third mechanism by which the supplementation protocol could have postponed fatigue would thus be the preservation of the electrical potential which is established by the distribution of K and Na ions inside, respectively outside of the muscle cell.
• increased oxidative capacity and consequent glucose sparing - Previous rodent studies have shown that nitrate supplementation increases blood flow and oxygenation of the muscle, the latter could translate into faster recovery of the glycogen content of the muscles in the short recovery phase.
• increased force production due to increased sarcoplasmic reticulum calcium release and force production - The increase in force would likewise have an energy sparing effect as it would mean that at a given exercise intensity (in watts) a lower number of muscle fibers would have to be recruited to get the job done. As with the previous information on the oxygenation of the muscle, this is yet based on observations in rodents and warrants verification in human studies.

Irrespective of the underlying mechanisms, it's likewise necessary to put them into perspective before we freak out and start raving about a new "superstar supplement" being born. After all, the effect size was significant, but comparably modest. A 2011 study by Mohr et al. for example observed a +16% performance increase after the ingestion of 6mg/kg caffeine in a subsequent Yo–Yo IR2 test (Mohr. 2011) and the effect simple training (i.e. +29% for sprint-endurance training; cf. Mohr. 2007) has on the perfomance in the same test, is likewise nothing to sneeze at.

So what did previous studies show?

As I have already hinted at in the red infobox a couple of paragraphs above, the dosage alone may explain why Wiley et al. did observe beneficial effects of nitrate / beetroot juice supplementation, while previous studies have shown very mixed results. Two other factors, I have highlighted in the following mini-overview (in bold and w/ an underline) that are probably relevant, are the training status of the study participants and the duration of the supplementation:

The combination of beta-alanine an baking soda (esp. the latter) may serve as a viable alternative for those trainees who are "too advanced" for nitrates to do the trick (read more)

You should by now be aware that orally ingested arginine does not induce significant NO boosts or performance increases, but did you know that it could help you get shredded? (read more)

• recreationally active and trained but sub-elite subjects, short-term dietary nitrate supplementation: 
• increased exercise tolerance at a fixed sub-maximal work rate (Bailey. 2009, 2010; Lansley. 2011b)
• increased power output during self-paced endurance exercise leading to improved cycle time-trial performance (Cermak.2013a; Lansley. 2011a).
• well-trained subjects (details in brackets) short-term dietary nitrate supplementation:
• higher mean power output in HIIT 6 x 500m rowing trial (rowers, Bond. 2013)
• little / no effect in endurance trained athletes in their respective disciplines (Besco. 2013; Cermak. 2013b; Christensen. 2013; Peacock. 2013; Wilkerson. 2013) 
•  recreationally active no regular, planned exercise, regimen chronic nitrate supplementation:
• reduced BP and the O₂ cost of submaximal exercise are maintained over 15d supplementation period (Vanhatalo. 2010)

The number of studies investigating the long-term effects of nitrate supplementation is to low to make a definite statement about whether or not it may be likely that short-term supplementation studies, in the course of which the researchers did not observe any ergogenic benefits of supplemental nitrate, would have yielded different results, if the supplementation had lasted for a couple of days or weeks.

Did you know that the scientists adjusted the comparatively high dosage of dietary nitrate the subjects received in the study at hand to the levels you would get, if you followed the anti-hypertensive DASH (Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension) diet? Obviously not an there is a good reason I am telling you that, 'cause this means that a paleo-ish high greens diet could in fact bring your nitrate levels into the same range as those of the subjects in the active trial of the study at hand - without having to spend a single buck on extra supplements, of course.

Nevertheless, the results Vanhatalo et al. present, namely that the effects persist in recreationally active subjects over 15 days of continuous supplementation, do actually stand in line with the hypothesis that the low / non-existent response in highly trained athletes could be due to their higher baseline NO3(-) and NO2(-) levels. I have invoked the latter in the discussion of the possible beneficial effects of NO generation in the previous discussion of the underlying mechanisms, already. If we assume that there is some sort of a saturation level and/or at least a logarithmic response to nitrate supplementation, where high baseline levels require even higher amounts of supplemental NO3(-) in order to bump the levels further up, we would have to conclude that

• highly trained athletes won't benefit from nitrate supplementation at all, because their blood NO3(-) levels are "saturated" and don't respond to supplementation
• highly trained athletes need way more nitrate to see a minimal increase in their NO3(-) levels

If the former was the case, nitrate supplementation would not make sense at all for highly trained athletes, if the latter was the case, it could produce benefits, but those would be much less pronounced than those observed in the study at hand or similar studies with recreationally active or even previously sedentary individuals.

Bottom line: I seriously can't tell you whether you will see significant performance increases from dietary nitrate supplementation. Unfortunately, especially those of you for whom even small increases in performance count, namely people with years of training under their belt, are probably the ones who benefit least. That being said, nitrates are probably not going to make it into the SuppVersity "must have" supplement list (read more about those in Part II of my recent interview w/ Sean Casey). The fact that they can have ergogenic effects, especially for HIIT and other "endurance-like" exercises with non-aerobic elements in themm is yet obviously indisputable. Whether they are worth the money effective dosages would cost you is yet highly questionable.... When I think about all the rest of purported ergogenics you can buy all over the Internet, a nitrate supplement or a 6-pack of beetroot juice are yet probably still better investments than 90% of the other "auxiliary" revenue,... ah pardon me, I mean "performance enhancers" the supplement market has to offer  ;-)


References:

• Atkins SJ. Performance of the Yo–Yo intermittent recovery test by elite professional and semiprofessional rugby league players. J Strength Cond Res. 2006; 20:222–225
• Bailey SJ, Winyard P, Vanhatalo A, Blackwell JR, DiMenna FJ, Wilkerson DP, Tarr J, Benjamin N, Jones AM. Dietary nitrate supplementation reduces the O2 cost of low-intensity exercise and enhances tolerance to high-intensity exercise in humans. J Appl Physiol. 2009; 107:1144–1155.
• Besco´s R, Ferrer-Roca V, Galilea PA, Roig A, Drobnic F, Sureda A, Martorell M, Cordova A, Tur JA, Pons A. Sodium nitrate supplementation does not enhance performance of endurance athletes. Med Sci Sports Exerc. 2013; 44:2400–2409. 
• Bailey SJ, Fulford J, Vanhatalo A, Winyard PG, Blackwell JR, DiMenna FJ, Wilkerson DP, Benjamin N, Jones AM. Dietary nitrate supplementation enhances muscle contractile efficiency during knee-extensor exercise in humans. J Appl Physiol. 2010; 109:135–148.
• Bond H, Morton L, Braakhuis AJ. Dietary nitrate supplementation improves rowing performance in well-trained rowers. Int J Sport Nutr Exerc Metab. 2013; 22:251–256.
• Christensen PM, Nyberg M, Bangsbo J. Influence of nitrate supplementation on VO(2) kinetics and endurance of elite Cyclists. Scand J Med Sci Sports. 2013. 23:e21–e31
• Cermak NM, Gibala MJ, van Loon LJ. Nitrate supplemen-tation’s improvement of 10-km time-trial performance in trained cyclists. Int J Sport Nutr Exerc Metab. 2013a; 22:64–71.
• Cermak NM, Res P, Stinkens R, Lundberg JO, Gibala MJ, van Loon L JC. No improvement in endurance performance following a single dose of beetroot juice. Int J Sport Nutr Exerc Metab. 2013b; 22:470–478.
• Dreissigacker U, Wendt M, Wittke T, Tsikas D, Maassen N. Positive correlation between plasma nitrite and performance during high-intensive exercise but not oxidative stress in healthy men. Nitric Oxide; 2010; 23:128–135
• Iaia FM, Thomassen M, Kolding H, Gunnarsson T, Wendell J, Rostgaard T, Nordsborg N, Krustrup P, Nybo L, Hellsten Y, Bangsbo J. Reduced volume but increased training intensity elevates muscle Na(-)–K(+) pump alpha1-subunit and NHE1 expression as well as short-term work capacity in humans. Am J Physiol Regul Integr Comp Physiol  2008; 294:R966–R974.
• Lansley KE, Winyard PG, Bailey SJ, Vanhatalo A, Wilkerson DP, Blackwell JR, Gilchrist M, Benjamin N, Jones AM. Acute dietary nitrate supplementation improves cycling time trial performance. Med Sci Sports Exerc. 2011a; 43:1125–1131
• Lansley KE, Winyard PG, Fulford J, Vanhatalo A, Bailey SJ, Blackwell JR, DiMenna FJ, Gilchrist M, Benjamin N, Jones AM. Dietary nitrate supplementation reduces the O2 cost of walking and running: a placebo-controlled study. J Appl Physiol. 2011b; 110:591–600.
• Mohr M, Krustrup P, Nielsen JJ, Nybo L, Rasmussen MK, Juel C, Bangsbo J. Effect of two different intense training regimens on skeletal muscle ion transport proteins and fatigue development. Am J Physiol Regul Integr Comp Physiol. 2007; 292:R1594–R1602
• Mohr M, Nielsen JJ, Bangsbo J. Caffeine intake improves intense intermittent exercise performance and reduces muscle interstitial potassium accumulation. J Appl Physiol. 2011; 111:1372– 1379.
• Nemzer B, Pietrzkowski C, Spórna A, Stalica P, Thresher W, Michałowski T, Wybraniee, S. Betalainic and nutritional profiles of pigment-enriched red beet root (Beta vulgaris L.) dried extracts. Food Chemistry. 2011; 127:42–53. 
• Peacock O, Tjønna AE, James P, Wisløff U, Welde B, Bo¨hlke N, Smith A, Stokes K, Cook C, Sandbakk O. Dietary nitrate does not enhance running performance in elite cross-country skiers. Med Sci Sports Exerc. 2013; 44:2213–2219. 
• Totzeck M, Hendgen-Cotta UB, Rammos C, Frommke LM, Knack-stedt C, Predel HG, Kelm M, Rassaf T. Higher endog-enous nitrite levels are associated with superior exercise capacity in highly trained athletes. Nitric Oxide. 2013; 27:75–81
• Vanhatalo A, Bailey SJ, Blackwell JR, DiMenna FJ, Pavey TG, Wilkerson DP, Benjamin N, Winyard PG, Jones AM. Acute and chronic effects of dietary nitrate supplementation on blood pressure and the physiological responses to moderate-intensity and incremental exercise. Am J Physiol Regul Integr Comp Physiol. 2010; 299:R1121–R1131
• Veale JP, Pearce AJ, Carlson JS. The Yo–Yo intermittent recovery test (level 1) to discriminate elite junior Australian football players. J Sci Med Sport. 2010;  13:329–331.  
• Vernillo G, Silvestri A, Torre AL. The Yo–Yo intermittent recovery test in junior basketball players according to performance level and age group. J Strength Cond Res. 2013; 26:2490–2494.
• Wilkerson DP, Hayward GM, Bailey SJ, Vanhatalo A, Blackwell JR, Jones AM. Influence of acute dietary nitrate supplemen-tation on 50 mile time trial performance in well-trained cyclists. Eur J Appl Physiol. 2013; 112:4127–4134. 
• Wylie LJ, Mohr M, Krustrup P, Jackman SR, Ermιdis G, Kelly J, Black MI, Bailey SJ, Vanhatalo A, Jones AM. Dietary nitrate supplementation improves team sport-specific intense intermittent exercise performance. Eur J Appl Physiol. 2013 Feb 1.