Key Takeaways
- Beet root and muscle growth do not seem to go hand in hand in this new study, even though beetroot remains useful for heart and blood vessel health.
- Participants gained muscle and got stronger from resistance training itself, whether they used beetroot juice or not.
- The wider research on beetroot juice before workout use, beetroot juice for bodybuilding, and beetroot pre workout benefits suggests real value for blood flow and endurance, but not much support for greater muscle gains.
Beet Root and Muscle Growth
Nitric oxide supplements have long been believed to contribute to muscle growth by improving blood flow and helping more nutrients reach muscle tissue. That idea has made beetroot especially popular in the fitness world, because beetroot has a strong body of evidence showing it can support cardiovascular health. It may help blood vessels relax and, in some people, reduce blood pressure or improve circulation.
Because of that, many people assumed beetroot would also help with muscle gains. It is easy to see why. If more blood reaches the muscle, then more nutrients could theoretically get there too. On paper, that sounds like a win for lifters.
That is exactly why this new study matters.
In a 2026 paper published in the American Journal of Physiology, McIntosh and colleagues tested whether beetroot juice could improve muscle growth, strength, and blood vessel function when combined with 12 weeks of resistance training in middle-aged and older adults. The idea was simple: if beetroot improves blood flow, maybe it also improves the training response.
But that is not what happened.
The researchers found that the training program worked well, but the beetroot juice did not add anything meaningful for muscle size or strength. That matters for anyone interested in beet root and muscle growth, especially people buying nitric oxide products in hopes of getting more size from their workouts.
At the same time, this is not a hit piece on beetroot. The bigger picture still shows potential beetroot pre workout benefits, particularly for circulation and exercise performance in certain settings. Likewise, many people still use beetroot juice before workout sessions because they feel it helps them train with more energy or less fatigue. Still, when it comes to beetroot juice for bodybuilding, this new study offers an important reality check.
Beet Root and Muscle Growth: Review of the Literature
Before getting into the study, it helps to understand why beetroot got so much attention in the first place.
Beetroot is rich in dietary nitrate. After you consume it, your body can convert that nitrate into nitric oxide, which helps your blood vessels relax and widen. This process can improve blood flow, which is why beetroot has been studied so often for heart health and exercise performance.
That part of the story is fairly well supported. Research shows that nitrate-rich foods and supplements can help lower blood pressure and improve vascular function in certain populations. This is one reason interest in beetroot juice before workout use has grown so much. Many lifters and athletes are not just chasing a pump. They are hoping for better circulation and improved performance.
Some studies have also linked higher nitrate intake from vegetables with better muscle function, especially in older adults. Short-term studies have shown improvements in power output, fatigue resistance, or exercise efficiency in certain conditions.
However, there is an important distinction here: better blood flow or short-term performance improvements do not automatically lead to more muscle growth over time.
That is where the evidence becomes less convincing.
A systematic review by Anderson and colleagues (2022) found that nitrate supplementation shows mixed results for muscle strength and mass. Similarly, Gonzalez and colleagues (2023) concluded that nitric oxide-related supplements may influence some aspects of performance, but they do not consistently improve strength outcomes.
Research in older populations also reflects this uncertainty. Some studies suggest nitric oxide-related strategies may support general function or vascular health, but the evidence for increasing muscle size remains limited.
So even before this new study, the broader literature suggested that beet root and muscle growth might not be as strongly connected as many people believe.
What the Study Did
McIntosh and colleagues recruited 28 healthy but untrained men and women between 40 and 70 years of age. Their average age was 56 years. The researchers split them into two groups:
- One group drank 140 milliliters of beetroot juice per day, providing about 800 milligrams of nitrate
- The other group drank a placebo beetroot juice that looked and tasted the same but contained almost no nitrate
For international readers, 800 milligrams is 0.8 grams, and 140 milliliters is a little under 5 fluid ounces.
Both groups followed the same supervised full-body resistance training program for 12 weeks. They trained twice per week and performed exercises such as deadlifts, chest press, leg press, leg extension, leg curl, and pulldowns. The program used progressive overload, meaning the challenge increased over time as the participants adapted.
Before and after the study, the researchers measured:
- whole-body lean mass
- muscle size in the thigh
- strength using a hex-bar deadlift test
- strength endurance
- blood vessel function using flow-mediated dilation
- muscle tissue changes through biopsy samples
This was not a quick gym experiment. The researchers looked at body composition, performance, vascular function, and even muscle tissue. That makes it a valuable study for anyone curious about beet root and muscle growth rather than just temporary gym effects.
It also gives us a better way to judge popular claims around beetroot juice before workout use. A lot of people assume that if a supplement improves blood flow before a session, then it must also improve long-term gains. This study was designed to test that exact idea. It is also highly relevant to people interested in beetroot juice for bodybuilding, because it looked at training outcomes that bodybuilders actually care about. And while the study was not designed as a pure performance trial, it still gives us a more realistic view of real-world beetroot pre workout benefits across 12 weeks of training.
Results
Muscle Growth Improved, but Beetroot Did Not Improve It Further
Both groups gained lean mass and increased muscle size over the 12 weeks. That tells us the training program worked.
However, the beetroot juice group did not gain more muscle than the placebo group.
That is the key finding.
Even though beetroot is often marketed as a supplement that could improve nutrient delivery to muscle, it did not lead to greater muscle growth in this study. For people focused on beet root and muscle growth, that is the main point to remember.
Strength Improved, but Beetroot Did Not Help
The same pattern showed up with strength.
Both groups got stronger. Their lifting performance improved over the course of the program, which is exactly what you would expect from consistent resistance training.
But the beetroot group was not stronger than the placebo group at the end of the study.
So once again, the training worked. The supplement did not add anything extra. That finding matters for anyone using beetroot juice for bodybuilding with the goal of building more strength over time.
Blood Vessel Function Improved in Both Groups
Blood vessel function improved during the study, which is a positive outcome.
However, the improvement occurred in both groups. Beetroot did not significantly outperform the placebo in improving flow-mediated dilation in this setting.
It is important to note that this does not mean beetroot has no vascular benefits. Other studies have shown that it can improve blood pressure and circulation. In this specific training context, though, the added effect was not significant.
Muscle-Level Findings Showed No Real Advantage
The researchers also looked inside the muscle for signs that beetroot might be improving the training response at a deeper level.
They measured muscle fiber size, small blood vessels inside the muscle, and proteins linked to growth and blood vessel development.
There were no meaningful differences between groups.
That matters because it weakens the argument that beetroot was helping behind the scenes in a way basic strength tests missed. If that were happening, you would expect at least some sign of it in the tissue analysis.
There was not.
Beet Root and Muscle Growth: Discussion
This is where the study becomes really useful for lifters, coaches, and gym-goers.
A lot of supplement marketing is built around a simple idea: more blood flow equals more muscle growth.
It sounds good. It is easy to believe. And to be fair, there is some logic behind it. Better blood flow can support oxygen delivery, waste removal, and nutrient transport. That may help performance in some situations, especially during endurance work or repeated efforts. That is also why people keep talking about beetroot pre workout benefits and why beetroot juice before workout has become such a common search term.
But muscle growth is more complicated than that.
Building muscle depends mainly on hard training, progressive overload, enough food, enough protein, and enough recovery. Blood flow matters, but it is not the main driver. This study shows that even when people took beetroot every day, they did not build more muscle or get stronger than the placebo group.
That finding fits with the broader literature.
Anderson and colleagues concluded that evidence for muscle mass and strength gains remains limited. Gonzalez and colleagues also noted that nitric oxide precursor supplements may affect some aspects of exercise performance, but they do not consistently improve strength outcomes. Other recent work has suggested there may be benefits in certain populations or exercise tasks, but not a strong, reliable effect on long-term muscle gain.
So the story seems to be this:
- beetroot may help blood flow
- it may help certain types of exercise performance in some people
- but it does not seem to reliably increase muscle growth or strength
That distinction matters, especially for beetroot juice for bodybuilding claims. A good pump is not the same thing as a better long-term training outcome. Feeling more blood in the muscle during a workout may feel productive, but it does not guarantee greater size or strength later on.
Conclusion
Beetroot deserves credit for what it does well. It can support blood vessel health, may help lower blood pressure, and in some settings it may improve aspects of exercise performance.
But this new study by McIntosh and colleagues makes one thing very clear: although beetroot is great for heart and vascular health, it does not appear to help muscle growth or strength in the way many people assume.
The participants in this study got stronger and gained muscle because they followed a solid resistance training program. The beetroot juice did not add anything meaningful to that result.
That is an important message because it separates what sounds good in theory from what actually shows up in a well-run training study.
If your goal is bigger muscles and more strength, keep your attention on training, food, and recovery. There may be real beetroot pre workout benefits, and there may still be reasons to use beetroot juice before workout depending on your goals. There is also room for discussion around beetroot juice for bodybuilding when the goal is exercise support rather than muscle gain itself. But when it comes to beet root and muscle growth, the evidence from this study is pretty clear: beetroot may help your circulation, but it is not the missing link for muscle gains.
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