Andrew M Jones is Professor of Applied Physiology at the University of Exeter, UK, where he was formerly Head of Sport and Health Sciences and Associate Dean for Research and Impact in the College of Life and Environmental Sciences. Prof Jones received his Ph.D. in Exercise Physiology from the University of Brighton, after which he completed a postdoctoral research fellowship in respiratory physiology at the University of California, Los Angeles. Prof Jones is internationally recognized for his expertise in the following areas: 1) control of, and limitations to, human skeletal muscle oxidative metabolism; 2) causes of exercise intolerance in health and disease; 3) respiratory physiology, particularly the kinetics of pulmonary gas exchange during exercise; and 4) sports performance physiology and nutrition. The Jones lab combines non-invasive (pulmonary gas exchange, magnetic resonance spectroscopy, near infra-red spectrometry) and invasive (blood and skeletal muscle sampling) techniques to investigate the limitations to sustainable exercise across the spectrum of human capabilities. Prof Jones has published >300 peer-reviewed scientific articles with >23K citations, h-index of 80 and i10 of 284 (Google Scholar). Jones is a Fellow of ACSM, BASES, ECSS and the Physiological Society. He is Editor-in-Chief of the European Journal of Sport Science and a member of the editorial boards of several other leading journals in the exercise sciences. As a former international-level runner, Prof Jones has a keen interest in the translation of sports science research to aid elite sports performance and he has served as a consultant to UK Athletics, the English Institute of Sport and Nike Inc.

On this episode:

• The effects of nitrate ingestion in humans
• “Nitrate-nitrite to Nitric oxide” pathway
• Dietary sources of nitrates and bioavailability
• Variability in responses to nitrate ingestion
• The role of bacteria in nitrate conversion to nitrite
• Effects on exercise performance
• Benefits for cyclists
• Human muscle nitrate stores
• Ergogenic doses and supplementation protocols
• Claimed vs. actual content of nitrates in sports supplements
• Trained vs. untrained individuals
• Nitrates and altitude training camps
• Co-ingestion with other supplements
• Take home messages
  

Articles mentioned during the episode:

Bailey, S. J., Winyard, P., Vanhatalo, A., Blackwell, J. R., DiMenna, F. J., Wilkerson, D. P., … & Jones, A. M. (2009). Dietary nitrate supplementation reduces the O2 cost of low-intensity exercise and enhances tolerance to high-intensity exercise in humans. Journal of applied physiology.

Vanhatalo, A., Bailey, S. J., Blackwell, J. R., DiMenna, F. J., Pavey, T. G., Wilkerson, D. P., … & Jones, A. M. (2010). Acute and chronic effects of dietary nitrate supplementation on blood pressure and the physiological responses to moderate-intensity and incremental exercise. American Journal of Physiology-Regulatory, Integrative and Comparative Physiology, 299(4), R1121-R1131.

Lansley, K. E., Winyard, P. G., Bailey, S. J., Vanhatalo, A., Wilkerson, D. P., Blackwell, J. R., … & Jones, A. M. (2011). Acute dietary nitrate supplementation improves cycling time trial performance. Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise, 43(6), 1125-1131.

Lorenzo Calvo, J., Alorda-Capo, F., Pareja-Galeano, H., & Jiménez, S. L. (2020). Influence of nitrate supplementation on endurance cyclic sports performance: A systematic review. Nutrients, 12(6), 1796.

Rojas-Valverde, D., Montoya-Rodríguez, J., Azofeifa-Mora, C., & Sanchez-Urena, B. (2020). Effectiveness of beetroot juice derived nitrates supplementation on fatigue resistance during repeated-sprints: a systematic review. Critical Reviews in Food Science and Nutrition, 1-12.