Each few years, a brand new sports activities drink, gadget or shoe bursts onto the scene, promising to revolutionize endurance efficiency. Enter oxygenated water—marketed as a efficiency booster for runners and cyclists alike. The idea sounds superb—extra oxygen in your water equals extra oxygen in your blood, which suggests sooner instances and stronger legs. However earlier than you swap your traditional hydration routine for this so-called magic elixir, let’s take a better take a look at what science really says.
Can oxygenated water enhance athletic efficiency? On this weblog, @NBTiller and I talk about findings from a research exhibiting oxygenated water improves biking efficiency… Learn right here: https://t.co/QPFqrbCatN pic.twitter.com/Welzl2IMEt
— Asker Jeukendrup (@Jeukendrup) February 19, 2025
An enormous declare from a small research
Oxygenated water has been round for years, promising every little thing from higher endurance to sooner restoration. (Whereas each have bubbles, oxygenated water differs from the favored carbonated water you purchase on the grocery retailer, with one containing dissolved oxygen, and the opposite containing dissolved carbon dioxide.) Many of the fancy (and sometimes expensive) oxygenated merchandise depend on fancy advertising and marketing and wishful pondering. However lately, a brand new research made waves, claiming that an “oxygen-nanobubble beverage” might increase biking efficiency by 2.4 per cent and dash energy by a whopping 7.1 per cent. On paper, these numbers are enormous. However ought to all of us begin stocking up?
Too good to be true?
Earlier than tossing your cash at bottled bubbles, it’s price asking: what does the analysis say? In accordance with Asker Jeukendrup, a sports activities diet researcher and educator, and Nick Tiller, an train scientist and researcher at Harbor-UCLA, who fastidiously reviewed the research, this single paper goes towards a protracted line of research that discovered zero advantages from oxygenated water. When a single research contradicts years of analysis, it raises a pink flag. If it contradicted previous analysis with sturdy proof and believable science, that could be thrilling. However on this case, the reason simply doesn’t maintain water.
The science downside
Right here’s the massive query: how would consuming oxygen enhance efficiency? We breathe in oxygen via our lungs, not via our stomachs. The research’s authors level to an animal research suggesting the intestines would possibly take up oxygen—however no human research have ever confirmed this in significant quantities. In reality, the mathematics exhibits that even when tiny quantities had been absorbed, the power acquire could be so small it wouldn’t allow you to run greater than a metre. Much more suspicious: dash efficiency supposedly improved, however sprints rely totally on anaerobic power, not oxygen.
The placebo impact is actual
If the science doesn’t again it up, what explains the outcomes? Possible perception. When athletes suppose they’re consuming one thing that can assist, efficiency usually improves—not due to the product itself, however due to mindset. The authors of the paper point out placebo in passing, however it’s most likely essentially the most believable clarification for these head-scratching outcomes.
A battle of curiosity?
There’s one other twist: the research was funded by Avrox, the corporate that sells the oxygenated beverage. Whereas company-funded research can nonetheless be official, it’s unimaginable to disregard this issue when huge claims aren’t backed by sturdy science—particularly when the corporate’s web site additionally makes exaggerated guarantees.
The takeaway
Hey, I really like bubbles in my water as a lot as anybody, however I’ll stick with the cheap (CO2) sort. In the event you just like the style or be ok with consuming oxygenated water, go for it—simply know you’re seemingly paying for perception, not a efficiency increase. For an actual edge on the competitors, you’re higher off sticking to strong coaching, good diet and perhaps just a little caffeine. The science on these is hermetic.