Early in 2025, there was a buzz beginning to grow in the running and endurance sports world where elite athletes were posting races and workouts across social media platforms tagged with the broccoli emoji. Go to a race and you’d likely find these in-the-know performers green juice from small glass bottles a few hours before the start time, but this isn’t just any green smoothie from the trendy local juice bar.

Very quickly, followers and disciples of the sport came to learn of Nomio, the little bottles that were powering some of the world’s fastest times. Perhaps what surprised people the most was not simply the performances, but the ingredient that was key to Nomio: Broccoli. 

What began in scientific labs in Sweden quickly grew, becoming available for the elite and serious recreational athlete alike, landing at Runlimited in the early Autumn of 2025. Next week, we shall be kick starting our Session Series for the Autumn alongside Nomio, so what better way to take a deep dive into all things Nomio than to sit down with Evan Jager, American Record Holder, Olympic and World Championship medallist in the steeplechase, and Nomio’s Head of Athlete Relations.

“Nomio is a performance and recovery, enhancing shot made from broccoli sprouts, a bit of lemon and sugar added to make it taste a little better” Evan tells me, referring to the make up of each bottle.

It all seems very simple, so how could this even help runners seeking the limits of their performance? “All the benefits come from broccoli sprouts, and it actually does lots of different things that are beneficial for the body. Specifically for endurance and sport, you get performance benefits to help you run faster and feel a little bit easier, and then there are also a number of recovery benefits that help you feel better for the next session or a race.” 

Think of broccoli sprouts, essentially, as extremely young broccoli plants before they become the full-grown florets we’d find in the local Tescos. They contain high concentrations of ITC, or Isothiocyanates, which, Evan explains, is the active compound that creates all of the benefits. He outlines how studies have shown ITC to reduce lactate (a compound closely associated with the burn of high intensity running) by 12%; reduces oxidative stress by 10%; and stabilises blood glucose levels during training. “I kind of think of the effects like super shoes in a bottle. It makes every workout a little bit easier, and it's easier on the body. So you come off of that workout feeling better and it allows you to get more out of training for the next day.”

For those of us that eat our greens, couldn’t we just eat a bit more broccoli with our meal every evening? It’s not quite that simple. In the research conducted by the team in Sweden, it highlights how ITC is specifically found in the highest concentrations in the sprouts. In fact, each single sprout contains as much ITC as a fully grown head of the vegetable; you’d have to eat three kilos of broccoli to gain the same effect. Somehow, I don’t think my stomach would handle that much before any kind of training or racing…

"I like to think of Nomio as super shoes in a bottle, helping you to run faster on the day and recover better on top of that" - Evan Jager

Speaking to Evan, he is very clear in how Nomio has built its brand around performance and through working with elite-level athletes, including them bringing him on to continue to develop partnerships with some of the best in the world. But he also emphasises that this kind of product is not simply the realm of Olympians and World-level competitors like himself: “Everyone has to deal with fatigue. Everyone has to deal with super high heart rates at the end of a race. Elites aren’t the only ones dealing with those things.” Nomio is aimed towards everyone looking to optimise their performance, whether at the Olympics in the middle-distances or someone running a marathon for a PB.

In his career, Evan tackled distances from 1500m to 5000m at the highest levels, so he all too well knows the burning feeling that comes at the end of shorter races, exactly what Nomio is designed to aid. But now he’s also exploring longer races, aiming for a marathon very soon. How about the benefits of the little green shots for those road racing distances? Jager notes that, yes, there is definitely the accumulation of lactate in the marathon that causes a drop in performance, and thus makes Nomio a good tool to add to training and racing, but the benefits go beyond that: “Specifically for the marathon, Nomio’s benefits come from the reduced oxidative stress, meaning you'll fatigue later in the race. Another big one is ITC’s effects on creating more stable blood glucose levels. More stable glucose equals higher amounts of glucose throughout the entire course of a marathon that means the body can provide more fuel for the muscles.”

Skeptics could look at the supplement and performance fuel space and believe that there are simply too many options that haven’t proven to benefit athletes over the years, bold claims that haven’t been backed up by evidence. And as an athlete, Evan has surely seen a few of these. So why should Nomio be any different? “I used it my last year of training and racing as a professional athlete, and the thing that sold me the most was that I got to speak with the head researcher to learn everything about Nomio and just how beneficial it can be for athletes. I got pretty excited from that conversation, and before I took the job, they gave me some extra Nomio, so that I could do my own testing”. 

He then took this idea and conducted the same set of sessions both with, and without, Nomio, even controlling for the food he ate before each, the sleep and the training leading into each session. The results were measurably better: lower Heart Rate, lower blood-lactate readings, and crucially the feeling that things were easier.  “I knew that I was going to be promoting this product to my peers within the sport, and I didn't want my reputation to be tied to something sketchy or something that didn't work, so I needed to be 100% sure!”

For us mere mortals, the best way to utilise Nomio, according to the science, is to utilise it regularly for your harder training sessions and races. Each session being easier on the body leads to the same gains with less fatigue, which adds up to a whole lot more fitness over time. There is no loading time, either, meaning you don’t have to build up to using Nomio before running, you can simply take a dose 3-hours prior to training or racing to maximise benefits.

Join us every Wednesday evening at 7:00pm for the Session Series, sponsored by Nomio. Each week, coaches Scott and Liam will lead the group through a structured training session for you to explore your limits of performance.