Julie Downs

Professor Bowman

SNT 161 01 Sports Nutrition

28 February 2018

Caffeine and Athletic Performance.

Athletes are always looking for new and useful ways to improve their performance.

Either by trying a new work out regimes, taking different supplements, changing their nutritional

intake, and the list goes on. However, with these constantly changing and evolving it can become

a slippery slope when trying to find something that is useful to the athlete. A common legal drug

that is being used by athletes is caffeine. This is a natural stimulant that triggers a response from

the brain and central nervous system. With this it helps create a greater state of alertness and

stops or delays the onset of tiredness. Caffeine comes in many forms such as tea, coffee, and

chocolate but can also be found as an oral supplement. With this in mind, I set off to explore this

topic and see what benefits come from the use of caffeine in relation to athletic performance.

When brainstorming a topic, I was not entirely sure what I wanted to do. Many ideas

crossed my mind but none of them seemed to interest me enough. However, being the avid

coffee-drinker that I am I had previously researched to see what benefits caffeine provided.

Amongst its many advantages, enhanced sport performance was one of them. This had stuck

with me and I have been eager to find out more to see if this was actually true.

In beginning of my research journey, I had started on the Seton Hill library website. This

will help ensure that my sources will be scientific, scholarly, and peer reviewed. I was having a

difficult time finding useful articles but after I made my way through the websites and analyzed

the texts very closely I had complied four enlightening studies. The articles I had found are;
“Combined caffeine and carbohydrate ingestion: effects on nocturnal sleep and exercise

performance in athletes”, “The influence of caffeine ingestion on strength and power

performance in female team-sport players,” “Caffeine Improves Athletic Performance among

Division II Collegiate Swimmers,” and “The effects of different doses of caffeine on

performance, rating of perceived exertion and pain perception in teenage female karate athletes.”

By completing my research, I was able to come to a conclusion whether or not caffeine is

effective in enhancing athletic performance.

Looking at the first article, “Combined caffeine and carbohydrate ingestion: effects on

nocturnal sleep and exercise performance in athletes,” it conducted its investigation using six

cyclists/triathletes in a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled crossover trial. Each

participant completed an afternoon training session followed by a cycling time trial. The caffeine

was administered both one hour prior to and forty minutes into the time trial. This experiment

resulted in all athletes improving their time trials with a decrease in their perceived exertion and

heart rate. Overall the study concluded that caffeine does have performance-enhancing effects.

The second article, “The influence of caffeine ingestion on strength and power

performance in female team-sport players,” conducted its study using ten healthy female team-

sport players taking oral contraceptive steroids in a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled

crossover trial. Participants ingested a caffeine capsule one hour before a ninety-minute treadmill

workout. This study resulted in an increase in eccentric strength and power in the female

athletes.

In analyzing the third article, “Caffeine Improves Athletic Performance among Division

II Collegiate Swimmers,” it took thirty division II collegiate swimmers and conducted a single-

blind, crossover study to see the effects of caffeine on their short distance swim trials. The
swimmers took vegan capsules containing the caffeine dose thirty minutes prior to completing a

50-yard time trial. The study concluded that the time trials had significantly improved with the

caffeine supplementation.

The final article, “The effects of different doses of caffeine on performance, rating of

perceived exertion and pain perception in teenage female karate athletes,” took ten female karate

athletes in a double-blind, randomized, and crossover counterbalanced study to assess the effects

of caffeine on performance, rating of perceived exertion and pain perception. The study used

three trials under the same environmental conditions. On the first session, players ingested

2mg/kg caffeine provided in gelatin capsules. For the second session, the participants ingested

placebo capsules filled with the same amount of dextrose to avoid identification. During the last

session, players ingested 5 mg/kg caffeine. Training sessions with an interval of seven days were

then performed. Due to the fact that it was repeatedly reported that blood caffeine concentration

peaks 30-60 min after ingestion the capsules were ingested 60 min before the testing protocol.

After several days of testing it was found that when caffeine is ingested, at a moderate dose, the

rating of perceived exertion took a significant drop and pain perception values decreased.

However, it appeared there was no improvement in performance.

Overall this was an extremely interesting project. I hope to work with athletes in the

future so I believe it is extremely important to stay up to date with all this information. I love

discovering and learning from research and I am glad this assignment gave me the opportunity to

do so. Based on the information presented from the study, I can conclude that caffeine is

effective in enhancing athletic performance.

 Works Cited.

Arazi, Hamid, Hoseinihaji, Marzieh, & Eghbali, Ehsan. (2016). The effects of different

doses of caffeine on performance, rating of perceived exertion and pain perception in

teenage female karate athletes. Brazilian Journal of Pharmaceutical Sciences, 52(4), 685-

692. https://dx.doi.org/10.1590/s1984-82502016000400012

Ali, A., O’Donnell, J., Foskett, A., & Rutherfurd-Markwick, K. (2016). The

influence of caffeine ingestion on strength and power performance in female team-sport

players. Journal of the International Society of Sports Nutrition, 13(1).

doi:10.1186/s12970-016-0157-4

M., O., O., R., C., & C. (2014). Combined caffeine and carbohydrate

ingestion: Effects on nocturnal sleep and exercise performance in athletes. European

Journal of Applied Physiology, 114(12), 2529-37. doi:10.1007/s00421-014-2973-z

Vanata, D., Mazzino, N., Bergosh, R., Graham, P., & Food & Nutrition

Conference & Expo FNCE Philadelphia PA 20121006-20121009 Food & Nutrition

Conference & Expo FNCE Philadelphia PA 20121006-20121009. (2012). Caffeine

improves athletic performance among division iI collegiate swimmers. Journal of the

Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics, 112(9), 89. doi:10.1016/j.jand.2012.06.321