Results of a clinical trial: Can caffeine make you sprint faster?

Athletes, especially competitive athletes if tested, had to have urine levels less than 12 micrograms per milliliter in their urine.

A clinical trial published in the Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research tested the effect of caffeine on male sprinters.

The primary aim of this study was to address the caffeine  on brief (10 seconds) sprints on a bicycle.

In addition, the study aimed to investigate if higher amounts of caffeine are more effective.

Here are the study details of caffeine on sprint performance:

– Human subjects completed seven 10 second sprint cycling trials

– Human subjects were advised to not consume any caffeine 48 hours prior to the study

– 17 male human subjects were enrolled in the study

– On average they trained 9 hours training each week and 4 hours competing each week

 

Here are the results of caffeine on sprint cycling performance

– On aveage caffeine consumption was 261 mg of caffine per week (this ranged from 10 mg to 677 mg)

– No improvement was observed in sprint performance measures of peak power

– No improvement was observed in sprint performance measures of time to peak power

– There was also no significant effect on blood lactate levels

 

Here are some comments from the authors of the study: 

In contrast to its established positive effects on endurance exercise, the results of this study show that caffeine has no effect on short-duration sprinting performance, regardless of the dosage used.

Take away message:

The results of this clinical trial show that caffeine supplementation did not have any effect on short duration sprint cycling performance.

 

Reference:

Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research. 2012; Volume 26 (Issue 4): Pages 1001-5.

Jeremy Johnson, PharmD, PhD


Categories: Athletic Performance, Blood Pressure, Clinical Trials