Thursday, November 13, 2008

Have a coffee with your intervals?

Take caffeine an hour before your intervals?

Effect of caffeine supplementation on repeated sprint running performance.


AIM: This study examined the effects of 6 mgxkg(-1) caffeine ingestion in team-sport players (N.=10) on repeated-sprint running performance (5 sets of 6 x 20 m) and reaction times, 60 min after caffeine or placebo ingestion. METHODS: Best single sprint and total set sprint times, blood lactate and simple and choice reaction times (RT) were measured. RESULTS: Total sprint times across sets 1, 3 and 5 (departure every 25 s) were significantly faster after caffeine (85.49+/-5.55 s) than placebo (86.98+/-5.78 s) (P<0.05). Similarly, total sprint times across sets 2 and 4 (departure every 60 s), were significantly faster after caffeine (55.99+/-3.64 s) than placebo (56.77+/-3.74 s) (P<0.05). Significantly higher blood lactates were recorded in caffeine compared to placebo after set 3 (13.1+/-1.2 vs 10.3+/-1.4 mmolxL(-1)) (P<0.05) and set 5 (13.1+/-1.3 vs 10.3+/-1.6 mmolxL(-1)) (P<0.01). There were no significant effects on simple or choice RT, although effect sizes suggested improved post-exercise times after caffeine. CONCLUSION: Caffeine ingestion 60 min prior to exercise can enhance repeated sprint running performance and is not detrimental to reaction times.

3 comments:

Neal Jamison said...

How does the caffeine affect fat loss? I've always heard it helps. Just wonder what you think about that.

Thanks for the great site!

Chris said...

Hi Neal

I've put up quite a bit on this blog about caffeine but I can't recall much about it and fat loss. At the bottom of the blog there is a search button. Search for caffeine and you'll find a fair bit - some positive and some negative.

Anonymous said...

Hmmmm, I think coffee has some thermogenic effects that why it's been used as a fat loss supplement...