To advance research, a team of researchers from Japan investigated the acute effects of caffeine supplementation on sprint running performance. This study was subsequently published in the
journal.
While previous studies have investigated the effects of caffeine on running activity, evidence from these studies is not conclusive enough to support the World Athletics consensus. A majority of them have looked at its effects on single sprint runs of less than 60 meters. Therefore, it was important to study the ergogenic effects of caffeine on the 100-meter sprint performance.
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The researchers recruited 13 male collegiate sprinters for the study. In a preliminary test, the researchers determined the time it takes for each athlete to reach peak blood plasma caffeine concentration after ingesting it. Taking this into account, the athletes were called two more times for 100-meter time trials after ingesting either caffeine or placebo supplements.
As measures of performance, researchers measured the sprint velocity and calculated the sprint time. On discounting the effects of environmental factors, the corrected sprint time was used to examine the effects of caffeine supplementation.
Athletes Can Use Caffeine to Inch Themselves Closer Towards Victory
The results revealed that the corrected 100-m sprint time was shortened significantly for athletes who received caffeine, with a decrease of 0.14 seconds compared to the controls. This decrease in the time was largely associated with a decrease in sprint time for the first 60 meters of the sprint.
They also found that the mean sprint velocity for the 0-10 m and 10-20 m splits was significantly higher in the athletes who received caffeine. Moreover, no significant difference was seen in the sprint time for the last 40 meters of the sprint, despite the shortening of the sprint time in the first 60 meters.
Together, these observations suggest that the caffeine supplementation provided more explosive acceleration to the sprinters in the early stage of the race.
In the long term, these results could translate to the enhancement of sports performance for athletes by enhancing the usage of caffeine as an ergogenic aid during sprints.
The insights gained from this study have given us the first direct evidence of caffeine’s ergogenic on sprint running in athletics. This also serves as evidence to directly support the recommendations for caffeine usage by World Athletics.
Source: Eurekalert
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