The research discovered that caffeine supplementation resulted in a major lower within the corrected 100-meter dash time, with athletes experiencing a discount of 0.14 seconds in comparison with the management group.
New analysis helps using caffeine as a performance-enhancing support by demonstrating that caffeine supplementation can scale back dash time within the 100-meter sprint.
Within the high-stakes world of worldwide sports activities, even the slightest benefit could make all of the distinction in an athlete’s efficiency. In consequence, athletes usually flip to coaching strategies and performance-enhancing aids to offer them a aggressive edge.
Caffeine, a stimulant that impacts the nervous system, is a well-liked alternative amongst athletes as a performance-enhancing support. The truth is, World Athletics (previously often known as the Worldwide Affiliation of Athletics Federations) has acknowledged caffeine as an ergogenic support in a consensus assertion on dietary technique for athletics.
Nevertheless, owing to the absence of analysis on caffeine’s results on dash efficiency, the advice is reflective of proof from different anaerobic sports activities quite than dash operating in athletics, just like the 100-m dash occasion.
A brand new research by researchers from Japan presents the primary proof demonstrating the ergogenic results of caffeine on the 100-meter dash operating efficiency. Whereas boosting the dash operating time through the early phases of race, caffeine contributed to considerably diminished dash operating instances amongst athletes. Credit score: Professor Takeshi Hashimoto from Ritsumeikan College
To advance analysis, a workforce of researchers from Japan investigated the acute results of caffeine supplementation on dash operating efficiency. This research, led by Professor Takeshi Hashimoto from Ritsumeikan College in Japan, was just lately revealed within the Medication & Science in Sports activities & Train journal.
In line with Professor Hashimoto, “Whereas earlier research have investigated the consequences of caffeine on operating exercise, proof from these research is just not conclusive sufficient to assist the World Athletics consensus. A majority of them have checked out its results on single dash runs of lower than 60 meters. Due to this fact, it was vital to review the ergogenic results of caffeine on the 100-meter dash efficiency.”
The researchers recruited 13 male collegiate sprinters for the research. In a preliminary take a look at, the researchers decided the time it takes for every athlete to succeed in 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, the 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.
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.
The researchers 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 ergogenicity on sprint running in athletics. This also serves as evidence to directly support the recommendations for caffeine usage by World Athletics. The study thus provides one more advantage that athletes can use to inch themselves closer toward victory,” concludes Professor Hashimoto.
Determined to explore the ergogenic effects of caffeine further, Professor Hashimoto and his team intend to call to question the mechanisms behind the effects of caffeine on ballistic actions such as sprinting and jumping.
Reference: “Acute Effect of Caffeine Supplementation on 100-m Sprint Running Performance: A Field Test” by Teppei Matsumura, Keigo Tomoo, Takeshi Sugimoto, Hayato Tsukamoto, Yasushi Shinohara, Mitsuo Otsuka and Takeshi Hashimoto, 14 October 2022, Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise.
DOI: 10.1249/MSS.0000000000003057
The study was funded by the Japanese Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science, and Technology.
