Caffeine

by Steve W.
A member brought us an article a while back that was quoting several studies saying that caffeine can boost athletic performance. Being an unabashed fan of caffeine (coffee) user myself I thought, “Wouldn’t that be awesome?” So I went into our stacks of NSCA journals and found a study that tested the effects of moderate caffeine intake on Colligate level football players in anaerobic (high intensity) activities. The test was published in the August 2009 issue and was conducted at Arizona State University.

In this study 17 colligate level football players underwent combine-like conditioning tests, including the 40 yard dash, 20 yard shuttle run, and a bench press, 185 lbs or 225 lbs reps to failure. One group of athletes was given a moderate dose of caffeine one hour before performing the drills and another group was given a placebo. Some of the athletes that where given the dose of caffeine reported moderate improvements in there tests. However, there was no significant difference in performance between the two groups.

The good news for us coffee heads is that there appears be no harm whatsoever in athletic performance either. I still feel however that one will be better suited to stick with water as their primary source of hydration. Other articles suggest that caffeine’s positive effects are more apparent in endurance type activities as opposed to anaerobic activities, which would agree with the NSCA article.