Caffeine for Sports Performance - A Comprehensive Guide
Who would have thought your delicious morning cup of joe could be one of the most scientifically well-supported tools to aid athletic performance that currently exists?
Caffeine has long been a staple of many people’s diets, largely for its stimulating effects, but its benefits extend far beyond just waking you up. From endurance sports to high-intensity workouts and even muscle strength and power, caffeine is well researched as a performance enhancing supplement.
How Caffeine Works
Caffeine primarily works by blocking adenosine receptors in the brain. By acting as an adenosine antagonist, caffeine promotes the release of stimulatory neurotransmitters, such as dopamine and serotonin. In the context of athletic performance, this can be translated to increased alertness, reduced perception of effort, decreased pain, and delayed time to exhaustion. Additionally, caffeine can improve muscle fiber recruitment and activation, which further enhances physical performance (1).
Caffeine for Endurance Performance
What would a morning run be without a hit of coffee first?
The use of caffeine for endurance exercise is well supported, and may support endurance performance, mainly by increasing time to exhaustion. The suggested dose generally ranges between 3-7mg per kilogram of body weight. For a 70kg person, this translates to between 210-490mg of caffeine. This dose can be consumed pre-exercise, or split over the duration of the event (1).
Caffeine for High-Intensity Exercise
For high-intensity exercise, the effective dose of caffeine appears to be between 3mg and 10mg per kilogram of body weight.
Personally, 10mg per kilogram of body weight would equate to a dose of around 750mg of caffeine for me.
That’s over 9 cans of Red Bull.
THIS SCARES THE ABSOLUTE S*** OUT OF ME!!!
Whilst we will get to the possible side-effects and negative implications later, I would like to emphasise that the upper end of that dose is incredibly high, and it would be best to start small before working up to the minimum effective dose.
In fact, consuming the higher end of this range, such as 10mg/kg, can be risky and is generally not recommended due to potential negative side effects (1).
The benefits may come from the improved alertness, motor control, and coordination that can be good for high intensity sports.
Caffeine for Muscle Strength and Power
Caffeine's benefits extend to muscle strength and power as well. It supports faster muscle fiber contraction velocity and increased motor unit activation. Studies have shown that caffeine can enhance maximal muscle strength and power output. Again the range generally appears to be between 3mg-10mg/kg (1, 2).
Timing of Consumption
Timing may be important for caffeine’s ergogenic effects, depending on the modality of exercise. Studies indicate no significant difference in performance whether caffeine is taken up to one hour before exercise or split into smaller, repeated doses before and during endurance exercise. Many endurance athletes will consume caffeinated sports gels during their marathon events, for example.
For strength, power and high intensity events, the important factor is to ensure the caffeine is given time to peak in the body to notice the performance benefits. This is generally suggested to be around 60mins prior to the event (3, 4, 5).
Method of Consumption
It’s important to consider the source of the caffeine to ensure accurate dosage, and it’s consumed in a way that’s comfortable for the athlete. While caffeine is found in various amounts in different substances such as coffee, energy drinks, soft drinks, and supplements, there can be a massive variance in the caffeine content of these products.
For instance, a study from the Gold Coast found that the caffeine content in espresso shots from 97 different coffee retailers ranged between 25mg and 215mg per shot (6).
That’s a huge range! This variability makes it challenging to dose caffeine accurately with coffee.
You can also imagine that if you are aiming for a high dose through coffee or an energy drink such as red bull, you may be taking on a significant amount of fluid as well.
For these reasons, I’d consider using standardized products like NoDoz tablets (100 mg per tablet) or sports gels with a measured dose of caffeine. These provide a convenient way to consume caffeine to support performance with an accurate dose, and without taking on large volumes of added food or fluid.
Potential Side Effects and Other Considerations
There are a couple of factors that may influence the effectiveness of caffeine as a performance enhancing supplement. For example, how well trained an athlete is, and how well they generally tolerate caffeine may influence the effectiveness of their use of caffeine. If you are a regular consumer you may need to increase your dose to see performance benefits.
Some people are also known to be non-responders, and won’t experience the benefits of caffeine consumption.
There are multiple negative side effects to be mindful of when consuming caffeine, particularly when aiming for the higher end of the dose. Negative side effects include gastrointestinal distress, tremors, irritability, and anxiety.
Caffeine intake is well reported to disrupt sleep quality, and studies have suggested that caffeine should not be consumed even within 6hrs of sleep, to minimise sleep disruptions (7, 8). To avoid this, caffeine should be consumed earlier in the day where possible, or used sparingly when its use may disrupt sleep, as the benefit to performance could be outweighed by the detrimental impact on sleep.
In addition, pregnant women are recommended to have no more than 200mg/day of caffeine (equivalent to 1-2 cups of coffee), and children should monitor their intake through soda drinks and energy drinks closely.
Summary, Key Takeaways, and Practical Implications
Caffeine is a versatile performance enhancer that benefits endurance performance, high-intensity exercise, and muscle strength and power. Its primary mechanism is blocking adenosine receptors, leading to increased alertness, reduced pain, and delayed exhaustion.
The minimum effective dose for benefits to all performance appears to begin around 3 mg/kg of body weight.
I would suggest however, starting with an even smaller dose of 1-3 mg/kg and gradually working up from there, to avoid the possible risk of negative side-effects.
The upper end of the dose (10 mg/kg) still seems crazy high to me - I’ve heard some leading sports nutritionists say they don’t go higher than around 6 mg/kg and I also wouldn’t be comfortable going higher than that, or exercise extreme caution if doing so.
For endurance sport, caffeine can be consumed up to 1hr before, or equally split before and during the event. For strength, power, and shorter length high-intensity sports I’d be aiming to consume caffeine around 60 mins before you need to feel the performance enhancing effect.
Use a consistent dosage available through NoDoz or sports gels to avoid the inconsistency with coffee or the added volume of energy drinks or bars.
Hopefully this post helps you to understand caffeine, how it works, and how following the research for dosing and timing, athletes can harness its benefits for performance while minimizing potential downsides. Whether you're an endurance athlete, a high-intensity competitor, or looking to boost muscle strength and power, caffeine can be a valuable addition to your performance toolkit. So, the next time you reach for that cup of coffee or caffeine supplement, know that you're not just waking up—you're gearing up for peak performance.
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