Athletes are always looking to gain an edge over others, legal or not. Popular methods today among athletes is creatine, protein shakes, and caffeine.
As a high school athlete, I was looking for an edge for a track meet. I did some reading and everything (very outdated) said caffeine wouldn't help sprinters. I didn't agree, figuring my reaction time should improve. On the way to a regional track meet, I stopped and got some coffee. I had never drank it before. And my drink was awful. I hated it, and I spilled it all over myself. What was meant to give me an advantage turned out to nearly eliminate me from the race from the burns!
12 OUNCES EQUALS
Products like Red Bull and Monster are being gulped down like it's water by many young athletes. How much caffeine is really in these products (per 8 ounces)? One night I couldn't sleep from probably too much caffeine, so I decided to research how much is in certain drinks.
Pepsi 25mg
Diet Pepsi 24 mg
Coke 25mg
Diet Coke 31 mg
Barqs Root Beer 15 mg
Mellow Yellow 31mg
Vault 46mg
Full throttle 72mg
Mt dew 37mg
Mt Dew Code Red 37mg
Amp 71 mg
Mt Dew MDX 47mg
Coffee (drip) 104-192mg
Red Bull 80mg
Monster ???(in a blend of other ingredients)
Vivarin (tablets) 200 mg
So does caffeine enhance performance? Here is a research abstract from late 2006:
Title: The effects of caffeine on athletic agility
JOURNAL OF STRENGTH AND CONDITIONING RESEARCH 20 (4): 851-854 NOV 2006
Abstract: Caffeine has been shown to improve sprint time, anaerobic power, and reaction time, all integral aspects of agility. The purpose of this study was to determine whether an acute caffeine dose would enhance agility and anaerobic power. Sixteen subjects participated in a randomized, double-blind experiment and performed the proagility run and the 30-second Wingate test 60 minutes after ingestion of caffeine (6 mg.kg(-1)) or placebo. No significant change was observed in the proagility run after caffeine ingestion compared with placebo. Also, no significant change was observed in peak power, mean power, or percent power decrease. Agility is an integral component of athletic skill and any reasonable method for enhancing agility would benefit active individuals. However, results from this study indicate that a 6 mg.kg(-1) dose of caffeine does not impact agility as measured by the proagility run test or power output as measured by the 30-second Wingate test in recreationally active young adult males who are not habituated to caffeine.
Interpretation: First, a 70kg person (154 lbs) would have ingested 420 mg, or close to 5 Red Bulls! But for agility, there was no benefit. Bottom line, if you can't change direction, caffeine won't help!
But wait, isn't caffeine illegal in Olympic sports? In 2004, it was removed from the banned substance list. Why? Well it would take more than 12 micrograms of caffeine per millimeter in your urine to be considered illegal. That equals out to about 5-6 cups of coffee right before the event!
(click the link for the reference)
http://www.usms.org/fitness/articleofthemonth.php?a=131
BEWARE!!! Don't let caffeine be your answer for lack of sleep. You will crash, and still need sleep! I'll have more on the FAQs of sleep soon!
Does Caffeine Improve Sports Agility? 12 OUNCES EQUALS
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