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Improvement of sprint performance in wheelchair sportsmen with caffeine supplementation

journal contribution
posted on 2016-04-04, 11:57 authored by Terri S. Graham-Paulson, Claudio Perret, Phillip Watson, Vicky Goosey-TolfreyVicky Goosey-Tolfrey
PURPOSE. Caffeine can be beneficial during endurance and repeated-sprint exercise in able-bodied individuals performing leg or wholebody exercise. However, little evidence exists regarding its effects during upper-body exercise. This study therefore aimed to investigate the effects of caffeine on sprint (SPR) and 4-min maximal-push (PUSH) performance in wheelchair sportsmen. METHODS. Using a double-blind, placebo-controlled, crossover design, 12 male wheelchair Rugby players (age 30.0 ± 7.7 y, body mass 69.6 ± 15.3 kg, training 11.1 ± 3.5 h/wk) completed 2 exercise trials, separated by 7-14 d, 70 min after ingestion of 4 mg/kg caffeine (CAF) or dextrose placebo (PLA). Each trial consisted of four 4-min PUSHes and 3 sets of 3 × 20-m SPRs, each separated by 4 min rest. Participants responded to the Felt Arousal (a measure of perceived arousal), Feeling (a measure of the affective dimension of pleasure/displeasure), and rating-of-perceived-exertion (RPE) scales. Salivary caffeine secretion rates were measured. RESULTS. Average SPR times were faster during CAF than PLA during SPR 1 and SPR 2 (P = .037 and .016). There was no influence of supplementation on PUSHes 2-4 (P > .099); however, participants pushed significantly farther during PUSH 1 after CAF than after PLA (mean ± SD 677 ± 107 and 653 ± 118 m, P = .047). There was no influence of CAF on arousal or RPE scores (P > .132). Feeling scores improved over the course of the CAF trial only (P = .017) but did not significantly differ between trials (P > .167). Pre-warm-up (45 min postingestion) salivary CAF secretion rates were 1.05 ± 0.94 and 0.08 ± 0.05 μ g/min for CAF and PLA, respectively. CONCLUSION. Acute CAF supplementation can improve both 20-m-sprint performance and a 1-off bout of short-term endurance performance in wheelchair sportsmen.

Funding

The authors would like to thank all the participants for their effort and commitment to the project. Thanks also to Katie McGibbon and Lauren Delany for their help during data collection. No external funding was received to conduct this study.

History

School

  • Sport, Exercise and Health Sciences

Published in

International Journal of Sports Physiology and Performance

Volume

11

Issue

2

Pages

214 - 220

Citation

GRAHAM-PAULSON, T.S. ... et al., 2016. Improvement of sprint performance in wheelchair sportsmen with caffeine supplementation. International Journal of Sports Physiology and Performance, 11 (2), pp.214-220.

Publisher

© Human Kinetics

Version

  • VoR (Version of Record)

Publisher statement

This work is made available according to the conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0) licence. Full details of this licence are available at: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/

Publication date

2016-01-31

Notes

THIS DOCUMENT IS CLOSED ACCESS.

ISSN

1555-0265

Language

  • en

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