Ergogenic Espresso: The Performance

Benefits of Caffeine
by Brian Zehetner – NHL/NBA/MLB/NFL Nutrition Consultant

Caffeine is, by far, the most consumed drug in the world. Millions of people yearn for
their daily dose to generate some quick energy, and it certainly delivers. Improved
mood, increased alertness, and delayed fatigue are just some of its far-reaching
effects, and with only mild side effects (slight increases in heart rate and blood
pressure). Athletes began to take notice of these effects and the potential for
performance enhancement, and researchers were soon to follow. We now have plenty
of studies examining caffeine as an ergogenic aid – whether it works, possible
mechanisms, and the conditions that are ideal in order to optimize performance. This
article will provide an overview of caffeine, its effects on your body, and the research
completed on endurance athletes. You’ll be surprised and encouraged by the results!

THE SKINNY ON CAFFEINE

Caffeine (a xanthine alkaloid) is
classified as a central nervous system
stimulant. It is found naturally in about
60 different plants, including coffee, tea,
kola nut, guarana, mate, and cocoa.
Caffeine is digested rapidly and
absorbed through your small intestine,
ultimately ending up in your liver to be
metabolized. Here it is broken down into
three separate types of active molecules.
The first (paraxanthine) increases fat
breakdown; the second (theobromine)
dilates blood vessels and increases urine
output; and the third (theophylline)
relaxes smooth muscle within the
bronchial tubes of your lungs. Before
these three by-products can be excreted
– through urine – more time must be
spent to further metabolize them. The
half-life of caffeine is approximately six
hours, meaning that half of a given
caffeine dose is still active in your body
six hours after ingestion. However, this
can vary depending on the person and
circumstances.
Caffeine has many mechanisms of
action, but most of these stem from its
role as an adenosine receptor antagonist.
In other words, adenosine is a key, and its
receptor is a lock. When the key fits into
the lock, it causes certain effects. However,
caffeine blocks the key (adenosine) from
fitting into the lock. This prevents
adenosine from having its normal bodily
effects, one of which is to regulate
dopamine levels. Thus, as caffeine
becomes available in the body, adenosine
activity gradually declines, leading to a
concomitant increase in dopamine activity.
This increase in dopamine is the key
step that causes the effects we associate
with caffeine: strong stimulatory actions
within the body. Graham et al. summed
up caffeine’s effects in one of their
reviews;1 they agreed that although
adenosine receptor antagonism is the
most widely supported mechanism of
action, it couldn’t explain all of the
observed responses within the body.
Caffeine also increases epinephrine
(adrenaline), which leads to a cascade of
events via the sympathetic (fight or flight)
nervous system, including, but not
limited to, increased heart rate, increased
diversion of blood to muscle tissue, and
increased blood pressure. It also increases
serotonin levels in the brain, resulting in
positive mood changes. Other metabolic
effects include enhanced muscular
contraction, increased glycogen breakdown,
and increased free fatty acid release from
adipose (fat) tissue. Keep in mind, we are
only scratching the surface in terms of the
metabolic, physiological, and psychological
effects caffeine has on the body.
DOES CAFFEINE AFFECT
YOUR ENDURANCE
PERFORMANCE?
Without a doubt, caffeine does
improve performance in endurance
events, such as running and cycling.
Costill and colleagues were the first to
study caffeine and its potential in
endurance activities.2 In one of their
studies, nine cyclists exercised to
exhaustion at 80% VO2max after
consuming either decaffeinated coffee or
coffee containing 330mg of caffeine 60
minutes prior to the start. Cyclists
receiving the caffeine were able to
perform for 90 minutes, while those
receiving the decaf only rode for 75.5
minutes. This is significant because
these were competitive cyclists, and a
15-minute difference in an actual event
would be nothing short of miraculous.
Graham and Spriet obtained similar
results when they evaluated the effect of
a high caffeine dose during prolonged
exercise.3 Seven competitive runners
performed 4 exercise trials (two running
and two cycling) at 85% VO2max to
exhaustion. Subjects consumed either
dextrose or caffeine at a dose of 9 mg/kg
body weight one hour before exercise.
Run times increased from 49 minutes in
the placebo group to 71 minutes in the
caffeine group, and cycling times
improved from 39 minutes to 59 minutes
when caffeine was used. Again, these
results are very impressive, though we
don’t exactly know how applicable they
are to a real-world situation. It certainly
is cause for excitement, and is one
reason that the International Olympic
Committee (IOC) banned caffeine prior
to the 1972 Olympics and again from
1984 to 2004. However, because of its
persistent use throughout the world in
everyday life, caffeine now sits on the
monitored list, which means it is no
longer banned from competitions.
HOW CAFFEINE IMPROVES
YOUR PERFORMANCE
It’s clear that caffeine improves your
endurance performance, but the real
question is, how does it work? What
mechanisms are at play that allow for
these improvements? In Costill’s study,
he found that fat oxidation was
significantly higher in the caffeine
group, which makes sense because, as
mentioned above, we know that caffeine
raises free fatty acid levels in your blood
serum. Any increase in fat oxidation
might spare muscle glycogen for more
intense running later on, thereby
improving endurance. (For more on
glycogen and how it affects your running
see 15.1 Jan/Feb ’06 p2.) He also found
that perceived exertion ratings were
much lower in the caffeine group,
meaning that the cyclists thought the
exercise task was much easier when
ingesting caffeine.
Graham and Spriet were able to show
a glycogen-sparing effect in a study that
involved eight subjects cycling at 80%
VO2max to exhaustion.4 The subjects
consumed either dextrose or caffeine at a
dose of 9 mg/kg body weight one hour
before the start. When using caffeine,
performance was, again, substantially
improved, and they found that muscle
glycogenolysis (the breakdown of
glycogen to glucose) was decreased by
55% over the first 15 minutes of
exercise. Therefore, the spare glycogen
was available later in exercise, which
coincided with a prolonged time to
exhaustion.
Obviously, the aforementioned studies
seem to indicate that caffeine improves
endurance performance by increasing
your fat oxidation, which in turn slows
glycogenolysis and allows your body to
call upon muscle glycogen for an
extended period of time. Unfortunately,
for the sake of determining how caffeine
improves your performance, recent
studies have not been able to replicate
the above findings. Graham et al. looked
at leg metabolism after 10 male subjects
performed one hour of exercise on two
occasions at 70% VO2max after ingesting
either placebo or caffeine.5 While
caffeine ingestion did increase serum free
fatty acid and glycerol concentrations,
there were no differences in respiratory
exchange ratio, leg glucose uptake,
muscle glycogenolysis, or fatty acid
uptake. They concluded that caffeine
does not alter carbohydrate or fat
metabolism during exercise – effectively
unsolving the mystery of how caffeine
improves performance.
Laurent et al. also studied the effects of
caffeine on muscle glycogen utilization.6
They had 20 glycogen-loaded subjects
consume 6 mg/kg of placebo or caffeine
90 minutes prior to cycling for two
hours at 65% VO2max. They found that
serum free fatty acid concentrations
increased and muscle glycogen content
decreased similarly in both groups.
However, they did find almost a
doubling of beta-endorphin levels in the
caffeine group. They concluded that
caffeine does not exert a muscle
glycogen-sparing effect, but that it may
lower the threshold for beta-endorphin
release. Beta-endorphins are thought to
be released during vigorous exercise,
producing an increased sense of wellbeing
and relaxation, along with pain
reduction. These feelings are the essence
of what some call the “runner’s high.” If
the threshold for the release of these
chemicals is lowered, perceived exertion
may decrease. This means that, despite
the stress of the activity, it might seem
less difficult, resulting in improved
performance. They hypothesize that this
may be a potential mechanism for the
performance improvements seen in
endurance exercise studies.
Graham wrote two excellent review
articles about using caffeine as an
ergogenic aid. When discussing how
caffeine improves endurance
performance, he concluded that it is
unsupported and unlikely that increased
fat oxidation and glycogen sparing is the
prime ergogenic mechanism.7 He
proposes that caffeine may work by
creating a more favorable intracellular
ionic environment in your muscles,
helping to facilitate force production by
the motor units.8 In other words, caffeine
causes an increased release of calcium
within your muscles, which is a crucial
step in the process of muscular
contraction. Stronger, more efficient
muscle contractions should help improve
performance in almost any type of
physical activity. Another plausible
explanation for improvement is the
decreased perception of effort and
altered mood states that have been noted
in other studies. All in all, the
mechanism of action is assumed to be
multifactorial, and hopefully more
research will expand our knowledge
base even further.
WHAT IS OPTIMAL PROTOCOL
WHEN USING CAFFEINE?
Caffeine has been established as an
effective ergogenic aid during endurance
exercise, but we still need to clear up
some important questions. How much
caffeine is enough to affect performance,
and when, and in what form, should it
be taken? Researchers have been able to
provide some answers – the findings are
interesting.
Graham and Spriet tried to determine
the optimal dose of caffeine by having
eight subjects avoid caffeine for 48
hours, and then ingest placebo or
caffeine at doses of 3, 6 or 9 mg/kg.9
Afterward, the subjects ran at 85%
VO2max until voluntary exhaustion.
Endurance was enhanced with 3 and 6
mg/kg, but not with 9 mg/kg.
Interestingly, the highest dose had the
greatest effect on epinephrine
(adrenaline), yet the least effect on
performance. The authors couldn’t
decipher the “optimal dosage,” yet they
did conclude that the results didn’t
support the idea that caffeine exerts its
effect via catecholamines. Pasman et al.
also investigated this “optimal dosage”
issue.10 They had nine well-trained
cyclists take 0, 5, 9 or 13mg/kg caffeine
one hour prior to exercising to exhaustion
at 80Wmax (Watt max – a measure of
intensity). All caffeine doses improved
performance in comparison to placebo,
yet there were no differences between
the three caffeine doses (47 minutes for
placebo; and 58 minutes, 59 minutes,
and 58 minutes for 5, 9, and 13 mg/kg,
respectively). Even though no dose was
clearly superior, this study is often
referred to when addressing the optimal
dose of caffeine, which is often set at
approximately 6 mg/kg. For a 70 kg
individual (154 lbs), this would be about
420 mgs of caffeine, or the equivalent of
three to four strong cups of coffee. Other
studies on caffeine have used doses
close to this level with very good results,
and through years of self-experimentation,
both athletes and non-athletes have found
that higher doses can potentially cause
more side effects such as jitters, nervousness
and gastrointestinal discomfort. (For
more on gastrointestinal issues see 16.4
July/Aug ’07 p9.)
Other researchers have tried to
determine when caffeine should be taken
in order to enhance performance. This
issue resurfaced because many studies
have used a bolus dose (one
concentrated dose) one hour prior to
exercise. But is this truly the best way to
consume caffeine? And what about the
sports nutrition products on the market
that contain caffeine and are designed to
be consumed during events? Conway
and his colleagues addressed these issues
when they evaluated the effect of a
divided dose of caffeine on endurance
cycling performance.11 Nine cyclists and
triathletes cycled for 90 minutes at 68%
VO2max, followed by a self-paced time
trial (equivalent to 80% VO2max for 30
minutes). Three different interventions
were used: placebo 60 minutes before
and again 45 minutes into exercise,
caffeine (6 mg/kg) 60 minutes before
and placebo 45 minutes into exercise,
and a divided protocol with caffeine (3
mg/kg) 60 minutes before and again 45
minutes into exercise. The performance
was no different between the two
caffeine trials, indicating there is no
performance advantage to either a bolus
dose or a divided dose. An interesting
side note, however, is that urinary
concentration was lower post-exercise in
the divided dose trial. This had realworld
application when caffeine was on
the IOC prohibited list because urinary
concentration (12 ug/ml) was used as the
benchmark for a positive doping test.
Athletes could effectively lower their
urinary concentration by dividing their
doses over a period of time. (However,
as mentioned earlier, caffeine is no
longer on the IOC banned list.)
Graham looked at one last variable
that might alter the effect caffeine has on
endurance performance. Does the form
in which caffeine is delivered make a
difference? Nine healthy adults ingested
one of five different trials: caffeine
capsules with water, placebo with water,
decaffeinated coffee, decaffeinated
coffee with caffeine added, or regular
coffee.12 The caffeine dose was 4.45
mg/kg in all caffeine trials. After resting,
subjects ran at 85% VO2max until
voluntary exhaustion (about 32 minutes
in the placebo and decaffeinated trials).
The main finding here was that
endurance only improved in the caffeine
capsule trial, with no differences among
the other four trials. The authors
speculated that there must be some
component of coffee that lessens the
effect of the caffeine.
SO WHAT IS THE TAKE
HOME MESSAGE?
It seems that the more we know about
caffeine, the more we know that we
don’t know. As with all research, there’s
plenty of conflicting evidence, but I
think we can make some strong
assertions at this point:
• Caffeine improves performance in
endurance exercise, likely through a
variety of systemic effects on your
entire body.
• A variety of caffeine doses have been
found to be ergogenic, but in order to
minimize side effects and maximize
performance, 6 mg/kg (1 kg = 2.2 lbs)
seems to be the gold standard dose.
• Ingesting a bolus dose of caffeine one
hour prior to an event works as well as
divided doses during an event, though
the bolus dose may be easier and more
practical in real-world settings.
• Caffeine tablets may be more effective
than other sources of caffeine (coffee,
soda, herbs) because of confounding
factors and ingredients contained
within these products.
• Caffeine affects everyone differently,
so as always, experiment with it
during training to see how you
respond.