Research paper
Does Acute Caffeine Supplementation Improve Physical Performance in Female Team-Sport Athletes? Evidence from a Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis
Study answer
What this study found
Caffeine before exercise produced ergogenic effects on countermovement jump height (CMJ), handgrip strength, and total body impacts in female team-sport athletes. It also improved performance in some ball-speed drills and single-sprint tests when a single sprint was used, but did not enhance squat jump (SJ), agility, repeated sprint ability (RSA), or ratings of perceived exertion (RPE). Fatigued-state test improvements were limited. Conclusion: caffeine has a positive, task-specific ergogenic effect in adult female team-sport athletes; more research is needed to optimize dosing, account for…
- Study & population
- Randomized, double-blind, crossover trials; adult female team-sport athletes (mean age 18–26; total 240 participants across 18 studies); sports included basketball, volleyball, soccer, rugby, handball, and others.
- Intervention
- Acute caffeine dose (1.3–6 mg/kg body mass) taken ~60 minutes before exercise (range 30–70 minutes; one study administered immediately prior to and during competition).
- Key limitation
- Few studies contributed to some analyses (as low as n=3); substantial heterogeneity across sports and outcomes; varied caffeine delivery forms and doses; inconsistent reporting of menstrual cycle phase and oral contraceptive use; some energy-drink studies included other substances (e.g., sugar, taurine) that could…
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Open PDFOriginal abstract
Introduction: Recent original research and meta-analyses suggest that acute caffeine supplementation improves exercise performance in team-sport athletes (TSA). Nonetheless, most of the studies testing the effects of caffeine on TSA included samples …