Honors Program

Midway Honors

Date of Award

5-2020

Thesis Professor(s)

Caleb Bazyler

Thesis Professor Department

Kinesiology, Leisure and Sport Sciences

Thesis Reader(s)

Jeremy Gentles, Kimitake Sato

Abstract

Introduction: Caffeine has long been used to enhance athletic performance. The research regarding caffeine’s effects on strength and power performance is lacking, especially in female athletes. Purpose: To analyze the acute effects of caffeine on jumping performance and maximal strength in female collegiate athletes. Methods: Eight female collegiate athletes performed two testing sessions separated by one week. Using a double-blind approach, athletes randomly received 6 mg/kg of body mass of caffeine (CAF) or a placebo (PLA). Following 60min of quiet sitting and a standardized warm-up, athletes were tested on measures of squat jump height (SJH) and peak power (SJPP), countermovement jump height (CMJH) and peak power (CMJPP), and isometric mid-thigh pull peak force (IPF) and rate of force development (RFD) on force platforms. Heart rate, systolic blood pressure, diastolic blood pressure, and tympanic temperature were measured at three time points across the testing session. A paired samples t-test with Hedge’s g effect size was used to compare performance results between conditions. A 2 x 3 (condition x time) repeated measures ANOVA was used to analyze changes in physiological measures between and within conditions. Alpha level for all analyses was set at pResults: There were small to moderate differences in SJH (p=0.08, g=0.26), SJPP (p=0.03, g=0.63), CMJH (p=0.004, g=0.27), CMJPP (p=0.18, g=0.20), IPF (p=0.08, g=0.25), and RFD (p=0.22, g=0.40) in favor of caffeine over placebo. Physiological measurements increased similarly across time for both conditions with the exception of SBP, which was greater following caffeine 3 administration compared to placebo (p=0.02). Conclusions: Caffeine ingestion produced small to moderate improvements in jumping performance; however, caffeine failed to significantly affect maximal strength when compared with the placebo. Nonetheless, there was a small increase in IPF and RFD compared to placebo. Therefore, caffeine appears to be an effective ergogenic aid when used to enhance jumping performance and possibly maximal strength in female collegiate athletes.

Publisher

East Tennessee State University

Document Type

Honors Thesis - Withheld

Creative Commons License

Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 License.

Copyright

Copyright by the authors.

Download

Share

COinS