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The Ergogenic Effect of Caffeine on Athletes
Introduction
The use of sports supplements and stimulants is a sensitive topic of theoretical and applied research. The main interest is to study the stimulant effects of specific drugs that may allow athletes to increase speed, endurance, and strength performance significantly. On the other hand, maximizing athletic effects cannot but have long-term destructive consequences since the body experiences states of extreme stress at such times. In the present work, caffeine was chosen as the stimulant drug of interest for athletes. The paper answers the question of what benefits the use of caffeine can bring to athletes and also shows the potential dangers and risks that the use of this drug leads to.
Brief Overview
It should be said that caffeine is a naturally occurring plant-based substance traditionally classified as an alkaloid. Caffeine is a mild stimulant with psychoactive effects on the body (Barcelos et al., 2020). In the natural environment, plant caffeine is found in coffee, tea, mint, guarana, and cocoa. Once in the body, caffeine excites the human central nervous system, increases heart rate, and widens the lumen of blood vessels. In terms of metabolic action, caffeine molecules (Fig. 1) inhibit the enzymatic activity of phosphodiesterase, which increases the production of adrenaline. Thus, caffeine is a psychotropic compound that excites the body; therefore, the use of the drug may have a stimulating effect in sports nutrition.
Sports Ergogenic Effect
The known stimulating property of caffeine is also used for athletes, as the drug allows them to build up athletic performance. Athletes often use pure caffeine-based preparations to increase mental and physical performance. Some studies tend to report that small doses of caffeine (up to 6 mg/kg/body weight), when taken immediately before exercise, can increase strength and endurance (Tambalis & Arnaoutis, 2022). Notably, caffeine, although a psychotropic drug, is not considered a doping supplement, and thus its use is not a violation of athletic codes (Tabassum et al., 2021). Changes to the central nervous system in athletes, as it appears at first glance, may have an arousing effect that increases athletic potential; as a result, the athlete makes faster critical decisions and demonstrates greater endurance and strength. However, reliable evidence for the actual effectiveness of taking such a stimulant appears to be inconsistent, as a vast amount of published work is based on comparing the effects of caffeine among those groups of athletes who did not use caffeine on a regular basis (Filip et al., 2020). The lack of a standardized approach to research on the ergogenic effects of caffeine creates ambiguity in conclusions. As a consequence, there is no reliable evidence of tangible benefit from the use of this stimulant. The results of a meta-review of the articles used have demonstrated that the assertion of a universal, unambiguous ergogenic effect of caffeine is impossible. In fact, systemic caffeine use by athletes over many years develops a tolerance to the drug, so the use of caffeine stimulant supplements may not make sense in their cases (Filip et al., 2020). On the other hand, for those athletes who do not use caffeine regularly, the use of stimulants may be more beneficial; however, a systematic review provides no reliable evidence of this effect.
Negative Effects of Caffeine
Meanwhile, there is no denying the reliable destructive effects of caffeine on the body of athletes. One of the significant negative effects of caffeine consumption is the development of dependence on the drug (Tabassum et al., 2021). In developing psychological and physiological dependence on caffeine, athletes bodies are in a constant need to create an adrenaline-like sense of euphoria, during which additional energy is produced. Thus, when caffeine intake is discontinued, the body loses its usual source of energy, leading to exhaustion. Other short-term effects of caffeine include impaired heart rate, tachycardia, increased anxiety, and vomiting these conditions are a significant limitation to athletic participation, so it is appropriate to suggest that caffeine use may be disruptive to athletic performance (Pickering & Kiely, 2019). In addition, the development of tolerance to the drug causes a blunting of the possible positive effects of the stimulant, which negatively affects the short-term excitatory effects of the drug during critical sporting events for example, during competition. At the same time, a non-sports-related study found that long-term caffeine use may be associated with the development of depression and bronchitis, whereas the most common chronic pathologies were not associated with caffeine use (Smith, 2021). In other words, the academic literature tends to regard the stimulant caffeine as relatively safe for health.
Tolerability of Use
As has been determined through scientific sources, caffeine can indeed have short-term effects of nervous system stimulation and arousal, which may have benefits for athletes. However, there is no standardized approach to studying the actual long-term effects of caffeine, so not all of the results can be reliable. These findings, in synthesis with the fact that caffeine is not a banned doping agent, allow for its use by swimmers on college teams. Coffee can indeed increase athletes speed and strength, but this effect should not be considered universal and obvious. In addition, for some of their swimmers, coffee use may be associated with dizziness, anxiety, and vomiting, which will negatively affect athletic performance. Officially, the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) lists caffeine as a non-prohibited stimulant in sports, but the agency continues to invest in studying the hidden properties of the substance (USADA, 2021). Consequently, it is possible that one day caffeine may be among the unacceptable doping substances for use in sports, but right now, there is no problem with that.
Conclusion
To summarize, athletes are constantly trying to use supplements that improve their athletic performance. Caffeine is among these plant-based products that stimulate the central nervous system and induce arousal; as a result, the athlete can demonstrate better endurance and strength results. However, the use of caffeine as a sports supplement has not been shown to be universally effective, so it may not be effective for every athlete. On the contrary, some of the drugs side effects, including increased anxiety and dizziness, can be destructive to an individuals athletic performance. Thus, the ergogenic effects of caffeine are controversial and need additional, methodologically standardized research. Nevertheless, by now, it is clear that caffeine use has a number of positive benefits for athletes, with the benefits outweighing the relative drawbacks. The use of caffeine for athletic purposes to maximize athletic performance makes sense and can be used if athletes have no contraindications.
References
Barcelos, R. P., Lima, F. D., Carvalho, N. R., Bresciani, G., & Royes, L. F. (2020). Caffeine effects on systemic metabolism, oxidative-inflammatory pathways, and exercise performance. Nutrition Research, 80, 1-17.
Filip, A., Wilk, M., Krzysztofik, M., & Del Coso, J. (2020). Inconsistency in the ergogenic effect of caffeine in athletes who regularly consume caffeine: Is it due to the disparity in the criteria that defines habitual caffeine intake? Nutrients, 12(4), 1087-1091.
Tabassum, F., Batool, I., Faiz, F., Ijaz, M., & Bashir, A. (2021). Effects of caffeine on athletes performance. PalArchs Journal of Archaeology of Egypt/Egyptology, 18(10), 680-690.
Tambalis, K. D., & Arnaoutis, G. (2022). The role of caffeine consumption on individuals health and athletic performance: An overview [PDF document]. Web.
Pickering, C., & Kiely, J. (2019). What should we do about habitual caffeine use in athletes? Sports Medicine, 49(6), 833-842.
Smith, A. P. (2021). Caffeine consumption and the prevalence of chronic disease. World Journal of Pharmaceutical and Medical Research, 10(10), 1404-1410.
USADA. (2021). Substance profile: Caffeine. USADA. Web.
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