A new study released in July in the JSCR reports that caffeine not only helps athletes improve jump height, but it does so by improving rate of force development [1].
What did the authors do?
- Gathered 25 collegiate athletes with training experience (16 men, 9 women)
- Used a single-blind cross-over design (meaning one time the subjects received a placebo, the other time they received caffeine, done in a blinded and random order)
- Caffeine was dosed at 5 mg per kg of body weight
- They tested both the squat jump and counter movement jump (vertical jump) with the hands on the hips
- Results:
- Caffeine intake resulted in an improvement in jump height of 4.5-5%
- Caffeine improved rate of force development
- Habitual caffeine drinkers responded better to caffeine intake
- Habitual caffeine drinkers may have a genetic component which has guided them to drink caffeine based off previous improvements in performance
Definitely an interesting topic, one food for thought it is possible that habitual caffeine users may not perform optimally because of their dependency on caffeine. Instead of caffeine improving their performance, it may simply be returning them to their optimal or improved performance. Whereas non-habitual caffeine drinkers are able to more consistently get “aroused” and perform better without caffeine. One way to find out would be to eliminate caffeine intake from the habitual group and allow them to “withdrawal” and then retest in a few weeks and see if their performance matched the caffeine vertical test.
- Bloms, Lucas P., John S. Fitzgerald, Martin W. Short, and James R. Whitehead. “The Effects of Caffeine on Vertical Jump Height and Execution in Collegiate Athletes.” Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research 30.7 (2016): 1855-861. NSCA.
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