The Impact of Caffeine Consumption on Athletic Performance in Female Athletes

The Impact of Caffeine Consumption on Athletic Performance in Female Athletes

Introduction: For athletes, caffeine has been used as a performance enhancing substance. But the effectiveness of caffeine for females requires further exploration. Female athletes consuming caffeine demonstrated increased eccentric strength and also an ergogenic effect on lower body muscular endurance. Specific female athletes, such as basketball players, have increased performance, and self-perceived muscular power, when ingesting caffeine. Caffeine consumption in female athletes has shown to be an effective performance enhancer, especially in endurance athletes. Clinical Question: What are the effects of consuming caffeine before competition on female athletes? Search Strategy and Results: Databases searched included Google Scholar, Sport Discus, CINAHL, and PubMED. Key search terms include caffeine, females, athletic performance, and eccentric. Key evidence and Support: Caffeine increased performance in team sport-specific skills, total body impacts, and measures such as hand grip strength, modified agility t-test, countermovement jump, and repeated sprint ability. All measures have shown significant improvements with the ingestion of 6 mg and 9 mg caffeine dosages, compared to the placebo. In addition, performance of specific skills, such as the two-point shot in basketball, increased significantly with caffeine ingestion. Application/Implications:The impact of caffeine on performance plays an important role in the NCAA rules and regulations, regarding the amount of caffeine that can be consumed prior to competition. Caffeine directly impacts female athletes' performance, but the impact may vary depending on the sport. Specific doses of caffeine (6mg) have been shown to provide the most significant performance benefits, while minimizing adverse effects. Understanding the specific dosage and the effects on performance, allows for maximal performance enhancement while still following the NCAA regulations and guidelines.