Background: Muscle pain commonly caused by moderate to high intensity exercise. The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of caffeine ingestion on perception of leg muscle pain and muscular endurance performance during high-intensity resistance exercise (RE). Methods: Ten well-trained college rugby players (age, 21±1.1 yr; mass, 80.5±11.8 kg) who regularly perform RE participated in this study. All subjects perform one-repetition-maximum (1RM) test, followed by the administration of two treatments: caffeine (CAF, 6mg/kg) and placebo (PLA) in a counter-balanced and double-blind experimental design. All subjects ingested a treatment 60 min prior to RE, and then they performed RE (knee extension exercise, 3 set at 80 % of 1RM until failure). Perceptions of leg muscle pain, blood lactate, heart rate, systolic blood pressure and total weight lifted were recorded at the end of each set RE (S1, S2 and S3). Experimental trials were separated by 1 week. In this study, a two -way analysis of variance (treatment by time) with repeated measures was applied. Results: Results showed that total weight lifted and blood lactate were higher in CAF versus PLA during RE (S2, S3) (P<0.05). Moreover, the leg muscle pain ratings of CAF were significantly lower than PLA during RE (S1, S2 and S3). However, no significant difference was found in heart rate and systolic blood pressure between CAF and PLA (P>0.05). Conclusions: The results of this study indicated that caffeine ingestion (6mg/kg) prior to RE significantly reduces muscle pain and improves muscle endurance performance.
Background: Muscle pain commonly caused by moderate to high intensity exercise. The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of caffeine ingestion on perception of leg muscle pain and muscular endurance performance during high-intensity resistance exercise (RE). Methods: Ten well-trained college rugby players (age, 21±1.1 yr; mass, 80.5±11.8 kg) who regularly perform RE participated in this study. All subjects perform one-repetition-maximum (1RM) test, followed by the administration of two treatments: caffeine (CAF, 6mg/kg) and placebo (PLA) in a counter-balanced and double-blind experimental design. All subjects ingested a treatment 60 min prior to RE, and then they performed RE (knee extension exercise, 3 set at 80 % of 1RM until failure). Perceptions of leg muscle pain, blood lactate, heart rate, systolic blood pressure and total weight lifted were recorded at the end of each set RE (S1, S2 and S3). Experimental trials were separated by 1 week. In this study, a two -way analysis of variance (treatment by time) with repeated measures was applied. Results: Results showed that total weight lifted and blood lactate were higher in CAF versus PLA during RE (S2, S3) (P<0.05). Moreover, the leg muscle pain ratings of CAF were significantly lower than PLA during RE (S1, S2 and S3). However, no significant difference was found in heart rate and systolic blood pressure between CAF and PLA (P>0.05). Conclusions: The results of this study indicated that caffeine ingestion (6mg/kg) prior to RE significantly reduces muscle pain and improves muscle endurance performance.