Effects of Acute Caffeine Supplementation on Physical, Sport-Specific, Physiological, Perceptual, and Cognitive Outcomes in Female Team-Sport Athletes: A Three-Level Meta-Analysis
Study Details
This new meta-analysis compiled data from 26 studies (375 athletes) to examine the acute effects of caffeine on physical, sport-specific, physiological, perceptual and cognitive outcomes in female team-sport athletes 🔍
Here are the key findings ⬇️
Key Findings
☕ Doses across studies ranged from 1.92–9 mg/kg, with ~3–6 mg/kg most commonly studied
⏱️ Caffeine was typically consumed around 60 minutes before exercise, although timing ranged from 15–70 minutes
☕ Across all outcomes, caffeine produced a small overall favourable effect, although domain-specific findings were more informative
⚡ Physical performance improved significantly, with a small pooled effect of g = 0.32
🔁 Repeated-sprint ability showed one of the largest improvements (g = 0.43)
↔️ Agility and change-of-direction performance also improved (g = 0.42)
🏃 Sprint and speed performance improved (g = 0.39)
💥 Anaerobic power improved (g = 0.30)
🆙 Jump performance improved consistently (g = 0.29), supported by 17 studies
🏋️ Muscular strength showed a favourable trend, but the effect was not statistically significant
🏟️ Overall sport-specific performance showed a small favourable effect, but the evidence remained uncertain
😮💨 Perceptual responses improved (g = 0.42), largely because caffeine reduced ratings of perceived exertion
🧠 Cognitive performance showed a favourable trend, but evidence from only four studies was too limited to conclude that caffeine improves cognition
↔️ Overall no reliable evidence showed that dose, timing, caffeine source, sport, competitive level or habitual caffeine intake altered the response
📉 Athletes with lower habitual caffeine intake showed numerically larger physical benefits than high consumers, but the difference was not statistically reliable
🩸 Menstrual-cycle phase and hormonal-contraceptive use were reported too inconsistently to determine whether they influence caffeine responsiveness
Conclusion
The strongest evidence supports caffeine for jumping, sprinting, change of direction, repeated-sprint ability and reducing perceived effort, rather than technical skill or cognition 💥
Caffeine should therefore be individually trialled in training, with no evidence yet supporting a female-specific optimal dose or timing strategy ☕️
Reference
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/42588052/
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