Systematic Literature Review on the Immediate Effects of Caffeine on Athletes' Sports Performance

Systematic Literature Review on the Immediate Effects of Caffeine on Athletes' Sports Performance | Research Square window.SnipcartSettings = { analytics: { enabled: false } }; (function() { var accessVector = localStorage.getItem('access_vector') || ''; window.dataLayer = window.dataLayer || []; if (accessVector) { window.dataLayer.push({ user: { profile: { profileInfo: { snid: accessVector } } } }); } })(); (function(w,d,s,l,i){w[l]=w[l]||[];w[l].push({'gtm.start':new Date().getTime(),event:'gtm.js'});var f=d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0],j=d.createElement(s),dl=l!='dataLayer'?'&l='+l:'';j.async=true;j.src='https://www.googletagmanager.com/gtm.js?id='+i+dl;f.parentNode.insertBefore(j,f);})(window,document,'script','dataLayer','GTM-K279D39R'); Browse Preprints In Review Journals COVID-19 Preprints AJE Video Bytes Research Tools Research Promotion AJE Professional Editing AJE Rubriq About Preprint Platform In Review Editorial Policies Our Team Advisory Board Help Center Sign In Submit a Preprint Cite Share Download PDF Research Article Systematic Literature Review on the Immediate Effects of Caffeine on Athletes' Sports Performance YuChen Lu, Cheng Wang This is a preprint; it has not been peer reviewed by a journal. https://doi.org/ 10.21203/rs.3.rs-5658525/v1 This work is licensed under a CC BY 4.0 License Status: Posted Version 1 posted You are reading this latest preprint version Abstract Research objective: This article aims to systematically summarize recent studies on the effects of caffeine on athletes' athletic performance, with a focus on exploring the mechanism of caffeine's action and the lack of empirical research. The goal is to provide a reference for domestic athle tes to use caffeine as a sports supplement, and to provide suggestions for future research. Method: By searching the China National Knowledge Infrastructure (CNKI) and PubMed databases for 417 empirical research articles on caffeine and exercise performance from August 2019 to August 2024, a systematic review was conducted to select 40 eligible articles. Analyze the specific impact of caffeine on exercise performance based on multiple di mensions such as sample information, caffeine intake, and test items. Results: The study found that the positive effects of caffeine on athletic performance have been validated in multiple fields such as strength, endurance, specialized physical and psychological abilities. Among them, the positive impact of strength performance accounts for 75%, endurance performance accounts for 75%, and sensitivity performance shows a negative impact of 20%. The vast majority of studies focus on male athletes aged 20-25 with training experience, and the commonly used caffeine intake is 3 or 6mg/kg. Most studies choose to let participants rest for 60 minutes after intake for testing. Conclusion: The research results show that although the number of empirical studies on the impact of caffeine on exercise performance is stable both do mestically and internationally, the sample selection is biased towards the 20-25 age group, and the exploration scope still needs to be expanded. It is suggested that future research can consider a wider range of exercise programs and populat ions, while conducting in-depth studies on the effects of different caffeine intake and combinations on various types of exercise performance, in order to improve caffeine supplementation plans and reduce potential negative effects . Caffeine Athletic performance Physical fitness Psychological ability Specialized sports performance Figures Figure 1 Figure 2 Figure 3 Figure 4 Figure 5 Figure 6 Figure 7 Figure 8 Figure 9 Figure 10 Figure 11 Figure 12 Figure 13 Figure 14 Figure 15 Figure 16 Introduction In today's society, the number of professional competitions and various social competitions is also increasing year by year. The level of athletes of various types and the requirements for ranking are also gradually improving. Under the premise of hard training, many athletes choose caffeine supplements, health care products to improve the performance of the game to achieve better results [1] . In addition, many domestic and foreign scholars have conducted a systematic study on the improvement of athletes' performance by caffeine. However, there is no article summarizing and evaluating the subject selection, reagent selection and the affected types of motor performance in these studies in a unified way. This paper reviews many domestic and foreign literature about the effect of caffeine on athletes' athletic performance, including the action mechanism of caffeine, the basic theory of caffeine affecting athletic performance, the selection of relevant experimental subjects, the intake of caffeine and the categories of athletic performance that caffeine can improve. In order to put forward the corresponding opinions on the use of caffeine as sports supplement for domestic athletes and provide some reference for the establishment of more detailed caffeine supplement scheme for each special event. Caffeine, a xanthine alkaloid compound, is found naturally in many plant species, such as tea, coffee, cocoa, and kola nuts, and can be added artificially to foods and beverages [1] . Caffeine is one of the most frequently consumed mental stimulants in the world, and is particularly famous for its effects on alertness performance and potential health benefits. The effect of central stimulation by caffeine is primarily responsible for increased concentration, increased performance, reduced fatigue, and lethargy [3] [4] . Caffeine is a competitive inhibitor of adenosine, similar in structure to adenosine. Adenosine is a neuromodulator. When combined with receptors, adenosine can affect nerve impulses, inhibit movement-related perception and finally cause fatigue. As a competitive inhibitor of adenosine, caffeine can bind to adenosine receptors to block the inhibition of adenosine on the central nervous system, reduce fatigue perception, and enhance cognitive ability and cognitive response. This inhibitory response can alter the autonomic nervous system, resulting in more pronounced increases in systolic blood pressure and heart rate during exercise. At the same time, caffeine in the liver can be converted into the key to xanthine, which can save glycogen consumption to a certain extent, to a greater extent, the endurance needs of the project [5] [6] . On the issue of using caffeine to improve athletes' performance, the safety of caffeine should be guaranteed and the safe dose should be known first. It has been confirmed in previous studies that given the correct dose of caffeine, it will not have a negative impact on the human body, and there is no withdrawal reaction. [7] . Generally speaking, 400mg of caffeine throughout the day does not pose a safety risk to healthy adults. However, 200mg of caffeine throughout the day is a relatively safe dose for general health, pregnant women and teenagers. [7] [8] . Notably, do not give caffeine to patients with mental illness or allergies to caffeine and its products to avoid serious side effects [9] [10] . Many studies have proved that caffeine has the effect of delaying fatigue for both human and experimental animals. one of the main reasons is that caffeine has the effect of promoting force and resisting fatigue. in the central nervous system, caffeine regulates the dopaminergic signaling pathway through adenosine, thus activating motor neurons to drive the movement, and maintaining the motor motivation at the same time. in the periphery, caffeine can delay exercise fatigue by antagonizing adenosine receptor, increasing sympathetic nerve activity, reducing muscle pain, enhancing fatty acid oxidation, and saving glycogen [11] . The mechanism of caffeine on motor performance is shown in Fig. 1. Sports performance has always been the research focus of sports researchers and psychological service providers. Sports performance is the performance of athletes' competitive ability in training or competition [12] ; Some scholars also define the athletic performance as the combination and external performance of various competitive factors such as physical fitness, skills, and mental intelligence during the competition [13] [14] . Through summarizing various studies, we have found that although different researchers have different understanding of motion table, physical fitness, skills and psychological ability (cognitive ability) are the elements recognized by many scholars. Through literature review, the specific dimensions of athletic performance that caffeine can improve are shown in Fig. 2. Relying on the dimension of caffeine improving athletes' performance, this paper mainly summarizes the contents about special sports performance, jumping ability, psychological ability, strength performance, endurance performance and sensitive performance. 1 Information and methods 1.1 Source 1.1.1 Retriever Search by that first author 1.1.2 Retrieval time limit August 2019 to august 2024 1.1.3 retrieval database China hownet database, pudmed database 1.1.4 Keywords English search terms: "Caffeine", "exercise", "sport performance", "physical performance", "psychological"; Chinese search terms: Chinese search terms: "caffeine", "exercise", "motor performance", "physical fitness", "psychological ability", "special technology". 1.1.5 Retrieval literature types Empirical research papers and works, etc. 1.1.6 manual retrieval 417 articles 1.1.7 retrieval strategy Logical grouping of search terms and Chinese search terms: "caffeine" and "exercise", "caffeine" and "motor performance", "caffeine" and "physical", "caffeine" and "psychological ability", "caffeine" and "special technology". English search terms: "caffee" and "exercise", "caffee" and "sport performance", "caffee" and "physical performance", "caffee" and "psychological". 1.2 Inclusion and exclusion criteria 1.2.1 Inclusion criteria ① High-quality articles related to the effects and influencing mechanisms of caffeine ② High-quality articles related to athletic performance ③ High-quality articles related to the effects of caffeine on athletic performance. 1.2.2 Exclusions Articles with the purpose and content not related to this review and repetitive studies were included. Non-cssci and sci articles. Articles unrelated to athletic performance. Articles that are not empirical. There were no articles that used caffeine alone or did not show an immediate effect. 1.3 Data extraction A total of 275 articles were obtained in the initial computer searches, including 110 Chinese articles and 165 English articles. The articles with poor correlation and outdated content were excluded, and 40 articles meeting the criteria were included for systematic review. Specific literature retrieval process with reference to figure 3 2 results This paper uses the method of systematic literature review to sort out the articles related to the immediate effect of caffeine on exercise performance in the past five years. First, we pay attention to the overall trend of articles published according to Fig. 4 . In the five years of inclusion criteria, there are high-quality articles in related fields. Secondly, in terms of the number of articles published, there is not much difference between the years in the five years, which proves that there is still some research significance in this field. At the same time, it can also show that there are still vacancies in research oriented to this field. 2.1 Sample Information 2.1.1 Sample motion types Among the 40 articles included in the study, 38 articles reported information on exercise item or type of study sample (95%), and the distribution is shown in Fig. 5 . The sports population that received the most attention in the related research on the immediate effect of caffeine on sports performance included fitness lovers and general sports lovers (29.27%), followed by taekwondo, boxing, judo and jujitsu athletes, which were fighting sports (21.95%), and compared with the former two populations, the research in this research field for other types of projects was less. This reflects the lack of research in other specific areas and may also be due to the mechanism of caffeine itself. 2.1.2 Sample age Thirty-two of the 40 articles included in this article reported the mean age of study samples (80%), distributed as shown in Fig. 6 . It could be seen that the sample age was mainly concentrated in the 20–25 years old (56.25%), followed by more studies in the 20 years old and under (25%), and the sample age above 25 years old was significantly less (18.75%), which might be related to the higher requirement of young people on their own motor performance. 2.1.3 Subject gender Among the 40 articles included in the study, 39 articles reported the gender of the study sample and the corresponding number (97.5%), and the distribution was shown in Fig. 7 . The overall sample size was 761, including 506 males (66.49%), 255 females (33.50%), 31 articles containing male samples (79.49%), and 19 articles containing female samples (48.72%). It can be clearly seen that the number of male samples is much higher than that of female samples in both sample size and literature selection frequency. 2.1.4 Sample training The training of study samples was reported in all the 40 articles included in this article. However, because the comparison of trained and untrained samples was conducted in one article, the statistics were not included. The rest of the distribution was shown in Fig. 8 . It could be seen from the observation that most of the subjects selected in the study had training experience (82.05%). 2.2 caffeine intake 2.2.1 Daily mean caffeine intake Among the 40 articles included in this article, 17 reported a sample's average daily caffeine intake (42.5%). Eight articles (47.05%) were reported as total and nine articles (52.94%) were reported as per kg of body weight. There was no significant difference in the number of samples for low, medium and high caffeine intake, which may be because in previous studies, some research papers reflected that daily caffeine intake habits did not affect the improvement brought by immediate caffeine intake. 2.2.2 Sample caffeine intake in the experiment Among the 40 articles included in the study, 38 reported the sample caffeine intake (95%) in the experiment, and four of them were described by the total caffeine intake without analysis. Therefore, the data in the final 34 articles (85%) were available for statistics. The distribution of sample caffeine intake in the specific experiment is shown in Fig. 9 . Observations indicate that the largest number of articles selected samples for caffeine intake were 3mg/kg(64.7%) and 6mg/kg(38.24%). The other intake amounts were relatively small, which might be due to the fact that the 6mg/kg caffeine intake was the most effective dose confirmed by the academic circles without causing side effects, while 3mg/kg caffeine was the lowest and effective intake considered by most scholars. 2.2.3 Duration of rest after caffeine intake Thirty-seven of the 40 articles included in this article reported the duration of rest after caffeine intake (90.5%), distributed as shown in Fig. 10 . It was observed that after intake of caffeine, most researchers chose to rest the subjects for 60min(59.46%), and the samples with the rest duration longer than 30min accounted for 89.19% of the total samples. This may be due to the fact that the concentration of caffeine in the blood reaches a peak 30-60min after intake, and the boosting effect of caffeine usually lasts for 3–5 h. However, there were still four articles that allowed the subjects to start the experiment after only 15min rest after intake of caffeine (10.81%), which might be due to their choice of letting the subjects use caffeinated chewing gum. 2.3 test items Among the included articles, there are various types or items of research on the types of athletic performance. Among the tests for the strength performance of athletes, there are grip strength test, push-up test, bench press test, maximum strength test and special strength test, etc. In testing the psychological ability of athletes, there are tests of subjective fatigue, awakening and alertness, etc. At the same time, there are many articles related to the test of the subjects' endurance performance, sensitivity performance and special sports performance. For statistical convenience, this paper comprehensively classified the athletic performance and the types of athletic performance that caffeine mainly improved into six specific athletic performance, jumping ability, psychological ability, strength performance, endurance performance and sensitive performance for systematic analysis. 2.3.1 Effects of caffeine intake on special exercise performance Fourteen of the 40 articles included in this study focused on the effects of caffeine intake on specific motor performance (35%), distributed as shown in Fig. 11 . It can be seen that the majority of valid experimental samples (57.14%) were still valid, while some of the other invalid samples were due to low caffeine consumption. However, it cannot be denied that the particularity of some sports may result in the improvement of body performance brought by caffeine, which cannot be reflected in the special sports performance of this part of the sport. 2.3.2 Effects of caffeine intake on jumping ability Among the 40 articles included in the study, eight articles focused on the effect of caffeine intake on jump ability (20%), including jump height (62.5%), peak speed during jump (25%), and reverse jump (87.5%), with the specific distribution shown in Fig. 12 . The majority (62.5%) of the experimental samples were valid, but some (25%) were not. This indicates that further detailed studies are still needed in the follow-up studies to determine whether caffeine can improve the jumping ability of athletes. 2.3.3 Effects of caffeine intake on psychological ability Among the 40 articles included in the study, 13 articles focused on the effect of caffeine intake on mental ability (32.5%), with the specific distribution shown in Fig. 13 . Observations show that the majority of valid experimental samples (53.85%) are invalid samples (38.46%). Due to the existence of partially effective situation, there is no unified standard on which specific psychological abilities can be improved by caffeine intake in academic circles. 2.3.3 Effects of caffeine intake on strength performance Twenty of the 40 articles included in this study focused on the effect of caffeine intake on strength performance (50%), with a specific distribution shown in Fig. 14 . Observations showed that the majority (75%) of the experimental samples were valid, while the proportion of invalid samples was only 25%, and there was no partially valid sample. 2.3.4 Effects of caffeine intake on endurance performance Eight of the 40 articles included in this study focused on the effects of caffeine intake on endurance performance (20%), with a specific distribution shown in Fig. 15 . Observation shows that the majority of effective experimental samples (75%). Only 25% of samples were invalid and no partially valid samples were present. 2.3.5 Effects of caffeine intake on sensitive performance Only five of the 40 articles included in this article focused on the effect of caffeine intake on sensitive performance (12.5%), with a specific distribution shown in Fig. 16 . Observations revealed both valid and invalid samples (40%) and, unlike all previous tests, caffeine intake had a negative effect of 20% on sensitive performance. 3 discussion This paper makes a systematic analysis of the empirical studies on the correlation between caffeine intake and exercise performance in the past five years both in China and abroad. The results show that: First, the number of empirical studies in this field at home and abroad is not significantly reduced, but generally tend to be 20–25 years old, with training experience of male athletes; Second, although not all studies have reported the daily average caffeine intake of samples, some articles still pay attention to this aspect. At the same time, most studies choose 3 or 6mg/kg as the caffeine content of the subjects in the experiment, and generally choose to let the subjects rest for 60min after consuming caffeine for training or various tests. Third, caffeine was able to improve the endurance, strength and sensitivity performance of some subjects in physical performance, and it also improved the jumping ability, psychological ability and special sports performance of some subjects. Based on the research analysis and conclusions, the following three suggestions were put forward in order to create new research ideas for this field of research. 3.1 Selection of study subjects 3.1.1 Expanding the scope of sports events The current research mainly focuses on fitness enthusiasts and combat athletes, while the research on other sports types is relatively rare. It is suggested that future research can be extended to more kinds of exercise programs to fully understand the effects of caffeine on different types of exercise. This will not only help to fill the gap in the existing research, but may also reveal the different mechanisms of action of caffeine on various sports. 3.1.2 Focus on samples of different age groups At present, research samples are mainly concentrated in young people between the ages of 20 and 25, which may be related to young people's attention to sports performance. It is suggested that future research may include subjects of different ages, such as teenagers and middle-aged and elderly people, to understand the effects of caffeine on different age groups. This will provide more comprehensive study data and help apply the results to a wider population. 3.1.3 Increase the proportion of female samples The number of male samples in the current study is much higher than that of female samples, which may lead to the inadequate applicability of the results to women. It is recommended that future studies increase the proportion of female samples to ensure the applicability and representation of research results to female populations. In addition, special studies for women also help understand the role of gender in the effect of caffeine on athletic performance. 3.1.4 considering the diversity of training At present, most of the studies focus on the subjects with training experience, with relatively few untrained samples. It was suggested that future studies could cover subjects with different training backgrounds, including those without any training experience, to understand the effects of caffeine on motor performance under different training conditions. This will help to understand more fully the mechanism of action of caffeine and its performance in different populations. 3.2 Ways of Caffeine Consumption 3.2.1 Assessment of Daily Caffeine Consumption Although the current data show that there is no significant difference in the effect of daily caffeine intake on immediate intake, the number of studies in this regard is small, and it is recommended that future studies can further explore the effect of daily caffeine intake on caffeine. This may help guide athletes to make proper daily caffeine intake arrangements on an individual basis to optimize athletic performance. 3.2.2 Standardization of caffeine intake There is less literature reporting as a total amount relative to caffeine intake reported as per kg of body weight. It is recommended that future studies may use more standardized methods for reporting caffeine intake, such as expressed as per kg of body weight, to improve the reliability and comparability of the study. 3.2.3 Selection of caffeine intake in the experiment Most studies chose to administer 3mg/kg or 6mg/kg of caffeine to the samples, presumably because these doses were considered effective and had a low risk of side effects. However, it is suggested that future studies may explore the effects of lower or higher doses of caffeine intake, especially on low or high weight subjects, and the needs at different stages of exercise, such as before, during, or after training. 3.2.4 Rest time after caffeine intake Most studies chose to allow subjects to rest for 60 minutes after consuming caffeine, which is in line with the time when caffeine concentration in the blood reaches its peak. However, some studies also choose shorter rest periods. It is recommended that in future studies, the most appropriate rest time should be determined according to the type of caffeine intake (such as coffee, caffeine tablets or chewing gum) and the specific situation of the subjects, to ensure the accuracy and effectiveness of the experiment. 3.2.5 Comparison of the effects of different forms of caffeine Different forms of caffeine intake (e.g., coffee, tea, caffeine tablets, chewing gum, etc.) may have different effects on the motion table. It is recommended that future studies may compare the effects of different forms of caffeine intake to determine which form is most effective before exercise. 3.3 Caffeine Improves Exercise Performance 3.3.1 Increase research on special sports performance The ultimate purpose of the relevant research should be to better improve the special sports performance of participants in different projects. However, the effect of caffeine on the special sports performance is not comprehensive and perfect enough at present. The empirical research in the field of non-fitness and fighting is obviously insufficient. In order to make up for this gap, we should deeply explore the influence of caffeine in various special sports, including but not limited to basketball, football, swimming, track and field, in order to identify the specific effect of caffeine in different sports. 3.3.2 research direction should be more detailed This study shows that the physical and psychological tests are relatively more comprehensive and detailed, such as strength, speed and endurance in physical fitness, and cognition, fatigue and alertness in psychological ability. These studies can help coaches, athletes and sports enthusiasts to choose the appropriate caffeine intake according to their own needs. However, the research on technology and tactics is still not detailed enough and there are deficiencies. Declarations (Wang Cheng) Corresponding author email address: [email protected] （Lu Yuchen）Corresponding author email address: [email protected] Lu Yuchen completed the writing of the main manuscript, and Wang Cheng did the formatting and content optimization. Lu Yuchen’s region:School of Public Policy and Management of Northwestern Polytechnical University ,Xi'an,China,710129 Wang Cheng’s region:Sports Department of Northwestern Polytechnical University, Xi'an,China, 710072 Consent for publication： Funding：none Funding Declaration：none Conflict of interests: none. Patient consent: Not applicable. Since, This study did not involve human experiments and was only a literature review, no ethical application was made. Author Contribution Lu Yuchen completed the writing of the main manuscript, and Wang Cheng did the formatting and content optimization. References Martins G L, Guilherme J P L F, Ferreira L H B, et al. 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Effects of different doses of caffeine supplementation on Collegiate Male Volleyball Players’ Specific Performance and skills: a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled, crossover study[J]. Nutrients, 2023, 15(18): 4049. Karayigit R, Naderi A, Akca F, et al. Effects of different doses of caffeinated coffee on muscular endurance, cognitive performance, and cardiac autonomic modulation in caffeine naive female athletes[J]. Nutrients, 2020, 13(1): 2. Merino-Fernández M, Giráldez-Costas V, González-García J, et al. Effects of 3 mg/kg body mass of caffeine on the performance of Jiu-Jitsu elite athletes[J]. Nutrients, 2022, 14(3): 675. Ouergui I, Mahdi N, Delleli S, et al. Acute effects of low dose of caffeine ingestion combined with conditioning activity on psychological and physical performances of male and fema le taekwondo athletes[J]. Nutrients, 2022, 14(3): 571. Shabir A, Hooton A, Spencer G, et al. The influence of caffeine expectancies on simulated soccer performance in recreational individuals[J]. Nutrients, 2019, 11(10): 2289. Montalvo-Alonso J J, Ferragut C, del Val-Manzano M, et al. Sex Differences in the Ergogenic Response of Acute Caffeine Intake on Muscular Strength, Power and Endurance Performance in Resistance-Trained Individuals: A Randomized Controlled Trial[J]. Nutrients, 2024, 16(11): 1760. Yang Wei, Zhao Shaocong, Xu Wenxin, et al. Acute caffeine and theanine supplementation can alleviate the negative effects of mental fatigue on coordination and aerobic performance of football players [J]. China Journal of Sports Medicine, 2024,43(04):281-293. Wang Xiaoting, Zhou Zhihui, Feng Liang, et al. Effects of caffeine supplementation before exercise on the cognitive performance of Chinese male badminton players under fatigue [J]. Journal of Beijing Sport University, 2021,44(05):138-147. Additional Declarations No competing interests reported. Cite Share Download PDF Status: Posted Version 1 posted You are reading this latest preprint version Research Square lets you share your work early, gain feedback from the community, and start making changes to your manuscript prior to peer review in a journal. As a division of Research Square Company, we’re committed to making research communication faster, fairer, and more useful. We do this by developing innovative software and high quality services for the global research community. Our growing team is made up of researchers and industry professionals working together to solve the most critical problems facing scientific publishing. Also discoverable on Platform About Our Team In Review Editorial Policies Advisory Board Help Center Resources Author Services Accessibility API Access RSS feed Manage Cookie Preferences © Research Square 2026 | ISSN 2693-5015 (online) Privacy Policy Terms of Service Do Not Sell My Personal Information {"props":{"pageProps":{"initialData":{"identity":"rs-5658525","acceptedTermsAndConditions":true,"allowDirectSubmit":true,"archivedVersions":[],"articleType":"Research Article","associatedPublications":[],"authors":[{"id":402515617,"identity":"0bfa1970-5b90-4cb5-ac7e-16c6a3dc593b","order_by":0,"name":"YuChen Lu","email":"","orcid":"","institution":"Northwestern Polytechnical University","correspondingAuthor":false,"prefix":"","firstName":"YuChen","middleName":"","lastName":"Lu","suffix":""},{"id":402515618,"identity":"f24e7165-b776-4bad-8646-a28348a6a266","order_by":1,"name":"Cheng Wang","email":"data:image/png;base64,iVBORw0KGgoAAAANSUhEUgAAAZAAAAAyAQMAAABI0h/eAAAABlBMVEX///8AAABVwtN+AAAACXBIWXMAAA7EAAAOxAGVKw4bAAAAt0lEQVRIiWNgGAWjYDACCTBZI8fG3nyAJC3HjPl4jiWQpIU5cZ5EjgJxOvhn9xh+LvjFlt7GkMPA8KNiGxGW3DljLD2zTya3jeHsAcaeM7cJazGQyN0gzdvDltvG2JfAzNhGnJbNv3l7mNPZmHkMiNayTZrnB3MCGxuxWiRu5H+z5m04ZtjGw5ZwkCi/8M9IS77N86dGXn7+44MPflQQoQUMGNsg9AEi1YPAHxLUjoJRMApGwcgDAKq9OC5EBJ09AAAAAElFTkSuQmCC","orcid":"","institution":"Northwestern Polytechnical University","correspondingAuthor":true,"prefix":"","firstName":"Cheng","middleName":"","lastName":"Wang","suffix":""}],"badges":[],"createdAt":"2024-12-17 05:38:25","currentVersionCode":1,"declarations":"","doi":"10.21203/rs.3.rs-5658525/v1","doiUrl":"https://doi.org/10.21203/rs.3.rs-5658525/v1","draftVersion":[],"editorialEvents":[],"editorialNote":"","failedWorkflow":false,"files":[{"id":74284769,"identity":"5611b487-e2eb-4b2e-a66a-037b39bed423","added_by":"auto","created_at":"2025-01-20 16:12:32","extension":"png","order_by":1,"title":"Figure 1","display":"","copyAsset":false,"role":"figure","size":73583,"visible":true,"origin":"","legend":"\u003cp\u003eEffect mechanism of caffeine on exercise performance\u003c/p\u003e","description":"","filename":"1.png","url":"https://assets-eu.researchsquare.com/files/rs-5658525/v1/f32313f07f4417a292fabf33.png"},{"id":74284776,"identity":"da9addf8-886d-4510-9656-8b948be1357d","added_by":"auto","created_at":"2025-01-20 16:12:35","extension":"png","order_by":2,"title":"Figure 2","display":"","copyAsset":false,"role":"figure","size":49742,"visible":true,"origin":"","legend":"\u003cp\u003eDimensions of caffeine intake improving motor performance\u003c/p\u003e","description":"","filename":"2.png","url":"https://assets-eu.researchsquare.com/files/rs-5658525/v1/f7fbd8357b076820ce8d87be.png"},{"id":74284792,"identity":"b24804dc-8592-46ea-9ce5-582ad3b57359","added_by":"auto","created_at":"2025-01-20 16:12:42","extension":"png","order_by":3,"title":"Figure 3","display":"","copyAsset":false,"role":"figure","size":36658,"visible":true,"origin":"","legend":"\u003cp\u003eliterature retrieval process\u003c/p\u003e","description":"","filename":"3.png","url":"https://assets-eu.researchsquare.com/files/rs-5658525/v1/765d4089e6d543059ad865af.png"},{"id":74284800,"identity":"cd2d1020-19e4-473d-b953-24c3836e728d","added_by":"auto","created_at":"2025-01-20 16:12:46","extension":"png","order_by":4,"title":"Figure 4","display":"","copyAsset":false,"role":"figure","size":14143,"visible":true,"origin":"","legend":"\u003cp\u003eYear of literature publication\u003c/p\u003e","description":"","filename":"4.png","url":"https://assets-eu.researchsquare.com/files/rs-5658525/v1/758e771df050654c36e1f482.png"},{"id":74284788,"identity":"39db437d-c233-41ac-95d7-5da4f976ce94","added_by":"auto","created_at":"2025-01-20 16:12:41","extension":"png","order_by":5,"title":"Figure 5","display":"","copyAsset":false,"role":"figure","size":82251,"visible":true,"origin":"","legend":"\u003cp\u003eSample Identity\u003c/p\u003e","description":"","filename":"5.png","url":"https://assets-eu.researchsquare.com/files/rs-5658525/v1/1275a6d6192e3ef0ef01748a.png"},{"id":74284758,"identity":"1038b4b7-7fac-4fd5-96a1-41056e00e558","added_by":"auto","created_at":"2025-01-20 16:12:19","extension":"png","order_by":6,"title":"Figure 6","display":"","copyAsset":false,"role":"figure","size":15044,"visible":true,"origin":"","legend":"\u003cp\u003eSample mean age\u003c/p\u003e","description":"","filename":"6.png","url":"https://assets-eu.researchsquare.com/files/rs-5658525/v1/7640f06ee02000e2edf2e4c0.png"},{"id":74284777,"identity":"df643d9e-53ea-4c84-85a3-4987911a4837","added_by":"auto","created_at":"2025-01-20 16:12:35","extension":"png","order_by":7,"title":"Figure 7","display":"","copyAsset":false,"role":"figure","size":28638,"visible":true,"origin":"","legend":"\u003cp\u003eSubject gender\u003c/p\u003e","description":"","filename":"7.png","url":"https://assets-eu.researchsquare.com/files/rs-5658525/v1/f53c242bade480f72481de00.png"},{"id":74284813,"identity":"8d1e58f5-7ca6-4944-9926-b425f1077736","added_by":"auto","created_at":"2025-01-20 16:12:52","extension":"png","order_by":8,"title":"Figure 8","display":"","copyAsset":false,"role":"figure","size":12913,"visible":true,"origin":"","legend":"\u003cp\u003eSample training\u003c/p\u003e","description":"","filename":"8.png","url":"https://assets-eu.researchsquare.com/files/rs-5658525/v1/23ae3dffe76514c21790eb10.png"},{"id":74284831,"identity":"5a9c6587-81c7-4329-86b5-ee820a027649","added_by":"auto","created_at":"2025-01-20 16:12:55","extension":"png","order_by":9,"title":"Figure 9","display":"","copyAsset":false,"role":"figure","size":7970,"visible":true,"origin":"","legend":"\u003cp\u003eSample caffeine intake in the experiment\u003c/p\u003e","description":"","filename":"9.png","url":"https://assets-eu.researchsquare.com/files/rs-5658525/v1/ce6e87e4aa30720d3e815781.png"},{"id":74284760,"identity":"ca9c59af-e220-48f9-beed-f0f4f303d0d8","added_by":"auto","created_at":"2025-01-20 16:12:20","extension":"png","order_by":10,"title":"Figure 10","display":"","copyAsset":false,"role":"figure","size":7126,"visible":true,"origin":"","legend":"\u003cp\u003eDuration of rest after caffeine intake\u003c/p\u003e","description":"","filename":"10.png","url":"https://assets-eu.researchsquare.com/files/rs-5658525/v1/f24f7dd5138fa724e2156c43.png"},{"id":74284768,"identity":"5308d01c-b90b-403e-9459-bf52039c0934","added_by":"auto","created_at":"2025-01-20 16:12:32","extension":"png","order_by":11,"title":"Figure 11","display":"","copyAsset":false,"role":"figure","size":12811,"visible":true,"origin":"","legend":"\u003cp\u003eEffects of caffeine intake on special exercise performance\u003c/p\u003e","description":"","filename":"11.png","url":"https://assets-eu.researchsquare.com/files/rs-5658525/v1/74d551d686e32988643ed642.png"},{"id":74284826,"identity":"aa1822e8-cd02-470b-9777-f92d6c86de57","added_by":"auto","created_at":"2025-01-20 16:12:54","extension":"png","order_by":12,"title":"Figure 12","display":"","copyAsset":false,"role":"figure","size":12308,"visible":true,"origin":"","legend":"\u003cp\u003eEffects of caffeine intake on jumping ability\u003c/p\u003e","description":"","filename":"12.png","url":"https://assets-eu.researchsquare.com/files/rs-5658525/v1/efd366f1ed2f25b3eee7652d.png"},{"id":74284790,"identity":"c063ba3e-b372-4002-8340-d155a479d984","added_by":"auto","created_at":"2025-01-20 16:12:42","extension":"png","order_by":13,"title":"Figure 13","display":"","copyAsset":false,"role":"figure","size":12790,"visible":true,"origin":"","legend":"\u003cp\u003eEffects of caffeine intake on psychological ability\u003c/p\u003e","description":"","filename":"13.png","url":"https://assets-eu.researchsquare.com/files/rs-5658525/v1/3902f8da0b7e8d2607a389f6.png"},{"id":74284751,"identity":"2c05da10-1dac-45b9-8ebe-aad007312f4b","added_by":"auto","created_at":"2025-01-20 16:12:12","extension":"png","order_by":14,"title":"Figure 14","display":"","copyAsset":false,"role":"figure","size":13041,"visible":true,"origin":"","legend":"\u003cp\u003eImpacts of caffeine intake on strength performance\u003c/p\u003e","description":"","filename":"14.png","url":"https://assets-eu.researchsquare.com/files/rs-5658525/v1/c72496db9fb4b318c19730fd.png"},{"id":74284807,"identity":"7c3fec01-42fc-4177-a2d3-80c70d99145b","added_by":"auto","created_at":"2025-01-20 16:12:48","extension":"png","order_by":15,"title":"Figure 15","display":"","copyAsset":false,"role":"figure","size":11510,"visible":true,"origin":"","legend":"\u003cp\u003eEffects of caffeine intake on endurance performance\u003c/p\u003e","description":"","filename":"15.png","url":"https://assets-eu.researchsquare.com/files/rs-5658525/v1/1ff0c1d5b54f693c9561ada5.png"},{"id":74284762,"identity":"193a54ae-a301-4c0f-b8af-a906ff7bc011","added_by":"auto","created_at":"2025-01-20 16:12:24","extension":"png","order_by":16,"title":"Figure 16","display":"","copyAsset":false,"role":"figure","size":6922,"visible":true,"origin":"","legend":"\u003cp\u003eEffects of caffeine intake on sensitivity performance\u003c/p\u003e","description":"","filename":"16.png","url":"https://assets-eu.researchsquare.com/files/rs-5658525/v1/179feed1ec8463b9495e98ac.png"},{"id":77143034,"identity":"fb368e9e-6ef9-42b4-a1d9-ac234355ce77","added_by":"auto","created_at":"2025-02-25 14:02:18","extension":"pdf","order_by":0,"title":"","display":"","copyAsset":false,"role":"manuscript-pdf","size":1319031,"visible":true,"origin":"","legend":"","description":"","filename":"manuscript.pdf","url":"https://assets-eu.researchsquare.com/files/rs-5658525/v1/2fced100-19c5-4509-b274-e429f3fab50b.pdf"}],"financialInterests":"No competing interests reported.","formattedTitle":"Systematic Literature Review on the Immediate Effects of Caffeine on Athletes' Sports Performance","fulltext":[{"header":"Introduction","content":"\u003cp\u003eIn today\u0026apos;s society, the number of professional competitions and various social competitions is also increasing year by year. The level of athletes of various types and the requirements for ranking are also gradually improving. Under the premise of hard training, many athletes choose caffeine supplements, health care products to improve the performance of the game to achieve better results\u003csup\u003e[1]\u003c/sup\u003e. In addition, many domestic and foreign scholars have conducted a systematic study on the improvement of athletes\u0026apos; performance by caffeine. However, there is no article summarizing and evaluating the subject selection, reagent selection and the affected types of motor performance in these studies in a unified way. This paper reviews many domestic and foreign literature about the effect of caffeine on athletes\u0026apos; athletic performance, including the action mechanism of caffeine, the basic theory of caffeine affecting athletic performance, the selection of relevant experimental subjects, the intake of caffeine and the categories of athletic performance that caffeine can improve. In order to put forward the corresponding opinions on the use of caffeine as sports supplement for domestic athletes and provide some reference for the establishment of more detailed caffeine supplement scheme for each special event.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eCaffeine, a xanthine alkaloid compound, is found naturally in many plant species, such as tea, coffee, cocoa, and kola nuts, and can be added artificially to foods and beverages\u003csup\u003e[1]\u003c/sup\u003e. Caffeine is one of the most frequently consumed mental stimulants in the world, and is particularly famous for its effects on alertness performance and potential health benefits. The effect of central stimulation by caffeine is primarily responsible for increased concentration, increased performance, reduced fatigue, and lethargy\u003csup\u003e[3]\u003c/sup\u003e\u003csup\u003e[4]\u003c/sup\u003e. Caffeine is a competitive inhibitor of adenosine, similar in structure to adenosine. Adenosine is a neuromodulator. When combined with receptors, adenosine can affect nerve impulses, inhibit movement-related perception and finally cause fatigue. As a competitive inhibitor of adenosine, caffeine can bind to adenosine receptors to block the inhibition of adenosine on the central nervous system, reduce fatigue perception, and enhance cognitive ability and cognitive response. This inhibitory response can alter the autonomic nervous system, resulting in more pronounced increases in systolic blood pressure and heart rate during exercise. At the same time, caffeine in the liver can be converted into the key to xanthine, which can save glycogen consumption to a certain extent, to a greater extent, the endurance needs of the project\u003csup\u003e[5]\u003c/sup\u003e\u003csup\u003e[6]\u003c/sup\u003e.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eOn the issue of using caffeine to improve athletes\u0026apos; performance, the safety of caffeine should be guaranteed and the safe dose should be known first. It has been confirmed in previous studies that given the correct dose of caffeine, it will not have a negative impact on the human body, and there is no withdrawal reaction.\u003csup\u003e[7]\u003c/sup\u003e. Generally speaking, 400mg of caffeine throughout the day does not pose a safety risk to healthy adults. However, 200mg of caffeine throughout the day is a relatively safe dose for general health, pregnant women and teenagers.\u003csup\u003e[7]\u003c/sup\u003e\u003csup\u003e[8]\u003c/sup\u003e. Notably, do not give caffeine to patients with mental illness or allergies to caffeine and its products to avoid serious side effects\u003csup\u003e[9]\u003c/sup\u003e\u003csup\u003e[10]\u003c/sup\u003e.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eMany studies have proved that caffeine has the effect of delaying fatigue for both human and experimental animals. one of the main reasons is that caffeine has the effect of promoting force and resisting fatigue. in the central nervous system, caffeine regulates the dopaminergic signaling pathway through adenosine, thus activating motor neurons to drive the movement, and maintaining the motor motivation at the same time. in the periphery, caffeine can delay exercise fatigue by antagonizing adenosine receptor, increasing sympathetic nerve activity, reducing muscle pain, enhancing fatty acid oxidation, and saving glycogen\u003csup\u003e[11]\u003c/sup\u003e.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe mechanism of caffeine on motor performance is shown in Fig. 1.\u0026nbsp;\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eSports performance has always been the research focus of sports researchers and psychological service providers. Sports performance is the performance of athletes\u0026apos; competitive ability in training or competition\u003csup\u003e[12]\u003c/sup\u003e; Some scholars also define the athletic performance as the combination and external performance of various competitive factors such as physical fitness, skills, and mental intelligence during the competition\u003csup\u003e[13]\u003c/sup\u003e\u003csup\u003e[14]\u003c/sup\u003e. Through summarizing various studies, we have found that although different researchers have different understanding of motion table, physical fitness, skills and psychological ability (cognitive ability) are the elements recognized by many scholars. Through literature review, the specific dimensions of athletic performance that caffeine can improve are shown in Fig. 2.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eRelying on the dimension of caffeine improving athletes\u0026apos; performance, this paper mainly summarizes the contents about special sports performance, jumping ability, psychological ability, strength performance, endurance performance and sensitive performance.\u003c/p\u003e"},{"header":"1 Information and methods","content":"\u003cp\u003e1.1 Source\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e1.1.1 Retriever\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eSearch by that first author\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e1.1.2 Retrieval time limit\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eAugust 2019 to august 2024\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e1.1.3 retrieval database\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eChina hownet database, pudmed database\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e1.1.4 Keywords\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eEnglish search terms: \u0026quot;Caffeine\u0026quot;, \u0026quot;exercise\u0026quot;, \u0026quot;sport performance\u0026quot;, \u0026quot;physical performance\u0026quot;, \u0026quot;psychological\u0026quot;; Chinese search terms: Chinese search terms: \u0026quot;caffeine\u0026quot;, \u0026quot;exercise\u0026quot;, \u0026quot;motor performance\u0026quot;, \u0026quot;physical fitness\u0026quot;, \u0026quot;psychological ability\u0026quot;, \u0026quot;special technology\u0026quot;.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e1.1.5 Retrieval literature types\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eEmpirical research papers and works, etc.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e1.1.6 manual retrieval\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e417 articles\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e1.1.7 retrieval strategy\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eLogical grouping of search terms and Chinese search terms: \u0026quot;caffeine\u0026quot; and \u0026quot;exercise\u0026quot;, \u0026quot;caffeine\u0026quot; and \u0026quot;motor performance\u0026quot;, \u0026quot;caffeine\u0026quot; and \u0026quot;physical\u0026quot;, \u0026quot;caffeine\u0026quot; and \u0026quot;psychological ability\u0026quot;, \u0026quot;caffeine\u0026quot; and \u0026quot;special technology\u0026quot;. English search terms: \u0026quot;caffee\u0026quot; and \u0026quot;exercise\u0026quot;, \u0026quot;caffee\u0026quot; and \u0026quot;sport performance\u0026quot;, \u0026quot;caffee\u0026quot; and \u0026quot;physical performance\u0026quot;, \u0026quot;caffee\u0026quot; and \u0026quot;psychological\u0026quot;.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e1.2 Inclusion and exclusion criteria\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e1.2.1 Inclusion criteria\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e①\u0026nbsp;High-quality articles related to the effects and influencing mechanisms of caffeine\u0026nbsp;②\u0026nbsp;High-quality articles related to athletic performance\u0026nbsp;③\u0026nbsp;High-quality articles related to the effects of caffeine on athletic performance.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e1.2.2 Exclusions\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eArticles with the purpose and content not related to this review and repetitive studies were included. Non-cssci and sci articles. Articles unrelated to athletic performance. Articles that are not empirical. There were no articles that used caffeine alone or did not show an immediate effect.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e1.3 Data extraction\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eA total of 275 articles were obtained in the initial computer searches, including 110 Chinese articles and 165 English articles. The articles with poor correlation and outdated content were excluded, and 40 articles meeting the criteria were included for systematic review. Specific literature retrieval process with reference to figure 3\u003c/p\u003e"},{"header":"2 results","content":" \u003cp\u003eThis paper uses the method of systematic literature review to sort out the articles related to the immediate effect of caffeine on exercise performance in the past five years. First, we pay attention to the overall trend of articles published according to Fig.\u0026nbsp;\u003cspan refid=\"Fig4\" class=\"InternalRef\"\u003e4\u003c/span\u003e. In the five years of inclusion criteria, there are high-quality articles in related fields. Secondly, in terms of the number of articles published, there is not much difference between the years in the five years, which proves that there is still some research significance in this field. At the same time, it can also show that there are still vacancies in research oriented to this field.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cdiv id=\"Sec15\" class=\"Section2\"\u003e \u003ch2\u003e2.1 Sample Information\u003c/h2\u003e \u003cdiv id=\"Sec16\" class=\"Section3\"\u003e \u003ch2\u003e2.1.1 Sample motion types\u003c/h2\u003e \u003cp\u003e \u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eAmong the 40 articles included in the study, 38 articles reported information on exercise item or type of study sample (95%), and the distribution is shown in Fig.\u0026nbsp;\u003cspan refid=\"Fig5\" class=\"InternalRef\"\u003e5\u003c/span\u003e. The sports population that received the most attention in the related research on the immediate effect of caffeine on sports performance included fitness lovers and general sports lovers (29.27%), followed by taekwondo, boxing, judo and jujitsu athletes, which were fighting sports (21.95%), and compared with the former two populations, the research in this research field for other types of projects was less. This reflects the lack of research in other specific areas and may also be due to the mechanism of caffeine itself.\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/div\u003e \u003cdiv id=\"Sec17\" class=\"Section3\"\u003e \u003ch2\u003e2.1.2 Sample age\u003c/h2\u003e \u003cp\u003e \u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eThirty-two of the 40 articles included in this article reported the mean age of study samples (80%), distributed as shown in Fig.\u0026nbsp;\u003cspan refid=\"Fig6\" class=\"InternalRef\"\u003e6\u003c/span\u003e. It could be seen that the sample age was mainly concentrated in the 20\u0026ndash;25 years old (56.25%), followed by more studies in the 20 years old and under (25%), and the sample age above 25 years old was significantly less (18.75%), which might be related to the higher requirement of young people on their own motor performance.\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/div\u003e \u003cdiv id=\"Sec18\" class=\"Section3\"\u003e \u003ch2\u003e2.1.3 Subject gender\u003c/h2\u003e \u003cp\u003e \u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eAmong the 40 articles included in the study, 39 articles reported the gender of the study sample and the corresponding number (97.5%), and the distribution was shown in Fig.\u0026nbsp;\u003cspan refid=\"Fig7\" class=\"InternalRef\"\u003e7\u003c/span\u003e. The overall sample size was 761, including 506 males (66.49%), 255 females (33.50%), 31 articles containing male samples (79.49%), and 19 articles containing female samples (48.72%). It can be clearly seen that the number of male samples is much higher than that of female samples in both sample size and literature selection frequency.\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/div\u003e \u003cdiv id=\"Sec19\" class=\"Section3\"\u003e \u003ch2\u003e2.1.4 Sample training\u003c/h2\u003e \u003cp\u003e \u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eThe training of study samples was reported in all the 40 articles included in this article. However, because the comparison of trained and untrained samples was conducted in one article, the statistics were not included. The rest of the distribution was shown in Fig.\u0026nbsp;\u003cspan refid=\"Fig8\" class=\"InternalRef\"\u003e8\u003c/span\u003e. It could be seen from the observation that most of the subjects selected in the study had training experience (82.05%).\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/div\u003e \u003c/div\u003e \u003cdiv id=\"Sec20\" class=\"Section2\"\u003e \u003ch2\u003e2.2 caffeine intake\u003c/h2\u003e \u003cdiv id=\"Sec21\" class=\"Section3\"\u003e \u003ch2\u003e2.2.1 Daily mean caffeine intake\u003c/h2\u003e \u003cp\u003eAmong the 40 articles included in this article, 17 reported a sample's average daily caffeine intake (42.5%). Eight articles (47.05%) were reported as total and nine articles (52.94%) were reported as per kg of body weight. There was no significant difference in the number of samples for low, medium and high caffeine intake, which may be because in previous studies, some research papers reflected that daily caffeine intake habits did not affect the improvement brought by immediate caffeine intake.\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/div\u003e \u003cdiv id=\"Sec22\" class=\"Section3\"\u003e \u003ch2\u003e2.2.2 Sample caffeine intake in the experiment\u003c/h2\u003e \u003cp\u003e \u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eAmong the 40 articles included in the study, 38 reported the sample caffeine intake (95%) in the experiment, and four of them were described by the total caffeine intake without analysis. Therefore, the data in the final 34 articles (85%) were available for statistics. The distribution of sample caffeine intake in the specific experiment is shown in Fig.\u0026nbsp;\u003cspan refid=\"Fig9\" class=\"InternalRef\"\u003e9\u003c/span\u003e. Observations indicate that the largest number of articles selected samples for caffeine intake were 3mg/kg(64.7%) and 6mg/kg(38.24%). The other intake amounts were relatively small, which might be due to the fact that the 6mg/kg caffeine intake was the most effective dose confirmed by the academic circles without causing side effects, while 3mg/kg caffeine was the lowest and effective intake considered by most scholars.\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/div\u003e \u003cdiv id=\"Sec23\" class=\"Section3\"\u003e \u003ch2\u003e2.2.3 Duration of rest after caffeine intake\u003c/h2\u003e \u003cp\u003e \u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eThirty-seven of the 40 articles included in this article reported the duration of rest after caffeine intake (90.5%), distributed as shown in Fig.\u0026nbsp;\u003cspan refid=\"Fig10\" class=\"InternalRef\"\u003e10\u003c/span\u003e. It was observed that after intake of caffeine, most researchers chose to rest the subjects for 60min(59.46%), and the samples with the rest duration longer than 30min accounted for 89.19% of the total samples. This may be due to the fact that the concentration of caffeine in the blood reaches a peak 30-60min after intake, and the boosting effect of caffeine usually lasts for 3\u0026ndash;5 h. However, there were still four articles that allowed the subjects to start the experiment after only 15min rest after intake of caffeine (10.81%), which might be due to their choice of letting the subjects use caffeinated chewing gum.\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/div\u003e \u003c/div\u003e \u003cdiv id=\"Sec24\" class=\"Section2\"\u003e \u003ch2\u003e2.3 test items\u003c/h2\u003e \u003cp\u003eAmong the included articles, there are various types or items of research on the types of athletic performance. Among the tests for the strength performance of athletes, there are grip strength test, push-up test, bench press test, maximum strength test and special strength test, etc. In testing the psychological ability of athletes, there are tests of subjective fatigue, awakening and alertness, etc. At the same time, there are many articles related to the test of the subjects' endurance performance, sensitivity performance and special sports performance. For statistical convenience, this paper comprehensively classified the athletic performance and the types of athletic performance that caffeine mainly improved into six specific athletic performance, jumping ability, psychological ability, strength performance, endurance performance and sensitive performance for systematic analysis.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cdiv id=\"Sec25\" class=\"Section3\"\u003e \u003ch2\u003e2.3.1 Effects of caffeine intake on special exercise performance\u003c/h2\u003e \u003cp\u003e \u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eFourteen of the 40 articles included in this study focused on the effects of caffeine intake on specific motor performance (35%), distributed as shown in Fig.\u0026nbsp;\u003cspan refid=\"Fig11\" class=\"InternalRef\"\u003e11\u003c/span\u003e. It can be seen that the majority of valid experimental samples (57.14%) were still valid, while some of the other invalid samples were due to low caffeine consumption. However, it cannot be denied that the particularity of some sports may result in the improvement of body performance brought by caffeine, which cannot be reflected in the special sports performance of this part of the sport.\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/div\u003e \u003cdiv id=\"Sec26\" class=\"Section3\"\u003e \u003ch2\u003e2.3.2 Effects of caffeine intake on jumping ability\u003c/h2\u003e \u003cp\u003e \u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eAmong the 40 articles included in the study, eight articles focused on the effect of caffeine intake on jump ability (20%), including jump height (62.5%), peak speed during jump (25%), and reverse jump (87.5%), with the specific distribution shown in Fig.\u0026nbsp;\u003cspan refid=\"Fig12\" class=\"InternalRef\"\u003e12\u003c/span\u003e. The majority (62.5%) of the experimental samples were valid, but some (25%) were not. This indicates that further detailed studies are still needed in the follow-up studies to determine whether caffeine can improve the jumping ability of athletes.\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/div\u003e \u003cdiv id=\"Sec27\" class=\"Section3\"\u003e \u003ch2\u003e2.3.3 Effects of caffeine intake on psychological ability\u003c/h2\u003e \u003cp\u003e \u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eAmong the 40 articles included in the study, 13 articles focused on the effect of caffeine intake on mental ability (32.5%), with the specific distribution shown in Fig.\u0026nbsp;\u003cspan refid=\"Fig13\" class=\"InternalRef\"\u003e13\u003c/span\u003e. Observations show that the majority of valid experimental samples (53.85%) are invalid samples (38.46%). Due to the existence of partially effective situation, there is no unified standard on which specific psychological abilities can be improved by caffeine intake in academic circles.\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/div\u003e \u003cdiv id=\"Sec28\" class=\"Section3\"\u003e \u003ch2\u003e2.3.3 Effects of caffeine intake on strength performance\u003c/h2\u003e \u003cp\u003e \u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eTwenty of the 40 articles included in this study focused on the effect of caffeine intake on strength performance (50%), with a specific distribution shown in Fig.\u0026nbsp;\u003cspan refid=\"Fig14\" class=\"InternalRef\"\u003e14\u003c/span\u003e. Observations showed that the majority (75%) of the experimental samples were valid, while the proportion of invalid samples was only 25%, and there was no partially valid sample.\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/div\u003e \u003cdiv id=\"Sec29\" class=\"Section3\"\u003e \u003ch2\u003e2.3.4 Effects of caffeine intake on endurance performance\u003c/h2\u003e \u003cp\u003e \u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eEight of the 40 articles included in this study focused on the effects of caffeine intake on endurance performance (20%), with a specific distribution shown in Fig.\u0026nbsp;\u003cspan refid=\"Fig15\" class=\"InternalRef\"\u003e15\u003c/span\u003e. Observation shows that the majority of effective experimental samples (75%). Only 25% of samples were invalid and no partially valid samples were present.\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/div\u003e \u003cdiv id=\"Sec30\" class=\"Section3\"\u003e \u003ch2\u003e2.3.5 Effects of caffeine intake on sensitive performance\u003c/h2\u003e \u003cp\u003e \u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eOnly five of the 40 articles included in this article focused on the effect of caffeine intake on sensitive performance (12.5%), with a specific distribution shown in Fig.\u0026nbsp;\u003cspan refid=\"Fig16\" class=\"InternalRef\"\u003e16\u003c/span\u003e. Observations revealed both valid and invalid samples (40%) and, unlike all previous tests, caffeine intake had a negative effect of 20% on sensitive performance.\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/div\u003e \u003c/div\u003e"},{"header":"3 discussion","content":"\u003cp\u003eThis paper makes a systematic analysis of the empirical studies on the correlation between caffeine intake and exercise performance in the past five years both in China and abroad. The results show that: First, the number of empirical studies in this field at home and abroad is not significantly reduced, but generally tend to be 20\u0026ndash;25 years old, with training experience of male athletes; Second, although not all studies have reported the daily average caffeine intake of samples, some articles still pay attention to this aspect. At the same time, most studies choose 3 or 6mg/kg as the caffeine content of the subjects in the experiment, and generally choose to let the subjects rest for 60min after consuming caffeine for training or various tests. Third, caffeine was able to improve the endurance, strength and sensitivity performance of some subjects in physical performance, and it also improved the jumping ability, psychological ability and special sports performance of some subjects. Based on the research analysis and conclusions, the following three suggestions were put forward in order to create new research ideas for this field of research.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cdiv id=\"Sec32\" class=\"Section2\"\u003e \u003ch2\u003e3.1 Selection of study subjects\u003c/h2\u003e \u003cdiv id=\"Sec33\" class=\"Section3\"\u003e \u003ch2\u003e3.1.1 Expanding the scope of sports events\u003c/h2\u003e \u003cp\u003eThe current research mainly focuses on fitness enthusiasts and combat athletes, while the research on other sports types is relatively rare. It is suggested that future research can be extended to more kinds of exercise programs to fully understand the effects of caffeine on different types of exercise. This will not only help to fill the gap in the existing research, but may also reveal the different mechanisms of action of caffeine on various sports.\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/div\u003e \u003cdiv id=\"Sec34\" class=\"Section3\"\u003e \u003ch2\u003e3.1.2 Focus on samples of different age groups\u003c/h2\u003e \u003cp\u003eAt present, research samples are mainly concentrated in young people between the ages of 20 and 25, which may be related to young people's attention to sports performance. It is suggested that future research may include subjects of different ages, such as teenagers and middle-aged and elderly people, to understand the effects of caffeine on different age groups. This will provide more comprehensive study data and help apply the results to a wider population.\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/div\u003e \u003cdiv id=\"Sec35\" class=\"Section3\"\u003e \u003ch2\u003e3.1.3 Increase the proportion of female samples\u003c/h2\u003e \u003cp\u003eThe number of male samples in the current study is much higher than that of female samples, which may lead to the inadequate applicability of the results to women. It is recommended that future studies increase the proportion of female samples to ensure the applicability and representation of research results to female populations. In addition, special studies for women also help understand the role of gender in the effect of caffeine on athletic performance.\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/div\u003e \u003cdiv id=\"Sec36\" class=\"Section3\"\u003e \u003ch2\u003e3.1.4 considering the diversity of training\u003c/h2\u003e \u003cp\u003eAt present, most of the studies focus on the subjects with training experience, with relatively few untrained samples. It was suggested that future studies could cover subjects with different training backgrounds, including those without any training experience, to understand the effects of caffeine on motor performance under different training conditions. This will help to understand more fully the mechanism of action of caffeine and its performance in different populations.\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/div\u003e \u003c/div\u003e \u003cdiv id=\"Sec37\" class=\"Section2\"\u003e \u003ch2\u003e3.2 Ways of Caffeine Consumption\u003c/h2\u003e \u003cdiv id=\"Sec38\" class=\"Section3\"\u003e \u003ch2\u003e3.2.1 Assessment of Daily Caffeine Consumption\u003c/h2\u003e \u003cp\u003eAlthough the current data show that there is no significant difference in the effect of daily caffeine intake on immediate intake, the number of studies in this regard is small, and it is recommended that future studies can further explore the effect of daily caffeine intake on caffeine. This may help guide athletes to make proper daily caffeine intake arrangements on an individual basis to optimize athletic performance.\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/div\u003e \u003cdiv id=\"Sec39\" class=\"Section3\"\u003e \u003ch2\u003e3.2.2 Standardization of caffeine intake\u003c/h2\u003e \u003cp\u003eThere is less literature reporting as a total amount relative to caffeine intake reported as per kg of body weight. It is recommended that future studies may use more standardized methods for reporting caffeine intake, such as expressed as per kg of body weight, to improve the reliability and comparability of the study.\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/div\u003e \u003cdiv id=\"Sec40\" class=\"Section3\"\u003e \u003ch2\u003e3.2.3 Selection of caffeine intake in the experiment\u003c/h2\u003e \u003cp\u003eMost studies chose to administer 3mg/kg or 6mg/kg of caffeine to the samples, presumably because these doses were considered effective and had a low risk of side effects. However, it is suggested that future studies may explore the effects of lower or higher doses of caffeine intake, especially on low or high weight subjects, and the needs at different stages of exercise, such as before, during, or after training.\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/div\u003e \u003cdiv id=\"Sec41\" class=\"Section3\"\u003e \u003ch2\u003e3.2.4 Rest time after caffeine intake\u003c/h2\u003e \u003cp\u003eMost studies chose to allow subjects to rest for 60 minutes after consuming caffeine, which is in line with the time when caffeine concentration in the blood reaches its peak. However, some studies also choose shorter rest periods. It is recommended that in future studies, the most appropriate rest time should be determined according to the type of caffeine intake (such as coffee, caffeine tablets or chewing gum) and the specific situation of the subjects, to ensure the accuracy and effectiveness of the experiment.\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/div\u003e \u003cdiv id=\"Sec42\" class=\"Section3\"\u003e \u003ch2\u003e3.2.5 Comparison of the effects of different forms of caffeine\u003c/h2\u003e \u003cp\u003eDifferent forms of caffeine intake (e.g., coffee, tea, caffeine tablets, chewing gum, etc.) may have different effects on the motion table. It is recommended that future studies may compare the effects of different forms of caffeine intake to determine which form is most effective before exercise.\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/div\u003e \u003c/div\u003e \u003cdiv id=\"Sec43\" class=\"Section2\"\u003e \u003ch2\u003e3.3 Caffeine Improves Exercise Performance\u003c/h2\u003e \u003cdiv id=\"Sec44\" class=\"Section3\"\u003e \u003ch2\u003e3.3.1 Increase research on special sports performance\u003c/h2\u003e \u003cp\u003eThe ultimate purpose of the relevant research should be to better improve the special sports performance of participants in different projects. However, the effect of caffeine on the special sports performance is not comprehensive and perfect enough at present. The empirical research in the field of non-fitness and fighting is obviously insufficient. In order to make up for this gap, we should deeply explore the influence of caffeine in various special sports, including but not limited to basketball, football, swimming, track and field, in order to identify the specific effect of caffeine in different sports.\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/div\u003e \u003cdiv id=\"Sec45\" class=\"Section3\"\u003e \u003ch2\u003e3.3.2 research direction should be more detailed\u003c/h2\u003e \u003cp\u003eThis study shows that the physical and psychological tests are relatively more comprehensive and detailed, such as strength, speed and endurance in physical fitness, and cognition, fatigue and alertness in psychological ability. These studies can help coaches, athletes and sports enthusiasts to choose the appropriate caffeine intake according to their own needs. However, the research on technology and tactics is still not detailed enough and there are deficiencies.\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/div\u003e \u003c/div\u003e"},{"header":"Declarations","content":"\u003cp\u003e(Wang Cheng) Corresponding author email address: [email protected]\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e（Lu Yuchen）Corresponding author email address:\u0026nbsp;[email protected]\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eLu Yuchen completed the writing of the main manuscript, and Wang Cheng did the formatting and content optimization.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eLu Yuchen\u0026rsquo;s region:School of Public Policy and Management of Northwestern Polytechnical University ,Xi\u0026apos;an,China,710129\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eWang Cheng\u0026rsquo;s\u0026nbsp;region:Sports Department of Northwestern Polytechnical University, Xi\u0026apos;an,China, 710072\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eConsent for publication：\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eFunding：none\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eFunding Declaration：none\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eConflict of interests: none.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003ePatient consent: Not applicable. Since, This study did not involve human experiments and was only a literature review, no ethical application was made.\u003c/p\u003e\u003ch2\u003eAuthor Contribution\u003c/h2\u003e\u003cp\u003eLu Yuchen completed the writing of the main manuscript, and Wang Cheng did the formatting and content optimization.\u003c/p\u003e"},{"header":"References","content":"\u003col\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eMartins G L, Guilherme J P L F, Ferreira L H B, et al. Caffeine and exercise performance: Possible directions for definitive findings[J]. Frontiers in sports and active living, 2020, 2: 574854.\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eBarrea L, Pugliese G, Frias-Toral E, et al. Coffee consumption, health benefits and side effects: a narrative review and update for dietitians and nutritionists[J]. Critical reviews in food science and nutrition, 2023, 63(9): 1238-1261.\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eCarrillo J A, Benitez J. 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Journal of Beijing Sport University, 2021,44(05):138-147.\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003c/ol\u003e"}],"fulltextSource":"","fullText":"","funders":[],"hasAdminPriorityOnWorkflow":false,"hasManuscriptDocX":true,"hasOptedInToPreprint":true,"hasPassedJournalQc":"","hasAnyPriority":false,"hideJournal":true,"highlight":"","institution":"","isAcceptedByJournal":false,"isAuthorSuppliedPdf":false,"isDeskRejected":"","isHiddenFromSearch":false,"isInQc":false,"isInWorkflow":false,"isPdf":false,"isPdfUpToDate":true,"isWithdrawnOrRetracted":false,"journal":{"display":true,"email":"[email protected]","identity":"researchsquare","isNatureJournal":false,"hasQc":true,"allowDirectSubmit":true,"externalIdentity":"","sideBox":"","snPcode":"","submissionUrl":"/submission","title":"Research Square","twitterHandle":"researchsquare","acdcEnabled":true,"dfaEnabled":false,"editorialSystem":"","reportingPortfolio":"","inReviewEnabled":false,"inReviewRevisionsEnabled":true},"keywords":"Caffeine, Athletic performance, Physical fitness, Psychological ability, Specialized sports performance","lastPublishedDoi":"10.21203/rs.3.rs-5658525/v1","lastPublishedDoiUrl":"https://doi.org/10.21203/rs.3.rs-5658525/v1","license":{"name":"CC BY 4.0","url":"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/"},"manuscriptAbstract":"\u003cp\u003eResearch objective: This article aims to systematically summarize recent studies on the effects of caffeine on athletes' athletic performance, with a focus on exploring the mechanism of caffeine's action and the lack of empirical research. The goal is to provide a reference for domestic athle tes to use caffeine as a sports supplement, and to provide suggestions for future research.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eMethod: By searching the China National Knowledge Infrastructure (CNKI) and PubMed databases for 417 empirical research articles on caffeine and exercise performance from August 2019 to August 2024, a systematic review was conducted to select 40 eligible articles. Analyze the specific impact of caffeine on exercise performance based on multiple di mensions such as sample information, caffeine intake, and test items.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eResults: The study found that the positive effects of caffeine on athletic performance have been validated in multiple fields such as strength, endurance, specialized physical and psychological abilities. Among them, the positive impact of strength performance accounts for 75%, endurance performance accounts for 75%, and sensitivity performance shows a negative impact of 20%. The vast majority of studies focus on male athletes aged 20-25 with training experience, and the commonly used caffeine intake is 3 or 6mg/kg. Most studies choose to let participants rest for 60 minutes after intake for testing.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eConclusion: The research results show that although the number of empirical studies on the impact of caffeine on exercise performance is stable both do mestically and internationally, the sample selection is biased towards the 20-25 age group, and the exploration scope still needs to be expanded. It is suggested that future research can consider a wider range of exercise programs and populat ions, while conducting in-depth studies on the effects of different caffeine intake and combinations on various types of exercise performance, in order to improve caffeine supplementation plans and reduce potential negative effects .\u003c/p\u003e","manuscriptTitle":"Systematic Literature Review on the Immediate Effects of Caffeine on Athletes' Sports Performance","msid":"","msnumber":"","nonDraftVersions":[{"code":1,"date":"2025-01-20 15:58:56","doi":"10.21203/rs.3.rs-5658525/v1","editorialEvents":[{"type":"communityComments","content":0}],"status":"published","journal":{"display":true,"email":"[email protected]","identity":"researchsquare","isNatureJournal":false,"hasQc":true,"allowDirectSubmit":true,"externalIdentity":"","sideBox":"","snPcode":"","submissionUrl":"/submission","title":"Research Square","twitterHandle":"researchsquare","acdcEnabled":true,"dfaEnabled":false,"editorialSystem":"","reportingPortfolio":"","inReviewEnabled":false,"inReviewRevisionsEnabled":true}}],"origin":"","ownerIdentity":"ebf9e56a-3b1b-4604-8071-25ed1381dd78","owner":[],"postedDate":"January 20th, 2025","published":true,"recentEditorialEvents":[],"rejectedJournal":[],"revision":"","amendment":"","status":"posted","subjectAreas":[],"tags":[],"updatedAt":"2025-02-25T13:54:10+00:00","versionOfRecord":[],"versionCreatedAt":"2025-01-20 15:58:56","video":"","vorDoi":"","vorDoiUrl":"","workflowStages":[]},"version":"v1","identity":"rs-5658525","journalConfig":"researchsquare"},"__N_SSP":true},"page":"/article/[identity]/[[...version]]","query":{"redirect":"/article/rs-5658525","identity":"rs-5658525","version":["v1"]},"buildId":"8U1c8b4HqxoKbykW_rLl7","isFallback":false,"isExperimentalCompile":false,"dynamicIds":[84888],"gssp":true,"scriptLoader":[]}