Caffeine mouth rinse enhances performance, fatigue tolerance and reduces muscle activity during moderate-intensity cycling

Alan de Albuquerque Melo; Victor José Bastos-Silva; Felipe Arruda Moura; Rodrigo Rico Bini; Adriano Eduardo Lima-Silva; Gustavo Gomes de Araujo

doi:10.5114/biolsport.2021.100147

Caffeine mouth rinse enhances performance, fatigue tolerance and reduces muscle activity during moderate-intensity cycling

Biol Sport. 2021 Oct;38(4):517-523. doi: 10.5114/biolsport.2021.100147. Epub 2020 Dec 31.

Authors

Alan de Albuquerque Melo¹, Victor José Bastos-Silva¹, Felipe Arruda Moura², Rodrigo Rico Bini³, Adriano Eduardo Lima-Silva⁴, Gustavo Gomes de Araujo¹

Affiliations

¹ Research Group Applied to Sport Science-GPCAE, Federal University of Alagoas, Avenue Lourival Melo Mota, s/n, Maceió-AL 57072-900, Brazil.
² Laboratory of Applied Biomechanics, State University of Londrina, Avenue Gil de Abreu e Souza, 2335, Unidade 1121, Esperança, Londrina 86058-100, Brazil.
³ La Trobe Rural Health School, La Trobe University, Flora Hill, 3550, Victoria, Australia.
⁴ Human Performance Research Group, Federal University of Techonology Parana, Pedro Gusso street 2601,Neoville, Curitiba-PR 81310-900, Brazil.

Abstract

We investigated the effects of caffeine mouth rinse on endurance performance, muscle recruitment (i.e., electromyographic activity of the vastus lateralis and rectus femoris), rating of perceived effort and heart rate. Twelve physically-active healthy men cycled at 80% of their respiratory compensation point until task failure. The participants rinsed their mouths for 10 seconds with placebo (PLA, 25 mL of a solution composed of non-caloric mint essence) or caffeine (CAF, 25 mL of 1.2% of anhydrous caffeine concentration with non-caloric mint essence) every 15 minutes of exercise. Time until exhaustion increased 17% (effect size = 0.70) in CAF compared to PLA (p = 0.04). The wavebands of low-frequency electromyographic activity (EMG) of the vastus lateralis and rectus femoris was lower in CAF group than PLA at 50% of the time until exhaustion (p = 0.04). The global EMG signal was lower in CAF group than PLA at 100% of the time until exhaustion (p = 0.001). The rating of perceived effort pooled was higher in CAF mouth rinse (p = 0.001) than PLA group. No effect was found on the heart rate between the groups (p > 0.05). Caffeine mouth rinse increases endurance performance, rating of perceived effort and decreases muscle activity during a moderate-intensity exercise.

Keywords: Endurance Capacity; Exercise; Muscle Skeletal; Nutrition.