Effects Of Caffeine On Nfl Combine-like Measurement Tests In Undergraduate Students

Caffeine is a widely used stimulant with performance enhancing characteristics. The effectiveness of caffeine in various circumstances, such as within a series of physiological assessments which utilize different energy systems, is less clear. PURPOSE: To determine the effectiveness of caffeine on different areas of the NFL combine-like tests, specifically the 40-yard dash (40-YD), standing broad jump (SBJ), and YMCA bench press test (YMCA-BP). METHODS: 13 healthy participants (10 men, 3 women: age 20.4 ± 0.78 yrs) consumed a 200 mg caffeine and a placebo pill on 2 occasions. The pills were assigned randomly and participants were blinded to caffeine vs placebo. Participants took the pill and 45 minutes after performed the YMCA-BP (80 lbs for men, 35 lbs for women: 30 reps per minute), the SBJ (3 attempts with best jump recorded) and ran the 40-YD (2 attempts, best time recorded). Participants returned 1 week later, consumed the opposite pill, and underwent the same series of tests. A dependent sample t-test was used to compare scores between trials. RESULTS: Findings revealed no significant mean difference in the YMCA-BP (caffeine: 49.31 ± 24.46 reps, placebo: 46.23 ± 22.91 reps, p = 0.31) between caffeine compared to control. Similarly, SBJ results showed no significant mean difference (caffeine: 87.5 ± 13.41 in., placebo: 85.62 ± 13.58 in., p = 0.10). However, the 40-YD was significantly faster when performed after consuming caffeine (caffeine: 5.48 ± 0.93 sec., placebo: 5.58 ± 0.97 sec., p < 0.01). CONCLUSION: These three tests may have shown different levels of improvement based on their bioenergetic system. The YMCA-BP uses slow glycolytic and oxidative phosphorylation pathways which caffeine may not affect as much. The SBJ uses the phosphagen creatine system which may only be somewhat affected by caffeine intake, whereas the 40-YD uses anerobic glycolysis which may be affected more by caffeine. This small pilot study showed promise in 40-YD times while taking caffeine. Further research with a larger sample size is needed confirm the significant findings and determine if there are significant improvements in the test that showed trends of improvement (YMCA-BP and SBJ).