Caffeine Supplementation Effects on Concurrent Training Performance in Resistance-Trained Men: A Double-Blind Placebo-Controlled Crossover Study

ABSTRACT

Purpose: The aim of the present study was to investigate the effects of acute caffeine supplementation on the performance during a session of resistance training alone (RT) or in combination with aerobic training (i.e. concurrent training; CT). Method: Fourteen resistance-trained men (23.1 ± 4.2 years) were recruited and performed both RT and CT under three different conditions: control (CONT), placebo (PLA), and caffeine (CAF; 6 mg.kg⁻¹) for a total of six experimental conditions. Results: Both total and per set number of repetitions, and total volume load were lower during CT as compared to RT, irrespective of the supplementation condition (all p < .001), whereas a supplementation main effect was observed for the total number of repetitions (p = .001), the number of repetitions in the first (p = .002) and second sets (p = .001), and total volume load (p = .001). RPE values were higher after the CT sessions than after the RT sessions (p < .001), whereas no differences were observed between supplementation conditions (p = .865). Conclusions: Caffeine supplementation was not sufficient to minimize the acute interference effect on strength performance in a CT session when compared to RT alone. In contrast, caffeine improved strength performance during the first set of both CT and RT, while maintaining a similar RPE between the supplementation conditions. However, the overall effect was small.

KEYWORDS:

• Ergogenic aid
• exercise
• interference effect
• strength training

Acknowledgments

Authors would like to thank all participants who took part in the study, as well as their collaborators from the LabNeuro research group, which were of fundamental importance for the present investigation.

Authors’ contributions

M.V.V., C.L.A. and A.J.R. conceived the study, whereas C.L.A. and A.J.R. were responsible for administrating the project. M.V.V., G.Z.S., L.S.A. and G.B.D. performed the experiments and formally analyzed the data. M.V.V. and G.Z.S. then wrote the first draft of the manuscript, which was revised and edited by all remaining authors for intellectual content. All authors read and approved the final version of the manuscript.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Data availability statement

Data from the present study will be made available upon request to the corresponding author.

Consent to participate

All participants reviewed and signed informed consent forms before participating in the study.

Consent for publication

All participants reviewed and signed informed consent forms allowing their data to be published anonymously.

Supplementary material

Supplemental data for this article can be accessed online at https://doi.org/10.1080/02701367.2023.2276401.

Additional information

Funding

The author(s) reported there is no funding associated with the work featured in this article.