Abstract
Coffee is one of the most widely consumed beverages worldwide and caffeine is known to improve performance in physical exercise. Some substances in coffee have a positive effect on glucose metabolism and are promising for post-exercise muscle glycogen recovery. We investigated the effect of a coffee beverage after exhaustive exercise on muscle glycogen resynthesis, glycogen synthase activity and glycemic and insulinemic response in a double-blind, crossover, randomized clinical trial. Fourteen endurance-trained men performed an exhaustive cycle ergometer exercise to deplete muscle glycogen. The following morning, participants completed a second cycling protocol followed by a 4-h recovery, during which they received either test beverage (coffee + milk) or control (milk) and a breakfast meal, with a simple randomization. Blood samples and muscle biopsies were collected at the beginning and by the end of recovery. Eleven participants were included in data analysis (age: 39.0 ± 6.0 years; BMI: 24.0 ± 2.3 kg/m2; VO2max: 59.9 ± 8.3 mL·kg−1·min−1; PPO: 346 ± 39 W). The consumption of coffee + milk resulted in greater muscle glycogen recovery (102.56 ± 18.75 vs. 40.54 ± 18.74 mmol·kg dw−1; p = 0.01; d = 0.94) and greater glucose (p = 0.02; d = 0.83) and insulin (p = 0.03; d = 0.76) total area under the curve compared with control. The addition of coffee to a beverage with adequate amounts of carbohydrates increased muscle glycogen resynthesis and the glycemic and insulinemic response during the 4-h recovery after exhaustive cycling exercise.
Highlights
Coffee is one of the most widely consumed beverages in the world
Muscle glycogen content was the main outcome variable and we considered data from Pedersen et al, (2008), whose intervention with carbohydrates + caffeine after exercise provided a greater post-exercise muscle glycogen resynthesis when compared with carbohydrates alone
Eleven participants were included in data analysis with the following characteristics: age 39.0 ± 6.0 years, body mass 75.7 ± 7.6 kg, body mass index 24.0 ± 2.3 kg/m2, body fat 16.3 ± 5.4%, VO2max 59.97 ± 8.28 mL·kg−1 ·min−1, peak power output (PPO) 346 ± 39 W
Summary
Coffee is one of the most widely consumed beverages in the world. Its beneficial effect on endurance sports, such as cycling and triathlon, is related to the role of caffeine in improving performance, reducing the perception of effort, fatigue, or pain associated with exercise, when consumed before training [1,2]. Muscle glycogen stores do not completely recover after a few hours of an exercise session, it is important that athletes follow nutritional recommendations to maximize their glycogen synthesis rate, focusing on the early phase of recovery (0–4 h) because of the slightly higher synthesis rates during this period [10]. Special attention to the latter recommendation should be given when training more than once daily or in competitions in which athletes undergo multiple and sequential bouts/rounds [8]
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