The acute effect of caffeine supplementation on strength, repetition sustainability and work volume of novice bodybuilders

Ergogenic effects of caffeine on anaerobic maximal and submaximal peak performance, especially in resistance exercise is not clear. According to this, the purpose of this study was to investigate the acute effect of moderate amounts of caffeine on maximal strength, repetition sustainability and work volume in the upper and lower body of novice body builders. In a randomized double blind study, 15 male body builders' athletes (age of 21.16±3.9 years, height of 174.42±6.12 cm and weight of 73.25±6.71 kg) were examined. Exercise protocol was to test one repetition maximum (1RM) in the bench press and leg press and repetition sustainability of bench press and leg press with 80% 1RM in 5 sets. These tests were performed, one hour after ingesting caffeine (6 mg/kg) and placebo, in two separate sessions as similar. Muscle strength, sustainability of repetitions and volume of work (load × the number of repetitions) of upper and lower body were measured. To examine the differences between the effects of caffeine and placebo, t-test was used. The results showed that caffeine causes a significant increase in the strength of the upper and lower body (P