No Dose-Response Effect of Carbohydrate Mouth Rinse Concentration on 5-km Running Performance in Recreational Athletes

ABSTRACTClarke, ND, Thomas, JR, Kagka, M, Ramsbottom, R, and Delextrat, A. No dose-response effect of carbohydrate mouth rinse concentration on 5-km running performance in recreational athletes. J Strength Cond Res 31(3)715–720, 2017—Oral carbohydrate rinsing has been demonstrated to provide beneficial effects on exercise performance of durations of up to 1 hour, albeit predominately in a laboratory setting. The aim of the present study was to investigate the effects of different concentrations of carbohydrate solution mouth rinse on 5-km running performance. Fifteen healthy men (n = 9; mean ± SD age; 42 ± 10 years; height, 177.6 ± 6.1 cm; body mass, 73.9 ± 8.9 kg) and women (n = 6; mean ± SD age, 43 ± 9 years; height, 166.5 ± 4.1 cm; body mass, 65.7 ± 6.8 kg) performed a 5-km running time trial on a track on 4 separate occasions. Immediately before starting the time trial and then after each 1 km, subjects rinsed 25 ml of 0, 3, 6, or 12% maltodextrin for 10 seconds. Mouth rinsing with 0, 3, 6, or 12% maltodextrin did not have a significant effect on the time to complete the time trial (0%, 26:34 ± 4:07 minutes:seconds; 3%, 27:17 ± 4:33 minutes:seconds; 6%, 27:05 ± 3:52 minutes:seconds; 12%, 26:47 ± 4.31 minutes:seconds; p = 0.071; (Equation is included in full-text article.)= 0.15), heart rate (p = 0.095; (Equation is included in full-text article.)= 0.16), rating of perceived exertion (p = 0.195; (Equation is included in full-text article.)= 0.11), blood glucose (p = 0.920; (Equation is included in full-text article.)= 0.01), and blood lactate concentration (p = 0.831; (Equation is included in full-text article.)= 0.02), with only nonsignificant trivial to small differences between concentrations. Results of this study suggest that carbohydrate mouth rinsing provides no ergogenic advantage over an acaloric placebo (0%) and that there is no dose-response relationship between carbohydrate solution concentration and 5-km track running performance.