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PART 1:
According to Goldstein et al. (2010), consumption of caffeine showed significant improvement in alertness and cognition in non-exercising adults. The study also concluded that individuals showed great difference when the dose of caffeine was increased from 100mg/day to 200 mg/day. But statistically, the results were same when the dosage was increased to 300 mg/day. Similarly, according to another study conducted by Christopher et al. (2005), individuals were assessed on 5 attributes; mood, focussed attention task, categorical search task, simple reaction time and repeated digits task. In conclusion, except simple reaction time, all the attributes were significantly improved in the caffeine group as compared to the control group.
The studies conclude that even in non-exercising individuals, caffeine plays a role in neural control and shows significant improvement on cognition and alertness even when taken 200-300 mg each day.
PART 2:
According to American College of Sports Medicine (2016), recent studies have shown that 3-9mg per kilogram of body weight which roughly makes 100 -300 mg/kg ingestion of caffeine an hour prior to high endurance exercise leads to better and improved performance. Caffeine stimulates adrenaline which in turn causes release of free fatty acids from adipose tissue into the circulation. According to Schneiker et al. (2006), 10 athletes were enrolled in a study and were given 200 mg / day of caffeine and were tested for difference in performance post-ingestion. The sprint capacity of the athletes was significantly accentuated by caffeine ingestion in contrast to the placebo group.
Based on the aforementioned studies, it can be safely concluded that consumption of caffeine up to 300 mg/day can have drastic improvement on the performance of athletes.
References
American College of Sports Medicine,. (2016). Caffeine and Exercise Performance. Retrieved 7 February 2016, from http://www.acsm.org/docs/current-comments/caffeineandexercise.pdf
Christopher, G., Sutherland, D., & Smith, A. (2005). Effects of caffeine in non‐withdrawn volunteers. Human Psychopharmacology: Clinical and Experimental, 20(1), 47-53
Goldstein, E. R., Ziegenfuss, T., Kalman, D., Kreider, R., Campbell, B., Wilborn, C., & Wildman, R. (2010). International society of sports nutrition position stand: caffeine and performance. J Int Soc Sports Nutr, 7(1), 5.
Schneiker, K. T., Bishop, D., Dawson, B. R. I. A. N., & Hackett, L. P. (2006). Effects of caffeine on prolonged intermittent-sprint ability in team-sport athletes. Medicine and science in sports and exercise, 38(3), 578.
