The benefits of caffeine supplementation for higher-intensity exercise, similar to those in the current study (90%-115% VO2max), are less conclusive [52, 53]. For example, assessing anaerobic power using a Wingate test after a range of caffeine doses (3.2-7 mg/lb) resulted in no improvements [52, 53] while Anselme et al. demonstrated a 7% increase in anaerobic power after 6 mg/kg of caffeine consumption [54]. In addition, a recent report by Wiles et al. demonstrated improvements in performance during a bout of short-duration, high-intensity cycling and mean power output following

5 mg/kg of caffeine [55]. The results of the present study indicated that the pre-exercise GT drink improved aerobic performance (CV) and training volume, but did not alter the ARC. It is possible that the caffeine in GT may be partly responsible for www.selleckchem.com/products/OSI027.html the increases in CV and training volume. However, the independent Torin 2 clinical trial effects of caffeine cannot be directly assessed in the present

study. Previous studies have suggested that the ergogenic effects of caffeine may be proportional to the amount of caffeine administered [56–58]. Most studies have utilized 3-9 mg/kg of caffeine when demonstrating improvements in performance [48], while one study showed that as little 2 mg/kg increased cycling performance [58]. Yet another study demonstrated that 201 mg of caffeine was not sufficient for increasing run time to exhaustion [59]. In the present study, the pre-exercise GT supplement contained only 100 mg of caffeine in one serving. Since the range of body mass values for the participants in the present study was 46.1 kg to 108.9 kg, the relative caffeine doses were 1.0 – 2.2 mg/kg, which is lower than the previously suggested ergogenic doses. Therefore, although caffeine may have contributed

to improvements in aerobic performance and training volume in the present study, it is possible that there were synergistic effects from other GT ingredients. One concern about the ergogenic doses of caffeine is that relatively high levels of urinary caffeine concentrations are banned by both the National Collegiate Athletics Association (NCAA) and the International Olympic Committee (IOC). The NCAA and IOC limits for urinary caffeine Digestive enzyme concentrations are 15 μg/ml and 12 μg/ml, respectively. In a well-controlled study [60] the average urinary concentration of caffeine was 14 μg/ml after the ingestion of 9 mg/kg. In an earlier study, Pasman et al. (1995) demonstrated that 9 and 13 mg/kg of caffeine consumption resulted in urinary caffeine concentrations that exceeded the International Olympic Committee’s (IOC’s) limit of 12 μg/ml in some subjects. However, 5 mg/kg of caffeine did not exceed or even approach 12 μg/ml in any subject [61]. Since the relative caffeine dose range for the GT supplement in the present study was 1.0 – 2.