Effect of Caffeine on Leg-Muscle Pain during Intense Cycling Exercise: Possible Role of Anxiety Sensitivity

Abstract

This experiment examined the effect of a moderate dose of caffeine on perceptions of leg-muscle pain during a bout of high-intensity cycling exercise and the role of anxiety sensitivity in the hypoalgesic effect of caffeine on muscle pain during exercise. Sixteen college-age women ingested caffeine (5 mg/kg body weight) or a placebo and 1 hr later completed 30 min of cycling on an ergometer at 80% of peak aerobic capacity. The conditions were completed in a counterbalanced order, and perceptions of leg-muscle pain were recorded during the bouts of exercise. Caffeine resulted in a large reduction in leg-muscle pain-intensity ratings compared with placebo (d = −0.95), and the reduction in leg-muscle pain-intensity ratings was larger in those with lower anxiety-sensitivity scores than those with higher anxiety-sensitivity scores (d = −1.28 based on a difference in difference scores). The results support that caffeine ingestion has a large effect on reducing leg-muscle pain during high-intensity exercise, and the effect is moderated by anxiety sensitivity.

All in the mind? Pain, placebo effect, and ergogenic effect of caffeine in sports performance

“…There is a large body of evidence attesting to the hypoalgesic properties of caffeine in both medicine16 and physical activity 5,12,17,18. Consistent with this are data demonstrating that subjects’ ratings of perceived exertion are lower when given caffeine 19.…”

Can Doping be a Good Thing? Using Psychoactive Drugs to Facilitate Physical Activity Behaviour

“…The positive effect of caffeine on perception of effort is associated with changes in motor-related cortical activity during exercise [30], most likely in areas upstream of the primary motor cortex [31][32][33]. Caffeine can also reduce exercise-induced muscle pain [34,35], increase pleasure during exercise [36], and increase exercise enjoyment [37]. Importantly, caffeine can reduce perception of effort and exercise-induced muscle pain even at relatively low doses [38] and in habitual high caffeine consumers [39].…”

Caffeine ingestion improves power output decrement during 3-min all-out exercise

“…Caffeine acts as an adenosine antagonist on the CNS and changes the perception of pain during exercise. Previous studies reported that caffeine ingestion reduces leg muscle pain (Motl et al 2003(Motl et al , 2006Gliottoni and Motl 2008;Gliottoni et al 2009) during moderate and heavy cycling exercise, but this hypoalgesic effect disappeared with increases in performance during heavy to severe-intensity exercise (Jenkins et al 2008;Black et al 2015;Gonglach et al 2016). Astorino et al (2011) similarly determined that caffeine improved exercise performance during two sets of 40 repetitions of isokinetic knee extensions and flexions but did not change the RPE or pain perceptions in the leg.…”

“…Therefore, these studies have revealed that caffeine has no significant effect on untrained individuals performing high-intensity exercises for durations of 60-180 s, but that trained athletes may benefit from the ergogenic effects of caffeine. Previous studies have found that caffeine ingestion reduces both effort sense (Doherty and Smith 2005) and leg muscle pain (Motl et al 2003(Motl et al , 2006Gliottoni and Motl 2008;Gliottoni et al 2009) during exercise. In addition, caffeine could improve the ability of muscle to generate force by increasing motor unit recruitment (Kalmar and Cafarelli 1999;Kalmar 2005;Warren et al 2010;Black et al 2015).…”