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Definition: "An ergogenic aid is any substance or phenomenon that enhances performance "

07.12.2021

Combine caffeine with taurine for a faster sprint

Athletes who consume a large amount of caffeine daily do not benefit very much from caffeine supplementation. You can overcome this by combining caffeine with taurine, a Turkish exercise scientist discovered. The caffeine-taurine combination also enables faster sprints in athletes who are used to caffeine.

Study
Raci Karayigit, a researcher from Ankara University, had 17 female team athletes - the women playing football, rugby or basketball - sprint for 30 seconds on a bicycle on four separate occasions. On those occasions, the women were asked to cycle as fast as they could.

On one occasion the subjects took a placebo [PLA] an hour before they had to sprint, on the other hand 1 gram of taurine [TAU].

On another occasion the women took 6 milligrams of caffeine per kilogram of body weight [CAF], and on a fourth occasion the women took both taurine and caffeine [CAF+TAU].

In most caffeine studies, researchers use subjects who recently consumed little or no caffeine. That was not the case in Karayigit's study. Karayigit used subjects who consumed an average of 340 milligrams of caffeine daily.

Results
Supplementation with only taurine or with only caffeine did not increase the power during the sprint, but the combination of taurine and caffeine did. This means that the combination allowed for faster times.

Conclusion
"Sport science practitioners and nutritionists could incorporate the use of combined caffeine and taurine with athletic cohorts of individuals habituated to caffeine where there may be anaerobic power output demands such as team sports", the researchers conclude.

Source:
Sports 2021;9(12):162.

More:
When it is hot, athletes perform better with taurine 18.05.2019
Meta study: taurine improves sport performance 24.12.2018
Taurine boosts glucose uptake in muscles 30.12.2013

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