Coffee Increases Post-Exercise Muscle Glycogen Recovery in Endurance Athletes: A Randomized Clinical Trial

• Published in: Nutrients Vol. 13; no. 10; p. 3335
• Main Authors: Loureiro, Laís Monteiro Rodrigues, dos Santos Neto, Eugênio, Molina, Guilherme Eckhardt, Amato, Angélica Amorim, Arruda, Sandra Fernandes, Reis, Caio Eduardo Gonçalves, da Costa, Teresa Helena Macedo
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Basel MDPI AG 23-09-2021; MDPI
• Subjects: Athletes; Beverages; Biochemistry; Biopsy; Caffeine; Carbohydrates; Catheters; Clinical trials; Coffee; Consumption; Cycles; Endurance; Exercise; Glucose; Glucose metabolism; Glycogen; Glycogen synthase; Glycogens; Humidity; Insulin; Laboratories; Metabolism; Milk; Muscles; Nutrition; Oxygen consumption; Physical exercise; Randomization; recovery; Warm up (exercise); Workloads; Brazil; Germany
• ISSN: 2072-6643; 2072-6643
• DOI: 10.3390/nu13103335

Coffee is one of the most widely consumed beverages worldwide and caffeine is known to improve performance in physical exercise. Some substances in coffee have a positive effect on glucose metabolism and are promising for post-exercise muscle glycogen recovery. We investigated the effect of a coffee beverage after exhaustive exercise on muscle glycogen resynthesis, glycogen synthase activity and glycemic and insulinemic response in a double-blind, crossover, randomized clinical trial. Fourteen endurance-trained men performed an exhaustive cycle ergometer exercise to deplete muscle glycogen. The following morning, participants completed a second cycling protocol followed by a 4-h recovery, during which they received either test beverage (coffee + milk) or control (milk) and a breakfast meal, with a simple randomization. Blood samples and muscle biopsies were collected at the beginning and by the end of recovery. Eleven participants were included in data analysis (age: 39.0 ± 6.0 years; BMI: 24.0 ± 2.3 kg/m2; VO2max: 59.9 ± 8.3 mL·kg−1·min−1; PPO: 346 ± 39 W). The consumption of coffee + milk resulted in greater muscle glycogen recovery (102.56 ± 18.75 vs. 40.54 ± 18.74 mmol·kg dw−1; p = 0.01; d = 0.94) and greater glucose (p = 0.02; d = 0.83) and insulin (p = 0.03; d = 0.76) total area under the curve compared with control. The addition of coffee to a beverage with adequate amounts of carbohydrates increased muscle glycogen resynthesis and the glycemic and insulinemic response during the 4-h recovery after exhaustive cycling exercise.