ReviewBritish journal of pharmacology2015
What can isolated skeletal muscle experiments tell us about the effects of caffeine on exercise performance?
Review in British journal of pharmacology, 2015. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 40 papers, 7 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
40 citing papers in PubMed, 7 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 99 citations in OpenAlex.
- Placebo effects of caffeine on sport performance: a systematic review and meta-analysis.Journal of the International Society of Sports Nutrition · 2026Pooled it
- Caffeine, skeletal muscle signalling, and exercise adaptation: a narrative review separating acute ergogenic effects from chronic remodelling.Frontiers in physiology · 2026Pooled it
- Effect of Acute Caffeine Intake on Fat Oxidation Rate during Fed-State Exercise: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis.Nutrients · 2024Pooled it
- Effect of Caffeine Ingestion on Indirect Markers of Exercise-Induced Muscle Damage: A Systematic Review of Human Trials.Nutrients · 2022Pooled it
- Effects of Caffeine Ingestion on Human Standing Balance: A Systematic Review of Placebo-Controlled Trials.Nutrients · 2021Pooled it
- Effects of Dietary Nitrate Supplementation on Weightlifting Exercise Performance in Healthy Adults: A Systematic Review.Nutrients · 2020Pooled it
- Effect of Caffeine Supplementation on Sports Performance Based on Differences Between Sexes: A Systematic Review.Nutrients · 2019Pooled it
- Trial
- Trial
- Static Stretching Acutely Reduces the Ergogenic Effects of Caffeine on Sprint Performance but Not Maximal Ball Velocity in Football Players.European journal of sport science · 2026Trial
- How Repeatable Is the Ergogenic Effect of Caffeine? Limited Reproducibility of Acute Caffeine (3 mg.kgNutrients · 2022Trial
- Effect of caffeine on muscle oxygen saturation during short-term all-out exercise: a double-blind randomized crossover study.European journal of nutrition · 2022Trial
- Can 3 mg·kgNutrients · 2021Trial
- The effects of different doses of caffeine on maximal strength and strength-endurance in women habituated to caffeine.Journal of the International Society of Sports Nutrition · 2021Trial
- Caffeine-Induced Effects on Human Skeletal Muscle Contraction Time and Maximal Displacement Measured by Tensiomyography.Nutrients · 2021Trial
- Acute caffeine intake increases muscle oxygen saturation during a maximal incremental exercise test.British journal of clinical pharmacology · 2020Trial
- The acute effects of plyometric and sled towing stimuli with and without caffeine ingestion on vertical jump performance in professional soccer players.Journal of the International Society of Sports Nutrition · 2018Trial
- Effects of caffeine on neuromuscular fatigue and performance during high-intensity cycling exercise in moderate hypoxia.European journal of applied physiology · 2017Trial
- Effects of acute caffeine ingestion on post-activation performance enhancement following individualized drop-jump conditioning in high-level male basketball players: a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled crossover trial.Frontiers in physiology · 2026Article
- Targeting ryanodine receptors with allopurinol and xanthine derivatives for the treatment of cardiac and musculoskeletal weakness disorders.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2025Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
3 authors at 1 institution in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Caffeine is an increasingly popular nutritional supplement due to the legal, significant improvements in sporting performance that it has been documented to elicit, with minimal side effects. Therefore, the effects of caffeine on human performance continue to be a popular area of research as we strive to improve our understanding of this drug and make more precise recommendations for its use in sport. Although variations in exercise intensity seems to affect its ergogenic benefits, it is largely thought that caffeine can induce significant improvements in endurance, power and strength-based activities. There are a number of limitations to testing caffeine-induced effects on human performance that can be better controlled when investigating its effects on isolated muscles under in vitro conditions. The hydrophobic nature of caffeine results in a post-digestion distribution to all tissues of the body making it difficult to accurately quantify its key mechanism of action. This review considers the contribution of evidence from isolated muscle studies to our understating of the direct effects of caffeine on muscle during human performance. The body of in vitro evidence presented suggests that caffeine can directly potentiate skeletal muscle force, work and power, which may be important contributors to the performance-enhancing effects seen in humans.
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What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.