Research
Mixed
Caffeine supplementation (typically 3-6 mg/kg) improves exercise performance across aerobic endurance, muscle strength, muscle endurance, power, jumping, and speed.
Take 3-6 mg of caffeine per kg of body weight before exercise. It works for almost all types of exercise, from running to lifting weights. Most studies used 6 mg/kg, but individual responses vary, so you might need to experiment.
GoodSupportsMEDIUM confidence
Synthesis of the currently available meta-analyses suggest that caffeine ingestion improves exercise performance in a broad range of exercise tasks. Ergogenic effects of caffeine on muscle endurance, muscle strength, anaerobic power, and aerobic endurance were substantiated by moderate quality of evidence coming from moderate-to-high quality systematic reviews.
Why this rating
Moderate quality evidence from moderate-to-high quality systematic reviews, though some individual meta-analyses had low/very low quality.
Source
Wake up and smell the coffee: caffeine supplementation and exercise performance—an umbrella review of 21 published meta-analyses
Jozo Grgić et al. · British Journal of Sports Medicine · 2019
Meta-analysis · 21 studiesCited 345×
Read the paper This is one finding among thousands. Every one is graded and traced to its source, so you can see what the evidence actually supports. Browse the research →