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

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 & PLUSMN; 6.0 years; BMI: 24.0 & PLUSMN; 2.3 kg/m(2); VO2max: 59.9 & PLUSMN; 8.3 mL & BULL;kg(-1)& BULL;min(-1); PPO: 346 & PLUSMN; 39 W). The consumption of coffee + milk resulted in greater muscle glycogen recovery (102.56 & PLUSMN; 18.75 vs. 40.54 & PLUSMN; 18.74 mmol & BULL;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.</p>