Caffeinated Chewing Gum Improves Sympathetic Nerve Activity and Simulates Wrestling Performance: a Double-blind Crossover Trial

The purpose of this study was to investigated whether caffeine intake is effective in improving the performance of wrestlers in a simulated competition. The study was designed to involve 16 healthy adult male athletes who had been trained in professional wrestling and were divided into caffeine trial (CAF trial) and placebo trial (PL trial) in a randomized crossover double-blind study design. After three days of dietary control, participants arrived at the laboratory in the afternoon of the day of the trial to collect saliva samples in a quiet state and were fitted with a heart rate monitor. Participants chewed either caffeine-containing gum at 3 mg/kg body weight (CAF trial) or placebo-containing gum without caffeine (PL trial) for 10 minutes and then spit it out. Participants then underwent a 15-minute dynamic warm-up. At the end of the warm-up, participants performed 2 rounds of 3-minute wrestling-specific simulated matches, and the number of falls in the simulated matches was recorded. After the simulation match, saliva samples were collected from the participants again. The saliva samples were analyzed for caffeine alpha-amylase concentration. Differences between the two trials were analyzed using a paired sample t-test and significance was set at α<0.05.