The acute effect of caffeine and ibuprofen on RPE, RM, PPI at resistance exercise in male athletes

Abstract

Purpose: This study compared independent effects of caffeine and Ibuprofen on perceived exertion(RPE), perceived pain index (PPI), maximum repetitions (RM) and heart rate (HR) during resistancetraining bouts. Method: Fifteen male students (Age: 26±2 yr.) participated in a double-blindstudy with three independent, counterbalanced sessions where in Ibuprofen (400 mg), caffeine (6mg.kg-1), or matched placebo were ingested 1 hour before exercise, and RPE, PPI, RM and HR(per set) were recorded in individuals, predetermined, 12-repetition maximum for leg extensions(LE), leg flexion (LF), bench press (BP) and arm flexion (AF). Analyses of variance (ANOVA)with repeated measures were used for between-trial comparisons. Results: Caffeine resulted insignificantly greater (p < 0.05) HR (LE and BP) and RM (LE, LF, BP, AF) and resulted insignificantly lower (p < 0.05) RPE (LF, BP, AF) and PPI (LF, BP, AF) compared with Ibuprofenand placebo. Ibuprofen resulted just in significantly higher PPI in LE(p < 0.05). Conclusion: thisstudy demonstrates that caffeine significantly enhanced resistance training performance, whereasIbuprofen did not. Athletes may improve their resistance training performance by acute ingestionof caffeine.

Keywords

• caffeine
• ibuprofen
• ring of perceived exertion
• perceived pain index and maximum repetitions