TITLE:
Energy Drinks Do Not Improve Le Parkour Performance: A Randomized Controlled Study
AUTHORS:
Diana Madureira, Jeferson Oliveira Santana, Bruno Avelar, Cesar Augustus de Sousa Zocoler, Bruno Rodrigues, Érico Chagas Caperuto
KEYWORDS:
Caffeine, Double Blind Balanced Design, Sports Performance, Stimulant Drinks
JOURNAL NAME:
Food and Nutrition Sciences,
Vol.7 No.4,
April
28,
2016
ABSTRACT: Le Parkour is a sport where the athletes transpose common day-to-day obstacles in the best possible
way. This sport demands elements like strength, focus and decision making; elements supposedly
affected by energy drinks, with performance improvement. The aim of this study was to investigate
the effects of energy drink ingestion on Le Parkour athlete’s performance. Twelve male
amateur athletes, mean age of 23.5 ± 2.74, took part in this randomized, double-blind, placebocontrolled
study. Subjects were randomly assigned to drink: 250 ml of energy drink, 500 ml of
energy drink or placebo. Forty minutes after the beverage consumption, they were evaluated in a
specific circuit performance test (time to complete the circuit) followed by a perceived exertion
and a circuit technical difficulty evaluation. We also evaluated heart rate in 3 different moments:
rest, pre-circuit and post-circuit. All variables were collected in 3 different experimental days.
Time, perceived exertion and technical difficulty were higher in the first day compared to the others.
Heart rate did not show a difference when we compared the days. Drinking one or two cans of
an energy drink did not improve performance of Le Parkour athletes in a sport specific test. It also
did not change heart rate or perceived exertion.