Context: Not all athletic competitions lend themselves to supplementation during the actual event, underscoring the importance of preexercise supplementation to extend endurance and improve exercise performance. Energy drinks are composed of ingredients that have been found to increase endurance and improve physical performance.Purpose: The purpose of the study was to investigate the effects of a commercially available energy drink, ingested before exercise, on endurance performance.Methods: The study was a double-blind, randomized, crossover design. After a 12-hr fast, 6 male and 6 female trained cyclists (mean age 27.3 ± 1.7 yr, mass 68.9 ± 3.2 kg, and VO2 54.9 ± 2.3 ml · kg–1 · min–1) consumed 500 ml of either flavored placebo or Red Bull Energy Drink (ED; 2.0 g taurine, 1.2 g glucuronolactone, 160 mg caffeine, 54 g carbohydrate, 40 mg niacin, 10 mg pantothenic acid, 10 mg vitamin B6, and 10 μg vitamin B12) 40 min before a simulated cycling time trial. Performance was measured as time to complete a standardized amount of work equal to 1 hr of cycling at 70% Wmax.Results: Performance improved with ED compared with placebo (3,690 ± 64 s vs. 3,874 ± 93 s, p < .01), but there was no difference in rating of perceived exertion between treatments. β-Endorphin levels increased during exercise, with the increase for ED approaching significance over placebo (p = .10). Substrate utilization, as measured by open-circuit spirometry, did not differ between treatments.Conclusion: These results demonstrate that consuming a commercially available ED before exercise can improve endurance performance and that this improvement might be in part the result of increased effort without a concomitant increase in perceived exertion.

Postexercise carbohydrate-protein (CHO + PRO) supplementation has been proposed to improve recovery and subsequent endurance performance compared to CHO supplementation. This study compared the effects of a CHO + PRO supplement in the form of chocolate milk (CM), isocaloric CHO, and placebo (PLA) on recovery and subsequent exercise performance. Ten cyclists performed 3 trials, cycling 1.5 hours at 70% VO₂max plus 10 minutes of intervals. They ingested supplements immediately postexercise and 2 hours into a 4-hour recovery. Biopsies were performed at recovery minutes 0, 45, and 240 (R0, R45, REnd). Postrecovery, subjects performed a 40-km time trial (TT). The TT time was faster in CM than in CHO and in PLA (79.43 ± 2.11 vs. 85.74 ± 3.44 and 86.92 ± 3.28 minutes, p ≤ 0.05). Muscle glycogen resynthesis was higher in CM and in CHO than in PLA (23.58 and 30.58 vs. 7.05 μmol·g⁻¹ wet weight, p ≤ 0.05). The mammalian target of rapamycin phosphorylation was greater at R45 in CM than in CHO or in PLA (174.4 ± 36.3 vs. 131.3 ± 28.1 and 73.7 ± 7.8% standard, p ≤ 0.05) and at REnd in CM than in PLA (94.5 ± 9.9 vs. 69.1 ± 3.8%, p ≤ 0.05). rpS6 phosphorylation was greater in CM than in PLA at R45 (41.0 ± 8.3 vs. 15.3 ± 2.9%, p ≤ 0.05) and REnd (16.8 ± 2.8 vs. 8.4 ± 1.9%, p ≤ 0.05). FOXO3A phosphorylation was greater at R45 in CM and in CHO than in PLA (84.7 ± 6.7 and 85.4 ± 4.7 vs. 69.2 ± 5.5%, p ≤ 0.05). These results indicate that postexercise CM supplementation can improve subsequent exercise performance and provide a greater intracellular signaling stimulus for PRO synthesis compared to CHO and placebo.