Abstract:
The purpose of this study was to examine the effect of Ethiopian Arabica coffee ingestion an
hour before exercise on cardiovascular endurance performance and reaction time of athletes.
Well trained endurance athletes those who are habitual of coffee ingestion, free from any
health problem, found in Nekemte town and volunteer for this study were included in the
study. Subjects were instructed to be free from taking any nutritional supplements or other
ergogenic aids for a week preceding the test. This study used pretest-posttest research design
and Thirty (30) physically active subjects (20 male, 10 female; age between 18 – 23), was
selected by purposive sampling technique from Nekemte town athletics club out of 30 only 25
subject were able to complete the study. Each subject was tested at the same time of day, and
there were 1 week separating trials. During the first trial, participants were not consumed
coffee and the test for reaction time (Metric ruler drop test) was conducted as soon as they
arrived to gymnasium, the test result was recorded and Vo2 max test were followed. On the
second test day coffee was prepared by weighing out 51.6 g of coffee ground with 532 ml of
water using a boiling (Turkish or Greek) coffee brewer method and post test taken an hour
after the subjects consumed the prepared coffee. The data were analyzed by SPSS version 20.
The comparison of mean was carried out by paired T-test. The level of significance was 0.05.
The result of present study showed significance (P 0.05) improvement in Vo2 max (MD -1.67)
for male and (MD -1.21) for female, metric ruler drop test (MD -.0054) for male and (MD -
.011) for female. So this study concluded that the ingestion of Ethiopian Arabica coffee an
hour before exercise improved endurance performance.
