You can spot Red Bull in the hands and on the heads of plenty of extreme sports athletes, but like most products that claim performance-enhancing benefits, a hat is just a hat and a drink is just a drink.
Researchers from Manipal University in India dosed 10 students with Red Bull and 10 students with a placebo an hour before exercise. The students had their maximum isometric force (MVC) recorded and then held an isometric contraction at 75% of MVC until failure.
You guessed it. No difference.
"The Red Bull energy drink (caffeine at 2mg/kg body weight) was no better than (control drink) at significant delaying effect on fatigue during isometric contraction," the study concluded.
That's not to say that caffeine, the most noteworthy ingredient in Red Bull besides sugar, doesn't have performance-enhancing benefits. But those benefits occur in endurance sports, which have yet to embrace flat-billed hats.