How to Use Caffeine to Improve Athletic Performance
Caffeine is a legal, cheap and easy performance-enhancing drug – you probably drank it this morning. More importantly, it really makes you a better athlete, which is not the case with many supplements offered to athletes. You just need to know how to use it strategically.
What does caffeine do
Caffeine is a multifunctional molecule that travels through the body, worrying about almost everything, but its trademark is to keep the brain alert. There, it blocks adenosine , a naturally occurring chemical that slows down other brain signals when we need to rest and sleep. When the brakes are disengaged, we feel less tired. It is easier to focus andexercise is less tiring .
In endurance competitions such as triathlon, marathon, and bicycle racing, caffeine provides significant performance gains. In experiments simulating racing,caffeine reduced athletes’ finish times by an average of 3% . In some cases, the effect reached 17%.
Three percent is about two minutes an hour. How would you like to cut your time by 5 km or seven minutes on a four-hour marathon just by choosing the right breakfast? Yes, me too.
This explains why caffeine is found in many products designed for runners, such as energy gels . Most athletes use it in one way or another, including 73% in astudy published in the journal Applied Physiology, Nutrition, and Metabolism . The highest doses were for triathletes.
However, research on other types of exercise does not show sustained benefits. The International Society for Sports Nutrition writes in a position paper that we don’t know enough to say if caffeine helps in strength and strength sports (such as weightlifting or isolated short sprints), but that it does help in sports that include repetitive sprints over time. like soccer.
Besides brain chemistry, caffeine has other effects on the body, but researchers continue to debate which, if any, affect exercise performance. According to Nutrition and Enhanced Sports Performance , caffeine causes our bodies to burn fat rather than glycogen (stored carbohydrates), but that may not make much of a difference in athletics. Likewise, caffeine affects muscle contraction: itincreases the amount of calcium available to muscles , but generally does not make you stronger.
Caffeine doesn’t dehydrate you. This may slightly increase the amount you wet if you are taking a large dose and are not used to it, but the amount in a regular cup of coffee isnot enough to cause this . However, this small effect does not appear during exercise: even large doses of caffeine do not dehydrate you during exercise .
How to get high
Most of you are probably used to coffee at breakfast and of course you could just add it to your breakfast before the race . It won’t hurt and might help. (Hot liquid can also help you poop if it’s part of your morning routine.) But to use caffeine strategically, you need to carefully consider all the variables: what source of caffeine, how much, and when.
What is the source?
Coffee may not be the best way to get caffeine, although research doesn’t show it. One study published in the Journal of Applied Physiology found that coffee did not have the same strong effect as caffeine pills. They thought there must be something in the coffee that suppresses caffeine. But a later studypublished in the International Journal of Sports Nutrition and Exercise Metabolism combined caffeine pills with decaffeinated coffee and failed to find such an effect. Without more compelling evidence, the best approach might be to experiment with both. If coffee doesn’t work for you, try the same amount of No-Doz.
How many?
To benefit from exercise, you need 3 to 6 milligrams of caffeine for every pound of your weight. Several sources, including this American College of Sports Medicine review , say up to 9 mg / kg is effective. (Here is a calculator to convert pounds to kilograms .) If you weigh 150 pounds, that means you need 210 to 630 milligrams of caffeine. The same range for a 200 pound person is 270-810 milligrams.
On the lower end, you can get the amount you want with high Starbucks coffee (260 mg), or get most of that with No-Doz (200 mg in a “maximum strength” formula). Here’s a handy diagram:
The above numbers are approximate when they apply to brewed beverages such as coffee and tea: the caffeine content depends on the type of bean or leaf and the time and brewing technique.
If you use gels or similar sports snacks during your workout, it’s important to know that some contain caffeine and some don’t. In many brands, the difference lies in aroma: some Gu gels are caffeine-free, some have 20 mg, and coffee-flavored gels have double the amount. Whether you’re trying to hook up or avoiding caffeine, it’s always good to know what you’re getting when you suck on the contents of this shiny packet. This is especially true in races, where you can get a random taste as you cruise past a water stop. If the amount of caffeine is important to you, research beforehand what flavors are there and consider bringing your own so you know what you’re getting.
When?
You can consume caffeine every day, but you will quickly develop a tolerance for it. Tolerance will diminish some of the effects of caffeine, but not all. For example, regular coffee drinkers don’t have high blood pressure or heart rate like newbies. Fortunately, if you rely on caffeine to help you run faster in a race, you will still benefit, even if you have been drinking coffee in the morning for the hundredth day in a row. But for best results, you can cut caffeine for a week or more before an important race.
vWhen the big day arrives, the International Society for Sports Nutrition recommends drinking a large caffeine one hour before the event. Caffeine starts circulating in the blood in about 15 minutes if you take it on an empty stomach, or longer (45 minutes or more) if you take it with meals. (The delay is similar to what happens when you consume alcohol with food .)
Once in your body, caffeine stays on for a long time. Its half-life is about five hours , which means that by then you have only managed to remove half of it from your body. The total time it takes to exit the body depends on which dose you started with: the larger the dose, the longer you will feel the effect.
Your liver is responsible for breaking down caffeine so the kidneys can excrete it. The liver enzyme that performs this function is cytochrome, known as CYP1A2 . It gets the job done faster when you exercise, smoke cigarettes, or eat broccoli. Alcohol has the opposite effect, keeping caffeine in the body longer. Some people have more effective versions of this enzyme than others, which makes caffeine metabolism highly individual.
Make a plan for race day
Everyone’s response to caffeine is slightly different – liver enzymes, tolerance levels, and probably many more unknown factors come into play. So, whatever the research says, it’s wiser to experiment with yourself before the big race.
“Nothing new, just tried and true” is the rule for important events like the marathon, which you train all year. This includes your caffeine intake plan. Unless you normally drink four cups of coffee in the morning, don’t try it the first time on competition day! You don’t want nervous tremors or untimely toilet breaks to ruin what could be a great experience.
If you want to quit caffeine before a race, make sure you practice, which is possible, by abstaining a week before one of your long training runs. And make sure you try out the method you plan to use, be it your morning ban, coffee, or the series of caffeinated gels you take every few miles.
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