Millions of people worldwide sip coffee every morning to kick start their day. Can we also use it to help us charge through those gym doors and knock out an excellent workout? For days when you can’t get yourself to lace up those running shoes or pack your gym gear in your bag, a peek inside your cupboard, or a diversion to your local coffee shop, maybe all it takes to set you on the right track again.
It’s not so much the coffee that we are interested in, but the caffeine. Thankfully this caffeine comes nicely wrapped up in coffee!
Caffeine is the most widely used stimulant in the world with the average American drinking two cups a day. It has become a type of social glue that draws humans together. People drive with it, work with it, talk with it and now perhaps even train with it.
Many studies have been done on the effects of caffeine on exercise performance and it has been found to have numerous benefits especially for endurance athletes. As it slows the release of glycogen (energy stored in the muscle), it allows the athlete’s body to use more fat as fuel before beginning to deplete its glycogen reserves. This helps the athlete go for longer before becoming fatigued.
But what about the gym goers and keep fit enthusiasts who are not pounding the pavement for hours? Here are five benefits of drinking a cup of coffee before grabbing that dumbbell and killing your workout!
1. Distraction Buster
Coffee is a stimulant that increases your heart rate and blood pressure and makes you more alert. Studies have shown that it affects both memory and focus which are two attributes that can definitely help you in the gym.
For those of us who, at times, catch ourselves aimlessly staring at one of the gym TVs, or are not quite sure what number set or rep we are on, then a cup of coffee may help. It could be the difference between a fast focused session or a dreamy halfhearted one.
2. Calorie Burner
A study by the International Journal of Sport Nutrition and Exercise Metabolism found that there was a 15% increase in calories burned for three hours post exercise after drinking approximately two cups of coffee before a sixty-minute workout.
Caffeine stays in your system for hours after ingesting it which allows it to get to work for you in the locker room and on the drive home. Whatever stage you are at in your fitness plan, knowing that you have some extra calorie burning help after your workout is a wonderful bonus!
3. Reduced Pain Perception
Feeling a little uncomfortable by increasing the intensity during our workout sessions is not something we enjoy putting ourselves through. However, deep down we know that it is an essential element for improving our performance.
Caffeine has been shown to help us through these moments by changing our perception of how we are feeling during intense exercise. It also dulls the sensation of burning muscles. This may be during an increase in the pace of a running interval or squeezing out your final reps of a squat or dead-lift.
If it doesn’t feel so uncomfortable then there is a better chance we will push ourselves more, which in turn, gives us greater results.
4. Recovery
Having a hot cup of coffee may not be the first thing you think about as you fight to cool down after an intense session. However, studies have shown that drinking a cup of coffee after exercise can help your muscles refuel for your next workout.
From the moment your workout finishes, and for up to thirty minutes after, can be seen as your window of opportunity to replace your muscle’s energy (glycogen) in preparation for your next workout. Within this window of opportunity, it is vital that you ingest some carbohydrates.
If these carbohydrates are mixed with some caffeine, an American Physiological Society study showed that exercisers had 66% more glycogen in their muscles four hours later.
If you are planning a tough workout or competition the following day, then take some cold coffee with you or grab one on your way home.
5. Placebo
Sometimes all we need is a little nudge in the right direction. It’s easy to make a coffee (or even buy one), but this small act can trigger a process in our minds that can start our momentum towards exercising. You know that once you have this coffee, it’s go time!
It can become your call to action and give you the push you need to get you to take that first step on a day you have low motivation and drive. Depending on how much caffeine you have had that day or how your body is feeling, your pre-workout coffee may not give you the physical boost you need.
However, by turning you on to exercise, it has helped you blast past your mental challenge and get you back into your fitness routine.
It’s Personal!
Very few people like their coffee in exactly the same way and it now comes in almost endless varieties. Our goal, when mixing coffee with exercise, is to improve our performance and use it to help us get to where we want to be. That could be losing weight, increasing strength and endurance or tightening up.
Therefore, our coffee choice needs to reflect that aim. Here are three final thoughts about getting to know coffee as a workout buddy:
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Choose your days
What happens if you complete one type of fitness programme over and over again? You get results for the first few weeks, but as your body gets used to the new stress that it’s under it adjusts to deal with it. That means less stress, less calories burned and poorer results. The same can be said for coffee. Choose your days wisely. If you’re after four cups of coffee already one day, then adding another cup before your workout won’t jazz things up very much. However, if you choose the days when you really need an extra jolt in the gym to drink that espresso, you will feel the effects much more.
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Avoid accessorizing!
Ideally you should drink your coffee between 45-60 minutes before your exercise session. As you are quite close to beginning your workout, I would avoid very large cups. Having liquid rolling around in your stomach while jogging or jumping around in a fitness class is never fun! Also lots of sugar, cream or flavourings should be left for another time. Snap yourself out of your routine of accessorizing your coffee and focus on why you are drinking it and what lies ahead.
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Experiment
Get to know your body and its response to coffee. A strong black coffee may help one person burn through their workout but may tie someone else’s stomach in knots. People (including myself!) have found this out the hard way. Sometimes caffeine can cause you to sprint to the bathroom, or desperately search outside for the privacy of a thick leafed bush! Caffeine is a bowel irritant so make sure you work it slowly into your training regime. Be especially careful if you have a competition approaching.
Used strategically, coffee can work well as a performance aid. It works best on people who are not regular or big coffee drinkers so this may be just the excuse you need to cut back. Not only will it save you quite a bit, it will also work for you when you need it most.
Want to really kick start your day? Try Kimera Koffee, with cognitive enhancers, for sustained focus all morning and added zip before a workout.
Has coffee helped you blast through a great workout? Do you think it could work for you? Give it a try and let me know!