Performance Gains & Losses
Photo by nousnou iwasaki on Unsplash
Caffeine, one of the world’s greatest inventions for many Americans. Typically people drink their caffeine in the morning for a boost of energy but now caffeine isn’t just in your coffee and can be used for different purposes.
Like anything we eat or drink, we should be aware of what we add to this natural stimulant — which makes the difference in how our bodies react to it and how much we should consume of it before it becomes a “performance loss” — I use this word because I am going to talk about the pros and possible cons of consuming caffeine while trying to be fit/healthy.
Lets start with, how many of my readers and fellow bloggers drink some form of caffeine? How often? does it work?
Questions to consider because why consume a beverage with a purpose if it doesn’t work and why feel the need to consume more of it in order for it to work? The problem that lies with caffeine for athletes and non athletes is when we use it, some of us then have a hard time without it in our systems; we start to depend on it (not healthy). Now I am not against caffeine and its uses, as a matter of fact, I take a pre-workout supplement before my actual workouts sometimes to aid in my energy levels and it helps to make me push through my workouts a little longer BUT I don’t depend on it and can go without caffeine in my day to day life & while lifting.
None of this is new information if you are someone who has had caffeine in your diet or has been one who needed to ween themselves from it, but this information is good to know if you are someone who plans on using a form of caffeine to aid in your workouts or day to day lifestyles.
We got the black and white important stuff out the way — let’s chat performance gains and losses with caffeine.
Performance Gains
- Caffeine helps to improve endurance — some studies have shown it had greater effects on endurance athletes compared to carbs.
- Caffeine can increase your body temperature, it turn making it so you burn more calories during your workout
- Caffeine can help reduce the perception of effort – making it so an athlete works harder and for longer periods of time
- can potentially aid in muscular endurance activities — high reps, circuits, etc
- too much caffeine intake can lead to becoming immune to its effects — which then leads to someone drinking more doses
- it creates a spike of energy but then drops & can cause drowsiness
- caffeine that comes with additives that have added sugars and unknown ingredients are more harmful than helpful
- for those who are hooked on daily doses of caffeine and depend on it, are likely to have bad headaches and bad sleeping pattern when going without it
- Can raise blood pressure and heart rate
- can interfere with glucose metabolism
- Impairs your quality of sleep
Be the best version of you 