Have you ever tripped hardcore on trimethylxanthine? Dude, take it from us, it’s an insane high. It pushes the boundaries of alertness, brings a clarity that elucidates the most complex of thoughts and it lasts, oh, does it last–three to five hours or so. Plus, get this: it has a greater effect on men than on women.
You’ll start feeling the buzz within 10 minutes of taking it, and no less than 90% of North Americans are taking it on a daily basis. Count us among that number–we admit we’re totally hooked. In fact, our last hit was just this morning and we’re already planning at least two more today. What is trimethylxanthine? It’s an enormously popular psychoactive substance. But don’t worry–it’s good for you and it’s entirely legal. You probably know it by its street name: caffeine.
Thats Good Stuff Man
OK, so maybe we had you going there, but we weren’t kidding about any of that. Caffeine is a psychoactive drug that acts on the central nervous system, blocking the effects of adenosine, which normally signals your body that you’re tired. Without all that adenosine acting on your brain, you feel more alert and less likely to doze off in the middle of those dreaded 4 PM meetings with your supervisor. But caffeine has numerous other effects on the body–most of which are positive (one negative, for example: if you’re pregnant, caffeine may increase the risk of miscarriage, although that is a matter of scientific debate). Health-wise, caffeine forces the body’s fat deposits to release their bounty into the bloodstream to be burned; it boosts metabolism, making it more likely that a greater number of fat stores will be depleted; it widens airways in the lungs, which is great for oxygenating your body when you’re pounding a treadmill; and it improves mental focus, helping you obtain a better mind/muscle connection when you are attacking the weights.
Just Say Yes
This may run counter to what popular wisdom says about caffeine, but ignore all that. Most of the negative things you’ve heard about this wonder drug are outdated–having been disproved by more recent research. We’d like to focus on the positive aspects of caffeine consumption, particularly as it pertains to bodybuilding. And there is a lot of evidence that caffeine is excellent for a growing body.
For one thing, caffeine has been shown to increase muscle strength.
Studies conducted at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, examined the effect of caffeine on the bench press. In one, published in the Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research in 2006, subjects increased their one-rep max for the bench press simply by having a caffeinated drink one hour before training. In another study, the same scientists found that subjects who had taken caffeine were able to do more reps with the same heavy weight (80% of their 1RM) than they were without taking caffeine. Research presented at the 2007 annual meeting of the American College of Sports Medicine found that trained cyclists who did heavy sets of leg extensions and consumed caffeine before cycling at a high intensity for two hours did not lose leg strength during the cycling, which they did in the absence of caffeine.
Ride The High
This wonder drug not only helps you work out harder, but also helps you work out longer. In the body, caffeine competes for receptors with a compound called adenosine, blocking it from being taken up by cells. This essentially tricks your body into feeling more energetic than it actually is, because adenosine is one of the main ways the body signals that it’s burned through a lot of energy. In addition to making you feel more energetic, caffeine delivers actual energy to the body by inducing the release of fat stores to be burned for fuel. This reduces the size of your love handles and–because your body is burning fat first–it actually saves your muscle glycogen for later, allowing you to train longer. These two reasons are likely why the trained cyclists who were subjects in a study published in the journal Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise were able to cycle significantly longer after eating an energy bar that contained 45 grams of carbs and 100 milligrams of caffeine than when they had a bar with 45 g of carbs and no caffeine.
No Pain, Yes GAIN!
There is also ample evidence that caffeine can blunt the pain of working out, both while you’re in the gym (allowing for longer workouts) and after you get home (promoting faster recovery). In another study presented at ACSM’s 2007 meetings, scientists from the University of Alabama (Tuscaloosa) gave subjects caffeine, aspirin and a placebo on different occasions, and had them do leg extensions and biceps curls. They found that caffeine beat both aspirin and the placebo, allowing the subjects to do more reps and feel less pain. A slightly older published account (Journal of Pain, 2003) found similar results: subjects who took caffeine and cycled at medium intensity for 30 minutes experienced less pain in their legs than those who did not get caffeine.
No Pump Greater
There’s nothing wrong with looking bigger while striving to get bigger, and while you’re in the middle of a caffeine-enhanced bigger and badder workout, you might notice that you’re looking especially large. That’s because the caffeine is hard at work increasing your pump. An investigation conducted at Hiroshima University in Japan found that subjects who were given 300 mg of caffeine had increased nitric oxide production, which in turn dilated their blood vessels and increased blood flow to their muscles.
Pulling Double Duty
Caffeine doesn’t stop working when you leave the gym. As you towel off and head out to your car, your goal immediately switches to ushering your muscles through recovery. And guess what–caffeine can help with that, too. One of the primary requirements of recovery is to refill glycogen stores in muscle cells. Glycogen stretches muscle cells, which can impact growth; having full glycogen stores prepares you for your next workout, which is often less than 24 hours away; and, arguably the most important aspect, it sends a signal to the muscle that it has adequate energy stores, so that it can funnel its energy into recovery and growth. Caffeine, it seems, boosts glycogen storage, as found in a 2008 Australian investigation: when the subjects consumed caffeine with their post-workout carbs, they experienced a 70% greater increase in muscle glycogen levels than when they ate the carbs alone.
How To Have Your Caff
It’s no secret that the major dealer of this drug is the local Starbucks, and socking back a daily venti is an OK way to get caffeine. But we recommend that you pick up a bottle of caffeine pills. For one thing, it’s easier on your wallet. An average bottle of 100 tablets containing 200 mg of caffeine per serving will run you about the same price as two ventis, and the bottle will last a solid month or so. Besides, it prevents the temptation of Starbucks’ add-ons (we’re talking flavored syrups, cream, whipped cream, etc.). And although coffee does boast veritable mountains of beneficial antioxidants, the majority of research demonstrating caffeine’s performance benefits (much of which we’ve introduced you to here) was conducted using supplemental caffeine, not coffee. Studies looking at coffee and performance do not show the same positive results as with supplemental caffeine.
The only thing that’s slightly tricky about caffeine is that you can develop a tolerance to it, thereby reducing its effects.
Anyone interested in using caffeine solely for its performance benefits should only take caffeine on workout days: 200-400 mg one hour before and immediately after workouts. If you’re more interested in increasing fat burning and alertness, take 200-400 mg of caffeine in the morning, as well as one or two other times during the day, such as before and after workouts. Then, you can sit back and enjoy the ride, tripping on one of the most powerful drugs no one can arrest you for taking.
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Author: Jordana Brown
Source:
COPYRIGHT 2004 Weider Publications
COPYRIGHT 2008 Gale, Cengage Learning
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References:
A. Adan et al., “Early effects of caffeinated and decaffeinated coffee on subjective state and gender differences,” Progress in Neuro-Psychopharmacology and Biological Psychiatry, 32 (7): 1698, 2008; T.W. Beck et al., “The acute effects of a caffeine-containing supplement on strength, muscular endurance, and anaerobic capabilities,” Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research, 20(3), 506-10, 2006; E. Hogervorst et al., “Caffeine improves physical and cognitive performance during exhaustive exercise,” Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise, 40(10):1841-51 2008;G.M. Hudson et al., “Effects of caffeine and aspirin on resistance training performance, RPE and pain perception,” presented at ACSM Annual Meeting, New Orleans, Louisiana, May 30-June 2, 2007; R.W. Motl, P.J. O’Connor and R.K. Dishman, “Effect of caffeine on perceptions of leg muscle pain during moderate intensity cycling exercise,” Journal of Pain, 4(6): 316-21,2003; T. Umemura et al., “Effects of acute administration of caffeine on vascular function,” American Journal of Cardiology, 98(11):1538-41, 2006.
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