Caffeine is a widely used psychoactive substance that is known for its stimulant effects. It is commonly used to help increase alertness and improve focus. However, caffeine is also gaining attention as a performance enhancer for exercise and athletics. Many people consume caffeine through energy drinks or pre-workout supplements in the hopes of improving endurance, strength, and overall performance in sports.
In this article, we will explore whether caffeine can actually improve exercise and athletic performance, how it does so, and the recommended dosage to reap its potential benefits. So, let’s dive in!
Can Caffeine Improve Exercise and Athletic Performance?
Countless studies have been conducted on this topic, and the overall answer is yes, caffeine can improve exercise and athletic performance. The benefits of caffeine can be applied to a wide range of exercises, including prolonged submaximal exercises lasting longer than 90 minutes, mid-range intensity exercises lasting 20 to 60 minutes, and high-intensity interval exercises lasting 1 to 5 minutes. Caffeine has also been shown to improve movement velocity during resistance training and reaction time.
How Does Caffeine Improve Performance?
Caffeine improves performance through two main mechanisms: its effects on the central nervous system (CNS) and its impact on muscle tissue.
Effects on the Central Nervous System
Caffeine acts as a stimulant for the CNS, which includes the brain and spinal cord. Within the brain, caffeine binds to adenosine receptors, blocking the effects of adenosine, a compound that accumulates throughout the day and suppresses neuronal activity. By blocking adenosine receptors, caffeine increases awareness, alertness, and focus. It also reduces the perception of effort and pain during exercise, allowing for improved performance.
Effects on Muscle Tissue
Studies suggest that caffeine affects intramuscular calcium, which plays a crucial role in muscle contraction. By modulating intramuscular calcium levels, caffeine enhances muscle contractility, leading to improved performance.
Recommended Dosage
The optimal dosage of caffeine for performance enhancement varies depending on factors such as body weight, tolerance, and sensitivity. However, research suggests that a dose of 3-6 mg per kilogram of body weight (equivalent to 1.4-2.7 mg per pound) is effective for most individuals. It is important to note that individual responses to caffeine can vary, so it is recommended to start with a lower dose and gradually increase if needed.
Line that’s wrapping around the thin filament or those actin molecules. This is called the troponin tropomyosin complex, or TTC. It’s blocking those binding sites and this is what a muscle actually looks like at the microscopic level in the resting state. But when the nerve sends the signal to the muscle to make it contract, what happens is calcium within the muscle cell and therefore within the sarcomere will actually be released and bind to the TTC. That blue line shifts it slightly out of the way so now myosin and actin can bind and myosin ratchets and you get this ratcheting effect throughout all those sarcomeres and that in turn would shorten the muscle and create the contraction.
what does this calcium have to do with caffeine?
Well, there are studies that suggest that caffeine can enhance and increase the amount of calcium released within the muscle cell and therefore within the sarcomere, thereby enhancing the contraction of the muscle. This could in part explain why they were seeing increases in contraction velocity during resistance training when people were supplementing with caffeine. You could obviously apply this to be beneficial to weight training and even sports or athletic events that require explosive movements like we mentioned earlier, throwing, jumping, sprinting, etc.
Caffeine can also affect the cardiac muscle tissue within the heart, causing that cardiac muscle to contract with more force during each beat and therefore delivering more blood and oxygen to your skeletal muscles throughout your body. You can see if you get more blood and oxygen to working skeletal muscles, there could be multiple benefits or enhancements to different types of exercises and athletic events.
How much caffeine do you need?
It used to be thought that you needed to take as much as five to six milligrams of caffeine per kilogram of body weight. But more recent research has shown that you need much less than that to get some of these performance benefits, almost half of that like two to three milligrams of caffeine per kilogram of body weight. Most of the pre-workout supplements actually have about 200 milligrams of caffeine which is a pretty good starting point. But if you’re one of those that’s very caffeine naive, you don’t take a lot of caffeine or maybe you’re a little more sensitive to it, you could start even lower at like one to two milligrams of caffeine per kilogram of body weight. And in these levels that we’re talking about, two to three milligrams per kilogram of body weight, are all well studied and are relatively safe for most people.
Timing matters
Caffeine is rapidly absorbed with about 99% of it making it into the bloodstream within about 45 minutes of ingestion. So you should take it about 30 to 60 minutes prior to exercise or whatever sporting or athletic event you’re trying to get some of these caffeine-induced benefits from.
If you don’t like to take caffeine every single day?
Maybe you don’t drink a lot of coffee or other caffeinated beverages. Personally, I just don’t like the idea of feeling beholden to something that I could potentially develop a tolerance or dependence on. Even though I don’t like taking caffeine every day, it’s still extremely hard for me to ignore some of these potential performance benefits. So what do I do? I tend to selectively pick and choose when I’m going to take about 200 milligrams of caffeine and they’re generally centered around more competitive days. On my regular training days, I don’t usually take any caffeine. But if I know I’m going to run, say, an obstacle course race on a Saturday or maybe have a really competitive game of basketball with my friends, I’ll take some caffeine 30 to 60 minutes prior to those events.
So for me, I’m taking it at most one to two times a week. And that’s more of just a personal choice for me to try to kind of avoid or reduce my risk of developing dependence or tolerance to caffeine. Now that does not mean that you can’t take caffeine every day. Plenty of people do it. Plenty of people take pre-workout almost every single day and drink their coffee every single day. And that’s okay and that works for them. You just have to also realize that if you decide to cut back on it or cut it cold turkey, there is some of risk developing some of those potential withdrawal symptoms.
Hopefully, that gave you a good understanding of How Caffeine Affects Exercise and athletic Performance.