Will drinking coffee benefit your training regime ?

 

You can’t beat a good cup of coffee(my tassimo machine is my one true love). Good news for fellow coffee lovers it’s beneficial for you when used in moderation and correctly.
The bad news it doesn’t mean you can go to Starbucks everyday and have a caramel mochiatto. I’m actually drinking one of those bad boys right now but it’s ok it’s a treat not a daily occurrence honest,drinks like this are loaded with sugar and can pile on your daily calorific intake. A strong black coffee is the way to go,puts a spring in your step and your ass on the toilet. You should avoid caffeine however if you are a highly stressed individual,as you will have elevated cortisol levels and caffeine will increase cortisol further,which will lead to adrenal fatigue reducing energy for a workout and more abdominal fat.
For the majority however coffee has great benefits firstly it’s full of antioxidants (toxicity will cause your body to hold onto fat),and as a stimulant prior to training has been shown to increase output in a session so wether your aim is fat loss or hypertrophy it’s a perfect pre workout. Caffeine metabolism varies from person to person usually taking caffeine 45 minutes to an hour before a workout is best,but play with the time so you feel it kick in as your about to train and the energy crash when you’ve finished your session. So enjoy your coffee get into beast mode and go lift some heavy weights GRRRR.

The study
Published in the journal of strength and conditioning research. This study was a double blind cross over study,shown that taking caffeine (179mg for the study) resulted in a higher work output and a lower perceived exertion rate on the RPE scale than the placebo group. Also caffeine shows that mentally the person will be more focused and driven to train hard.
The study itself was 60% of 1 rep max for the following exercises to failure bench press,deadlift,prone row and back squat.
References
Poloquin group
The journal of strength and conditioning research

About the Author David Roebuck

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