Q&A: Does caffeine really improve athletic performance, or do you just feel more alert?
Posted January 24th, 2008 at 10:15 AM by Jeremy Sussman
Section: Nutrition, Supplements, Health & Fitness, Exercise
In endurance events, the first cause of fatigue is loss of muscle sugar, so athletes do whatever they can to preserve sugar levels. Caffeine causes the body to produce large amounts of adrenalin, which causes fat to be released from fat cells and float in the bloodstream.
This extra fat is taken up by the muscles and used for energy, thus preserving the body’s limited stored supply of muscle sugar. When muscles run our of sugar, the athlete requires more oxygen to do the same job, slows down, fatigues earlier, and has difficulty maintaining his performance.
A questionnaire from competitors at the 2005 Ironman Triathlon World Championships showed that seventy-three percent of the athletes believe that caffeine improves performance and 84 percent believe it improves concentration (International Journal of Sport Nutrition and Exercise Metabolism, August 2007).
During competition, 65 percent used cola drinks and 24 percent used caffeinated gels. Although caffeine can increase risk for heat stroke and theoretically can cause irregular heartbeats, almost none of the athletes reported suffering any side effects from taking caffeine.
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Tags: alert, athletic performance, caffeinated gels, caffeine, cole drinks, energy, energy gels, exercise metabolism, exercise physiology, fatigue, ironman, Ironman Triathlon World Championships, muscles, oxygen, sports nutrition, sugar, supplements, triathlete, triathlon
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January 24th, 2008 at 3:11 pmDr. Mirkin might want to read something more recent on caffeine. The idea of glycogen sparing or increasing fat oxidation during exercise is not supported. At rest caffeine mobilizes fat, but during exercise that is not a factor.
More recent research suggests that caffeine might play more of a role in perceived exertion–that is caffeine reduces the “pain” sensation.
I recommend Terry Graham’s 2001 review in Sports Medicine
February 10th, 2008 at 11:38 pm