Can your espresso help you exercise?

December 18, 2015 Ashley 0 Comments

Just what we all needed.

Confirmation that our Starbucks habit can help our runs, swims, and whatever it is you do on a Wii fit.

Well, instead of a coffin, coffee just might be the answer.

Because, according to Spanish studies done on America’s favorite legal daytime vice, caffeine can indeed lead to a better burn sesh. The research (which was published in the International Journal of Sport Nutrition and Exercise Metabolism) took some trained athletes and loaded their body guns with upper ammo before making ’em sweat. (The exact dose was about 4.5 mg of caffeine per kg they weighed.) Then, they took some other trained athletes, trolled them with a placebo, and had them do the same. The results? That former group burned about 15% more calories in those few hours following cardio than the dudes (Or chicks. Or both. #PC) who’d merely gobbled the sugar pill. And what does that translate to for IRL terms? Well, if you’re a 150 lb femme, you’ll get that same 15% extra-burnage from somewhere around 300 mg of caffeine – or 12 oz worth of joe.

(I can feel the burn already.)

The nice thing?

When it comes to caffeine and cardio, there are other great fitness benefits besides caloric smoldering.

For example, once you down your cup of upper, your circulation also improves. In fact, when Japanese researchers followed coffee drinkers versus decaffers, blood flow for the former folk rose about 30% compared to the latter. Just 5 oz of the stuff led to some superior sanguine transmission – for up to 75 minutes. And why’s that matter, you might wonder? Well, your muscles need oxygen – even more so during body moving. And blood’s what brings it to ’em. Simple as that.

Also, if you’re prone to pain mid workout (or just a pansy about it like me), then caffeine can also save you from muscular misery. Over at the University of Illinois, some researchers learned this when they fed a couple cups (or the equiv. thereof) of caffeine to subjects prior to an intense half an hour exercise. The results? Less perceived muscle pain. The takeaway? Coffee (Or green tea. Or No-Doz possibly, I guess) could help you hurdle the infamous mid workout “wall”, aiding in strengthening your guns, gams, or even just endurance.

Lastly, let’s not forget how we’re all gonna get old soon. Much like your current routine may be prep for mudrunner or marathons, all of that collectively should be prep for geriatricism. Which means we need muscle preservation at present so that we’re not all atrophied and stuff in the future. Coffee offers this, say sports scientists over at Coventry University. (Or just caffeine, in some form.) Granted, they only did this study on furry unwilling participants. However, it was noted that there was less loss of muscle strength as the poor bastards aged. Where exactly? Everywhere from the meat that helps us breathe (AKA the diaphragm) to the skeletal muscle. And what does that mean? Well, it implies that caffeine (taken with temperance) could preserve our fitness overall and lower our chances of starring in our own version of a Life Alert commercial when we don’t render age related injuries later on in life.

So, there you have it.

We can keep shamelessly visiting the jade mermaid java dealer who puts the “high” in highway robbery.

(And forget the fact that the why we need that extra burn in the first place is cuzza the calories in each cup.)