Performance Enhancing
Coffee is the New HGH
- Via Flickr, Fun in NH
Gina Kolata, the best name in fitness journalism, writes today about the performancing enhancing effects of caffeine. To sum up: Caffeine makes you better, stronger, faster...
Exercise physiologists have studied caffeine’s effects in nearly every iteration: Does it help sprinters? Marathon runners? Cyclists? Rowers? Swimmers? Athletes whose sports involve stopping and starting like tennis players? The answers are yes and yes and yes and yes.
Apparently not much caffeine is required to get a bump -- the equivalent of four ounces of coffee. And, in lab conditions, we're talking about a 20-25% bump. In baseball terms, that's the difference between, say, an average of .250 and .313. Yo, A-Rod: Stop with the Primobolan, and start hitting the double soy vente lattes.
Recall too that researchers are also very confident that caffeine makes you smarter. All of this throws into question my knee jerk guilt about my morning coffee addiction. I'm always cowed by the clean living yogis and ayurveda types who look at me with pity and say that, sans coffee, I'd have more energy, and would be free from daily energetic boom and bust. Maybe true, but I'd also be dumber and slower. It's complex.
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Comments
There must be a caffeine lobby. I try to abstain from it (I have tons of energy already) but whenever I indulge in a morning cup, I sleep poorly and have a racing heart. That just cannot be good for the body. Caffeine is a stimulant. In moderation, it may be ok for some but whenever "they" release these sort of studies people go overboard!
Submitted by michlny on 03.26.09 at 04:50.
You're right, michlny, about the 'overboard' factor. Caffeine is like wine when it comes to health benefits: Wine too is shown over and over to have benefits--in moderation. Yet it remains somewhat of a 'dirty little secret' among AMA and ADA experts: they don't want to recommend wine as a heart-healthy addition to the diet officially because the key is 'moderation.' For coffee, we're talking about half a cup. For wine, it would be no more than 1 5-oz glass.
Submitted by Erinn B. on 03.27.09 at 07:01.