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| Coffee and Exercise Performance |
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Q1. Is coffee stimulating?
A: It is the caffeine in coffee that acts as a mild stimulant and its effect depends on your actual level of activity. When the effort of exercise is boring or not motivating, the caffeine in your coffee, could help to give you the energy to make the best of it and also feel less tired afterwards.
Q2. I heard that coffee leads to better physical performance? What does this mean to me when I exercise?
A. There is substantial research that concludes that caffeine does improve physical performance and its effects are widespread across a diverse variety of sports and exercises. These studies have included well-trained athletes as well as relatively sedentary individuals.
Q3. Does the beneficial effect wear off quickly?
A: No. Improvement in performance appears to be greater in exercise of longer duration than in short term highly energetic exercise.
Q4. How much coffee do I need to drink to see this beneficial effect?
A: The amount is relatively small. Even less than 90 mg of caffeine, the amount found in one large cup of soluble coffee, can result in significant performance improvement.
Q5. How exactly does coffee help boost my physical performance?
A: The mechanisms are not yet fully understood and recent research studies would suggest that there are likely to be several different systems involved.
Q6. Isn't coffee a diuretic and therefore to be avoided during exercise?
A: Athletes competing in hot, humid conditions or in endurance sports, when the risk of dehydration is high, are often advised to increase their intake of fluids. At the same time, many athletes are also advised to avoid tea and coffee because of their supposed diuretic effect. Current research shows that not only is this effect insignificant for those used to including caffeine containing drinks in their diet, but the negative effects caused by cutting such drinks from the diet may be more damaging.
Q7. Isn't caffeine a prohibited substance for professional athletes such as those participating in events such as the Olympic Games?
A: Until January 2004, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) limited the intake of caffeine by sportsmen and women. On the recommendation of the World Anti-Doping Agency, caffeine has now been removed from the WADA list of prohibited substances used as a reference by the IOC. The fact that positive benefits on exercise performance could be achieved on intake of very small amounts of caffeine from coffee was a major factor in the decision.
Q8. Does coffee really have a role in a healthy diet and lifestyle?
A: Given the various initiatives by Governments and expert committees around the world to promote physical activity to improve health, anything that encourages participation in sports and exercise has an enormous potential implication on improving public health.
Caffeine, in the form of coffee, has the ability to reduce the discomfort and fatigue most people feel when exercising, and its widespread and longstanding use in most diets can make a significant contribution to helping us become fitter and healthier.
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