Caffeine: Better Than Steroids?

August 13, 2008 | 1 Comment

caffeine better than steroids
Photo by angelo-gr

People have their own opinions when it comes to caffeine. Whether it is good or bad for health, most of the time when you ask someone, they would tell you caffeine is bad for health but when you ask why, they can’t give you an answer. Well, I can’t give you a straight answer either on why you shouldn’t drink coffee but I will tell you few things that will make you want to have a cup of Coffee before you hit the gym.

Faster, Stronger with Caffeine

Before his years as governor, Arnold always said, “You must burn to grow”. Even though this is true in the gym, majority of people can’t take the pain preventing them to get the full benefits of exercise. Fortunately, International Journal Sports Nutrition Exercise Metabolism published an article proving caffeine is the ultimate supplement.

Gliottoni and Robert Motl from the University Illinois Urbana Champaign found caffeine decreases muscle pain during intense exercise allowing you to push yourself harder, faster, in the gym. No, this does not make you a superman but it will allow your body to take more muscle pain. Caffeine temporally interferes with your pain receptors in your muscle nerve system which dulls the “burn”.

Improve Power with Caffeine in Heat

Everyone knows it is harder for you to exercise in heat. It’s harder for you to get in the mood, you get tired faster, and you feel lazier, especially when you’re dehydrated. This happens as your body temperature raises, your body fights for blood between skin for cooling and the muscle.

Spanish researchers at IJSNEM found, supplying your body with water AND caffeine improved the performance of athletes compared to just water or electrolyte water.

Caffeine working as a stimulant, it will pump more blood in same amount of time to places where it need blood by raising your heart rate. It’s like installing turbo to your heart.

Grow bigger with Caffeine

New Zealand researchers at IJSNEM found caffeine increases Testosterone levels during exercise. The researchers tested twenty four professional rugby players giving caffeine doses of 0, 200, 400, and 800 milligrams of caffeine, 1 hr before a resistance exercise. The results showed with 200 milligrams testosterone levels increased 21 percent compared to 54 percent who took 800 milligrams of caffeine.

Considering with 54 percent increase in testosterone levels, you would think you can look like a hulk in one year, and your right! But unfortunately, with higher levels of caffeine intake, testosterone is not the only hormone that goes up. With 800 milligrams of caffeine, they also saw an increase cortisol of 14%, which can counteract with testosterone levels. So what’s the perfect amount of caffeine? Well, needless to say, that information is still not available. The best thing to do is test it out, or just wait until they do a follow up research on it.

Keep in mind that average 8 ounce cup of coffee contains about 85 to 120 milligrams of caffeine so if you want to try the 500 milligrams, you’ve got a lot of drinking to do. Also for those competitive athletes, caffeine is still prohibited in college leagues but for those big-shot Pro and Olympic athletes, caffeine is no longer banned…

Share Your Thoughts on Caffeine.