Posted by: Curt | Under: General Fitness | (0) Comments
With energy drinks like Red Bull being so popular, I thought I’d look at the real effects of caffeine for those of us who workout. Fortunately, a new study has just come out that looks at the effect of caffeine on men and women. While I think that any study like this has the possibility of having a skew due to placebo effect, I think the general conclusions are valid. One of the interesting discoveries is that men seem to be more affected by caffeine than women and that caffeine starts to work almost right away.
Regardless of sex, caffeine has an almost immediate effect, the UB researchers found. Previous studies had shown that alertness starts to increase 30 to 45 minutes after consumption, but the new study shows that the effects begin after as few as 10 minutes.
Adan said: “45 minutes is the time needed for maximum caffeine concentration to be reached in the blood, but levels reach half this concentration after just a few minutes.”
What this means for people who workout- either in the morning or after a long day is simply this- a cup of coffee will help get you going and motivated when you really don’t feel like it. I usually go through the drive thru at Dunkin Donuts before heading to the gym. Not only do I like their coffee, but it really does make a difference. So skip the expensive energy drinks that usually have a ton of sugar in them and get an old fashioned cup of coffee for that workout pick-me-up.
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