No Coffee Before Exercise?
 

So says the latest study. You can google it.

The conclusion is based on just 18-people. The testers probably had the human lab rats exerting themselves at times of day and doing exercises that they never did previously. Some probably never even drank coffee, either before or after exercising.

Of course, that does not slow anyone up when it comes to drawing significant conclusions from their data. Wasn't is Shorter that drank flat coke while running?

:)

Powerbars/gels, etc. have caffeine so I guess its ok. I drink coffee all the time and i'm still alive.
It is diuretic so if you take too much you'll have to stop to pee more often

When I raced, (back in the paleolithic era) everyone always drank a coke before a workout or a ride.

I still do it to this day. I think the caffiene helps get the heart rate up a little more quickly.

Az

Interesting findings; kinda useless sample size though.

Here is my personal experience with coffee & exercise.

I've never been a coffee drinker. Maybe I'd drink 5 cups in a year.

I started back into bicycling after about a 25 year layoff. After 4 mos of 60 miles per week of riding I got my avg. speed up to regularly being about 16+ mph over a particular 20 mile circuit.

During a professional bike fit the fitter, an ex pro cyclist, suggested I drink a caffinated cup-o-joe just before I do my daily 20 mile circuit. I began doing that. Within days I'd picked up my avg speed by 1mph, then it was two! That was after months of the same average speed (I thought I'd plateaued).

I'd say coffee has had a positive effect on my avg. speed and excercise for me so now I keep drinking a cup just before taking off, otherwise I don't drink it at all.

YMMV.

..rickko..

They'll take my coffee away when they pry it from my cold, dead fingers. Without a cup of joe in the morning, and especially before a ride, I am like a fifty-five year old man, grumpy and complaining about this and that, unable to smile or see the humor in anything, and ... wait ... that's me anyway. Well, I still want my coffee!

That could be an ibuprophen deficiency :)

At my favorite local coffee shop, they have a big article posted on their bulletin board about how most European riders drink some espresso before going out each day. It seems logical that caffene would get you going.
If you read the ingredients on such things as Gu and Power Gel, many of them feature something that acts like a stimulant.
And, I read somewhere that now that the UCI is really cracking down on doping, the caffene consumption in the peleton has risen dramatically.

My favorite coffee shop just installed a bike rack. I can't quit drinking coffee now!

I hate to say it, but we must be related. So many of your concepts and actions are like mine. I can still be grumpy with the coffee, so may be a way we differ.

My ride mornings start with at least two coffee's. If a cafe or restaurant does not have good coffee we go somewhere else, and my cool down period in the garden is accompanied by a big mug of coffee. Then the rest of the day is taken up with staying awake with the aid of coffee again.

Dito in Canada - and probably every other corner of the world. Love your sense of humor!

So hell for Gary is no coffee with three-times-a-day, five-mile runs in between cleaning bathrooms with toothbrushes! Sounds like the voice of personal experience. :D

Stop!!! My stomach is killing me now, I'm laughing so hard. I really, REALLY needed this today, too. See my thread called In a Slump....

When it comes to coffee studies, a new one, 6 months from now, will reveal entirely different results. OHB

As a coffee-holic, I worried about my excessive java addiction, so I asked both my family doctor and my urologist if I was abusing myself somehow. Both said that despite people trying to blame coffee for things, nothing too severe has been found. Both also admitted to being heavy coffee drinkers, themselves. :)

Caffeine is a bronchodilator, so in some circumstances it might decrease the work of breathing.I have read several studies(OK I read just the summaries-skipped al the BS statistics,methods etc)over the years,and they usually showed that caffeine improves athletic performance-max lifts and endurance efforts.It is banned(I think)-at higher levels-in the Olympics for just this reason.
I swill 2 very,very strong cups of coffee every am to pry my lids open.It is a great drug-cheap,effective,legal with a minimal downside-mild abstinence syndrone,diuretic,slight tremor etc.Several studies have linked coffee-caffeinated brewed coffee-with lower cancer rates.I wouldn't count on that,but...Thanks.Charlie

Hi,
I typically have a cup before I exercise. My fave is a mocha immediately before I hit the road. Works for me.

Seems I remember too that caffein was said to free-up fatty acids and that was used by the body for energy so coffee was recommended before a workout.

No coffee? What a ridiculous idea. I don't even want to think about it.

When I quit smoking, I finally managed to cut down from two pots of coffee a day to one...

I'm down to one pot a day, also. :D

+1. There are 3 things in life which a still really enjoy. I will keep this thread polite and simply say that my daily coffee is the only one of those enjoyments which I can regularly count on. Bob

I remember the previous experiment should that coffee stimulated the brain. Subjects drank coffeee before doing tests and the older people scored significantly higher after the caffiene.

Just think if your mind is working better, that should mean quicker reflexes while riding. But this is only my thesis on the study. :rolleyes:

I've read that caffeine and alcohol open up the capillaries, so we're most likely getting more blood flowing through us before we start to exercise.
DG, who is this Joe guy?

He's a good friend of mine, Chief. He was there when I gave up drinkin', and when I gave up smokin', and when I gave up barbituates, and when I gave up cursin', and when I gave up chasin' loose women, (truth there is they got too fast for me). In fact, I'm having a cuppa Joe right now!

For those of you with a real coffee need, here's an upgrade for your PC.

I've been slowed my a knee replacement now only averaging about 120 miles a week. So, I ve been hitting the gym three days a week. My son is a weight lifter and all of their pre-workout drinks have 200-300mm of caffeine in them. Trust me, it works.

Seems to me that Lance insisted not only on coffee before riding, but a specific coffee... He didn't do to bad...... :D

Mmmmmmmmmmm .... Coffee!!!

No coffee for 20 years (not even decaf).

It makes your insides turn brown.

It also (including decaf) does some very strange things (I wouldn't want to mention them here) to my body. In fact, anything with caffeine does the same things (decaf retains some caffeine).

Dnvr "The water drinker" Fox

funny

and cafe - 'Nectar O da Gods' (at least when its not an appropriate hour for a glass of Chateau Thames Enbankment...)