Coffee Makes Exercise Easier
Researches at the University of Illinois have figured out why caffeine helps you work out harder. According to kinesiology and community health professor Robert Motl, "caffeine works on the adenosine neuromodulatory system in the brain and spinal cord, and
this system is heavily involved in nociception and pain processing." Essentially, it blocks some pain reception.
And coffee addicts don't have to worry about any tolerance effect. You may need five cups a day to stay awake, but you'll have the same level of pain-blocking as someone who's drinking their first Red Bull.
Said Motl, “We’ve shown that caffeine reduces pain reliably, consistently during cycling, across different intensities, across different people, different characteristics."
He hypothesizes that if it hurts less, you'll exercise more. But this begs the question, if there's no pain, will there be gain? [Editor's note: Sorry, it was too obvious to avoid.]
Read more about the study here.
--Spanno
Patricia Eddy (Cook Local) on April 08, 2009 at 04:13 PM
I read about this study a week or so ago. Since I drink a decent amount of coffee anyway, I decided to start having a double shot before my long workouts. Maybe it's just mental, but I do think I feel better now after these workouts. I'm training for a marathon, so I think I'll be adding coffee to my training routine.