Caffeine before a workout can provide benefits to improve your performance. There’s a point when the caffeine ceases to help and becomes a detriment to your health. Ensuring you don’t have negative consequences is important. A cup of coffee may be just what you need, you can also get caffeine in other forms. Caffeine pills are examples. They can make it far too easy to take too much caffeine which can cause dehydration, jitters, headaches, and an increased heart rate. All of those things can detract from your workout.
What are the positive benefits of caffeine?
As noted earlier, caffeine can improve your performance, particularly for aerobic activities. It doesn’t take much to do that either. Drinking a cup of coffee 60 minutes before working out allows the caffeine in your blood to peak during your workout. Caffeine can improve long-term memory. It can help relieve headaches. Many OTC pain killers like acetaminophen, aspirin, and ibuprofen contain caffeine. Some studies show it may provide protection from Alzheimer’s and dementia and when consumed in coffee provides protection from cardiovascular disease.
At what point are you taking too much caffeine?
You’ll get a boost to your endurance if you have between 200 and 350 mg of caffeine. If you translated that to cups of coffee, it’s about two cups since the average cup of coffee contains between 90 and 100 mg of caffeine. Some people want to bypass drinking coffee or think if a little is good, a lot is better. They often opt for caffeine powder or pills. You can overdose on caffeine very easily by using the powder. It’s so concentrated that one teaspoon has as much caffeine as the equivalent of 28 cups of coffee.
Every is different.
Most people can consume up to 400 milligrams of caffeine in a day and not have side effects. That’s equivalent to two energy shots, five cans of Red Bull, or four cups of brewed coffee. That’s not true for everyone. Some people have side effects with just one cup of coffee, while others may drink energy drinks, pots of coffee, and a few colas with no problem.
- Caffeine is a diuretic. It can lead to frequent urination and may lead to dehydration. It can also affect the digestive system, causing stomach upsets and diarrhea.
- If you overdose on caffeine, it can cause far more problems than the jitters. It can affect your heart and nervous system. High doses of caffeine can cause muscle tremors, rapid heartbeat, and seizures.
- If you don’t like coffee but want the benefits of caffeine, choose green tea. Green tea offers half the amount of caffeine as coffee, but it is loaded with antioxidants and contains phytochemicals that can prevent jitters.
- Caffeine is addictive and has withdrawal symptoms. Those include headaches. Ironically, you can’t take most OTC pain medications for the headache since they contain caffeine.
For more information, contact us today at Reggie C. Fitness