In this week’s podcast, we discuss the performance enhancing effects of caffeine. Caffeine is by far the most widely consumed drug in the world with about 90% of all Americans consuming some form of caffeine everyday.
The scientific community hasn’t settled on a consensus on how caffeine works in the body. The best guess so far is that it works as an adenosine agonist. This prevents chemicals that make you tired from binding to their active sites, which delays fatigue, and is one of the primary ways caffeine works and increases energy levels.
The most prominent performance enhancing effect of caffeine is its ability to increase free fatty acid release into the blood. This gives your body greater access to a very clean and abundant fuel source that aids in performance, especially in endurance events that last for longer durations. The effects of caffeine on short term activities like lifting weights or sprinting have generated mixed results. Some show an increase in overall power production however, the results are mixed and not very conclusive. To learn more about the performance enhancing effects of caffeine, listen to this week’s podcast.
Links To Studies Mentioned
The effects of caffeine, nicotine, ethanol, and tetrahydrocannabinol on exercise performance
Effects of caffeine intake on muscle strength and power: a systematic review and meta-analysis
