Advanced Training Essentials Caffeine: part 1 You find your workout energy diminishing and require a chemical jolt to up the training ante; your drowsy afternoon meeting threatens to send to you to dreamland so you turn to your most trusted companion for such times; your late night study session proves fruitless, until, that is, you flood your system with an elixir known for its energizing properties. That’s right; under times which require high mental and physical acuity we often turn to that most trusted of pick me ups: caffeine. The world’s most popular psychoactive substance, or legal pharmaceutical, caffeine currently enjoys unprecedented popularity as a stimulating beverage in the form of coffee or tea and, for those looking for an effective pre-workout “hit”, a variety of energy drinks. But effective though these products may be, is there an upper limit to how much of their active ingredient we should consume? Might caffeine consumption be dangerous at certain levels? While the jury is out on exactly how much is too much – assuming reasonable judgement is used (1000 cups of coffee per day might just be pushing it) – there is a suggestion that chronic adrenal exhaustion resulting from daily fluctuations in energy and alertness may occur when more than five cups of strong coffee (each containing 100mg or more of caffeine) are consumed per day. However, as will be expanded upon later in this article, it is the constant consumption of coffee, or other caffeine containing beverages, that may create problems for the consumer, not caffeine per se. Indeed, it is athletes, such as those who wisely supplement with energy products prior to working out, who seem to adopt the best approach to caffeine consumption of all: use it sparingly, but in respectable quantities to receive the most significant response from it. If we consume caffeine often, we build a tolerance to it and, increasingly, we receive fewer benefits from it. Those who save their caffeine consumption for key times (an energy supplement providing 200+mg of caffeine taken 1-2 times per day prior to training or before meals to enhance the thermogenic effect of food is one effective option), find it will work its energy-boosting magic in more devastating fashion. Though smart athletes know that strategically supplementing caffeine while limiting coffee intake to 1-2 cups per day is the best way forward, significant quantities of caffeine are, in the USA alone (168mg of coffee per person, or a cup and a half for each of its 311 million inhabitants), consumed daily. Given caffeine is a drug, an addictive substance, might we be getting too much of a good thing as we sip our several strong lattes throughout the day? It is hard to say exactly what the long term consequences of a consistently high caffeine intake are, but one thing is clear: society has, it appears, formed a reliance on the world’s most preferred drug of choice and its energizing effects are keeping us awake and buzzing for longer than ever.
Posted on: Tue, 21 Oct 2014 19:18:02 +0000
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