Coffee may help relieve physical pain caused by excessive exercise, according to research, the Daily Mail reported. A team led by Professor O'Connor of the University of Georgia studied female college students who did not consume caffeine regularly and did not exercise regularly. The results showed that caffeine consumption reduced muscle pain by 48% after doing the highest intensity exercise.
The team's initial study found that college men who consumed caffeine infrequently, who consumed a high dose of caffeine an hour before exercise and then engaged in moderate-intensity cycling for 30 minutes, had significantly lower rates of thigh muscle pain. They then gave different doses of caffeine and found that the effect on muscle pain relief correlated with the caffeine dose.
The mechanism by which caffeine reduces muscle pain is unclear, but a possible explanation is that caffeine works by blocking adenosine receptors in the body, a pain-causing chemical.
However, these results were based on subjects who did not consume caffeine regularly, and the small number of participants may not be applicable to those who consume caffeine regularly because they are less sensitive to caffeine's analgesic effects.
Although this effect remains to be studied, caffeine is better at reducing post-exercise muscle pain than commonly used painkillers such as aspirin, naproxen and ibuprofen, at least for people who don't consume caffeine regularly. Despite this, for some people, caffeine consumption before exercise should be cautious. Too much caffeine can cause side effects such as neurasthenia, palpitations and sleep disturbances.
