Drinking coffee after exercise can reduce the soreness caused by exercise, right? The shadow of drinking coffee before exercise

Have you ever made a fitness plan and quit because you felt tired? If so, try drinking coffee before exercising, and you may be able to stick with it.

experimental

Robert Motel, a professor at the University of Illinois, has been studying caffeine and exercise for seven years. He found that caffeine affects parts of the brain and spinal cord that process pain, presumably reducing pain from exercise.

To prove this hypothesis, Motel and the researchers organized experiments.

They divided 25 healthy men in their 20s into two groups. One group drank very little or no coffee, while the other consumed an average of about 400 milligrams of caffeine a day, the equivalent of drinking three to four cups of coffee.

The researchers first had the subjects ride exercise bikes to measure each person's maximum oxygen consumption. They were then assigned to two intense 30-minute bike rides.

The experiment stipulated that subjects should not consume caffeine on their own for 24 hours before exercise.

conclusion

The researchers gave the subjects pills an hour before the exercise began. The first group received tablets containing caffeine at 5 mg/kg before exercise, while the second group received caffeine-free placebos before exercise.

At intervals after the exercise began, the researchers recorded how painful the quadriceps felt, as well as their oxygen consumption, heart rate and exercise efficiency.

The results showed that the 25 people experienced the same degree of pain reduction during exercise.

"The results were unexpected," Motel said."It was clear that if you were already consuming caffeine regularly, you'd need to drink more to get a stronger boost. But this tolerance effect isn't universal…You give caffeine to regular and infrequent coffee drinkers, and you scan their brains, and you see exactly the same brain activity. It's interesting."