Pages: A coffee a day keeps you running all day

Saturday, December 17, 2011

EVER since I started drinking this brewed beverage back in 2007, I’ve been hooked. I sip coffee twice a day. The first when I arise before six each morning; the next, after lunch. It’s become a habit. A few times when this caffeine dose gets delayed, my body weakens. I feel sleepy.

Coffee, I admit, has become a drug. I’m addicted. It’s a craving that my mind seeks each day. Is this good? Isn’t addiction—of any form—bad?

Have something to report? Tell us in text, photos or videos.

The New York Times, just last Dec. 14, published a story written by Gretchen Reynolds entitled, “How Coffee Can Galvanize Your Workout.”

“Can a cup of coffee motivate you to relish your trips to the gym this winter?” is the very first line.

The article focuses on research done at Coventry University in England where 13 robust young men were asked to lift weights and do gym exercises. They were asked to perform two types of workouts. In one, an hour before, they drank coffee. In the next, they drank the same-tasting beverage -- but minus the caffeine.

The results? “Exhaustion arrived much later for those who’d had caffeine first,” wrote Reynolds. “After swallowing the caffeinated beverage, the men completed significantly more repetitions of the exercises than after the placebo. They also reported feeling subjectively less tired during the entire bout and, in perhaps the most interesting finding, said that they were eager to repeat the whole workout again soon.”

Coffee + eercise = one-two punch. This study confirms what I’ve experienced.

Since I prefer an early morning exercise routine, prior to that 8-oz. drink (I use the French Press method; grinding the beans then placing them in a French Press for a few minutes), I’m still in drowsy mode. But, moments after savoring the brown drink, I’m energized to run or bike...

The article continues: “‘Essentially, we found that with the caffeinated drink, the person felt more able to invest effort,’ says Michael Duncan, a senior lecturer in sports science at the University of Exeter in England and lead author of the study. ‘They would put more work into the training session, and when the session was finished, in the presence of the caffeinated drink, they were more psychologically ready to go again.’”

Coffee is a legal drug among athletes, approved by the International Olympic Committee. In a study of 20,680 athletes, more than two-thirds were tested positive for caffeine in their urine, with the highest percentages the cyclists, rowers and triathletes. (The only time an Olympian will be disqualified? If he/she consumes 1,000mg of caffeine—eight straight cups of coffee!)

In another article by the BBC News (“Coffee ‘boosts exercise stamina’), it’s reported that Australian researchers found that caffeine, even in small quantities, allowed athletes to exercise almost a third longer.

“The Australian Institute of Sport team found that caffeine triggers the muscles to start using fat as an energy source rather than carbohydrate sugars,” said the article. “Caffeine has been used by many endurance athletes as a way of eking extra energy out of their body’s reserves during an event.”

Based on further research, it appears that coffee does not benefit short-term, high-intensity exercises like sprinting. Instead, it helps endurance sports.

“Caffeine has been proven to increase the number of fatty acids circulating in the bloodstream, which enables people to run or pedal longer (since their muscles can absorb and burn that fat for fuel and save the body’s limited stores of carbohydrates until later in the workout),” wrote Ms. Reynolds for the NY Times.

What’s the conclusion?

Drink coffee.

Use it as a stimulant to sweat and do sports.

As example, now I know why Glenn Soco, the founder of the Cebu Volleyball Association (Ceva) and the organizer of the GUV Cup, looks super-fit. He owns Coffee Dream.

(www.pages.ph)