After the weekend where I was working with athletes there were a few questions on caffeine; so I thought it might be useful to do a quick recap:
The performance boost you get is the effect caffeine has on your central nervous system- therefore you become more alert, you react faster and you don’t think you are working as hard.
It will not cause dehydration (in moderate doses)- you will not need additional fluid to counteract the caffeine intake.
It affects everyone differently- Try it out in training sessions first. If you feel, jittery and nervous try reducing the intake, you don’t want it to impact on your performance, and try it before a race unknown.
You can develop a tolerance- Everyone has a different reaction to caffeine and how your body responds, but your body will adapt to the effects that happens and therefore the reaction you get will be much lower over time. You might want to reduce your intake in the couple of weeks before the race for the race day intake to take its affect.
Timing- Again this is something you would want to try during a training session first- and again it will be different for everyone. It will roughly take 60mins to have an effect so there is no point in taking it immediately before a race.
It’s not going to override the effects of poor training- although it can boost performance you will get more of a benefit from focused training.
It takes about three to six milligrams of caffeine per kilogram of body weight (190-380mg for a 63kg athlete), to notice a benefit for most people. Anything higher you are likely to get side effects.
Examples:
Expresso 30ml cup- 30-90mg
Coca Cola 33-ml can- 32mg
Tea (Black)- 235ml- 40-120mg
Red Bull- 250ml can -80mg
Filter Coffee-235m cup- 100-200mg
If you have any further questions, don't hesitate to leave a commend!
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