New research time and if you’re one of the consumers of the most widely used stimulant
in the world, then stick around, cause this one might actually be a bit surprising for
ya.
In this video, we’re going to talk about a new study that covers the ever-roasted,
energy-reviving substance we all know as caffeine.
More specifically, the question for this video is: Do you actually need A LOT of caffeine
to see benefits in your training?
Well the answer might be in a new 2022 meta-analysis by J Grgic, a research PhD that has done multiple
studies on this very topic of caffeine and exercise performance.
This new analysis looked at 12 studies investigating the effects of caffeine on three aspects:
muscular strength, muscular endurance, and mean velocity.
In total, 206 participants were pooled, 88 being female, and 118 being male.
Now one crtieria of this analysis that differs from previous analyses is the caffeine levels.
Previous research mostly covered ergogenic effects of caffeine in the range of 4 to 6
milligrams per kilogram of bodyweight, which is roughly about 4 to 6 cups of coffee.
Here, though, studies that were included employed caffeine interventions between 1 to 2 milligrams,
which is about 1 to 2 cups of coffee, generally 60 minutes before exercise.
Much lower than anything before.
So what did the analysis find?
In muscle strength, there was a clear ergogenic, performance-enhancing effect.
However, this was not the case for all muscle groups, where only lower body muscles, particularly
the quadriceps, saw an effect similar to the levels of high caffeine intake.
It does seem that for the upper body, lower intakes aren’t as effective.
Mechanistically, this difference might be explained by caffeine’s connection to improving
motor unit recruitment, or the ability of your brain and muscles to communicate and
contract your muscle fibers.
Larger muscles like the quads will then benefit from this increase whereas small muscles might
not.
For muscular endurance, the lower caffeine doses do seem to provide an effect as well,
but the data was a bit mixed in terms of it providing similar effects as higher dosages.
It does seem that higher caffeine doses provide a greater effect, whereas on the other end,
one study that directly compared 2, 4, and 6 milligrams of caffeine found similar improvements
across all three doses.
Ultimately, at least some endurance benefits were consistently found in the lower 1 to
2 miligram dosages.
And finally for mean velocity, it was very clear that low doses do provide an improvement
similar to higher doses, but unfortunately, there were only 2 studies investigating this
outcome.
Not a lot.
More data here would be ideal.
But overall, the main takeaway from this analyses is that it does seem relatively low dosages
of caffeine, again about 1 to 2 cups of coffee, can provide an effect.
And, the great thing about this is that the side effects that often accompany high caffeine
intake, like headaches, increased anxiety, and heart palpitations, can be largely avoided
with these smaller doses.
But I’m pretty sure one big question you guys are asking at this point is, “but mr
picturefat, what about caffeine tolerance?”
Which is a totally fair question.
Unfortunately, 5 of 12 studies did not report habitual caffeine intake, so the overall data
on this is unclear.
The ones that did report habitual intake had mixed findings.
You would think that subjects that habitually consume very little caffeine would be the
only ones that benefit, but in some cases, subjects that regularly consumed caffeine
levels higher than their trials still saw improvements.
But, the data is still unclear especially for those have a habitually VERY high caffeine
consumption.
I think it’s justified to say that the findings here probably doesn’t apply to those people,
but truly, more research is needed to come to a more roasted revelation.
But if you’re not one of those super high habitual caffeine aficionados, then it might
be okay for you to cut back on your super scoops of preworkout.
I’d recommend shooting for the middle to high range of this analysis, or about 1 and
a half to 2 cups of your favorite foamy beverage an hour before your workout.
And, if you don’t think that’s cutting it, then going for a bit more makes sense,
just keep an eye out for any unsuspecting jitters and unfortunate increases in productivity.
And that’s it for this one, I hope you guys found it useful or at least enlightening.
Let me know about your caffeine experiences in the comments below.
Other that that, if you enjoyed this video, please give it an ergogenic thumbs up and
share it with your caffeine loving friends.
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As always, thank you for watching and don’t forget to get your protein!