Better Living

I am basically reviewing everything I eat and everything I do (like exercise).

The most recent thing to hit my radar is Starbucks.

This is one of those occassional pleasures I would just as soon not have to give up.

So I started looking in to it.

First I wondered if it might actually be good, like could it boost endurance?

I’ve never been a big addict of coffee, but I sure do drink it every now and then, but I can still function normally even if I haven’t taken a cup at the start of the day.  It’s not that I hate it; I just don’t get some people’s obsession about this drink.  So if I’m not into coffee, why am I writing about it?  Well, I recently learned that the caffeine in coffee not only wakes up the senses but could also boost a person’s endurance.

Some athletes actually take caffeine supplements before a running a marathon or training session.   It has been reported that caffeine affects the overall performance of endurance athletes by giving them staying power.  At first experts thought that it’s because of caffeine’s more well known ability to give an energy boost because it is a potent stimulant.  However, further research shows that caffeine deters the onset of central fatigue.  Central fatigue is a condition where the brain is not efficiently relaying its signal to the muscle which causes fatigue.  Come to think of it, I may have this condition since I often find myself out of breath.

Caffeine intake does not come without its risk.  Being a stimulant in nature, caffeine may cause restlessness and even heart palpitation if too much is taken.  After researching I’ve found out that the suitable amount of caffeine a person should take every day is around 3-6 milligrams per kilogram of the person’s body weight.  So if a person weighs 100 kilograms (220 pounds), the recommended caffeine intake should be around 600 milligrams of coffee. So I think a couple of cups a day before working out shouldn’t be too much.