Caffeine: A Woman’s Best Workout Partner
Caffeine is a natural stimulant that can increase respiratory rate, metabolism, and the amount of adrenaline in your bloodstream. Caffeine is the ultimate performance enhancer for women. According to Journal of Applied Physiology, athletes that consumed caffeine and carbs after strenuous exercise had 66% more glycogen in their muscles than athletes who just ingested carbs alone post workout. Glycogen is fuel for muscles, therefore, increasing glycogen levels after a hard workout will help athletes recover faster and perform better during the following day’s workout whether they’re running ten miles, lifting weights, or simply working out in therapeutic pools. Caffeine increases energy, burns fat, and decreases pain which is the ultimate supplement for a woman. According to recent research published in the International Journal of Sport Nutrition and Exercise Metabolism, consuming coffee (or another source of caffeine) an hour before your workout can help you burn about 15 percent more calories post-sweat session than you would otherwise. Researchers found another benefit of caffeine use in women, it increased perceptual performance skills during exercise.
| Researchers examined the influence of caffeine supplementation on cognitive performance and perceptual responses in female team-game players taking low-dose monophasic oral contraceptives of the same hormonal composition. Ten females took part in a randomised, double-blind, placebo-controlled crossover-design trial. A 90-min intermittent treadmill-running protocol was completed 60 min following ingestion of a capsule containing either 6 mg • kg-1 anhydrous caffeine or artificial sweetener (placebo). Perceptual responses or how women felt while exercising, feeling scale, felt arousal scale, mood and cognitive performance were completed before, during and after the exercise protocol, as well as after ~12 h post exercise. At the end of the study, caffeine ingestion significantly enhanced the ratings of pleasure and arousal during the exercise protocol, as well as increased vigour, while there was a tendency for reduced fatigue. Caffeine ingestion showed a tendency to decrease how hard exercise felt and improved reaction times. Caffeine supplementation showed a positive effect on perceptual parameters by increasing vigour and a tendency to decrease fatigue during intermittent running activity in female games players taking low-dose monophasic oral contraceptive steroids. |
| Pedersen DJ, Lessard SJ, Coffey VG, Churchley EG, Wootton AM, Ng T, Watt MJ, Hawley JA. High rates of muscle glycogen resynthesis after exhaustive exercise when carbohydrate is coingested with caffeine. J Appl Physiol (1985). 2008 Jul;105(1):7-13. |
Ali A, O’Donnell J, Von Hurst P, Foskett A, Holland S, Starck C, Rutherfurd-Markwick K. Caffeine ingestion enhances perceptual responses during intermittent exercise in female team-game players. J Sports Sci. 2015 Jun 5:1-12.
