Wednesday, July 23, 2008

Caffeine post workout?


"But unless you're an Ironman triathlete planning for another three-hour workout later in the day, you don't have to rush this process."

I had to chuckle when I read that quote as I found it quite relevant, especially on multiple workout days when eating "real" food becomes a chore... All kidding aside, even though the article is from a Runner's World blog, it gives a nice overview of studies regarding what kind of calories to consume and when. This discussion/debate was brought to the forefront again due to a soon to be published study which suggests that consuming your post workout calories with caffeine helps improve glycogen production. This is promising as more glycogen production means more glycogen available for your muscles to store which is a key component in recovery. What does this mean in a practical sense? No that I needed one but this sounds like a perfect excuse for my post swim, pre work cup of joe.

2 comments:

rr said...

Sounds like a good excuse for my pre-workout, post-workout, lunchtime, post-lunch and mid afternoon habit too, right?

khai said...

That's not coffee you wuss! THIS is coffee! http://www.slowtwitch.com/mainheadings/features/riccitello/coffee.html