Caffeine May Help Athletes Tolerate Pain
Coffee Might Lessen the Pain Sensations After a Tough Workout
Jun 9, 2009
That nagging muscle pain after you’ve pushed yourself too hard at the gym, running, jogging or cycling, could be a thing of the past if you remember to stop at the coffee shop.
Coffee’s had a bit of a bad rap lately, so coffee fans will be pleased to hear about research on the benefits of caffeine. A new study has shown that caffeine reduces the effect of pain – the brain doesn’t register the pain after high level exercise if there is caffeine circulating in the blood.
The trick is to have your coffee before you exercise, according to one of the authors of the study, Dr Robert Motl. Dr Motl, from the University of Illinois, is a former competitive cyclist who is now a professor of kinesiology and community health.He has been studying caffeine and physical activity for seven years,
Caffeine Reduces Perception of Pain
“Caffeine works on the adenosine neuromodulatory system in the brain and spinal cord, and this system is heavily involved in nociception (perception of pain or injury) and pain processing,” he said. Since caffeine blocks adenosine from working, he speculated that it could reduce pain sensations.
When he was a competition cyclist, he and his team mates used to meet for coffee before their training sessions. “The notion was that caffeine was helping us train harder … to push ourselves a little harder," he said. “We didn’t know why it worked, but it did.”
Dr Motl said many athletes are taking drinks or supplements containing caffeine, believing that they help to metabolise fat faster and thus provide more energy. “People are doing it for that reason, but they actually take a substance that has caffeine and they can push themselves harder. It doesn’t hurt as much.
“I think intuitively a lot of people are taking caffeine before a workout and they don’t realize the actual benefit they’re experiencing. That is, they’re experiencing less pain during the workout,” he said
Study Shows Caffeine Reduces Pain
Dr Motl and colleagues studied two groups of male college students who they subjected to high level cycling exercise. One group drank less than one cup of coffee a day (less than 1000 mg caffeine), while the other group were habitual coffee drinkers who regularly had three or four cups (4000 mg caffeine) a day.
Students were asked to abstain from coffee or cola drinks before the tests, and then were given a tablet an hour before each high intensity cycling session. The tablets were either 5mg of caffeine per kilogram of body weight (equivalent to two cups of coffee) or a placebo, and all students received each tablet.
They were then subjected to 30 minutes of fairly gruelling high intensity exercise, during which their oxygen consumption levels, heart rate, work rate and perception of pain in their quadriceps muscles was regularly recorded. The students were able to cycle longer and harder when they had swallowed the caffeine pill.
The study has been published in the International Journal of Sport Nutrition and Exercise Metabolism.
Caffeine Pain Reduction Not Just for Athletes
The study results could prove encouraging for less fit people trying to keep to a regular gym or fitness routine. "If you exercise and it hurts, you may be prone to stop doing that because pain is an aversive stimulus that tells you to withdraw,” Dr Motl said
“So if we could give people a little caffeine and reduce the amount of pain they’re experiencing, maybe that would help them stick with that exercise. “Maybe then they’ll push a little harder as well … maybe get even better adaptations to the exercise.”
See also: Thank the Bats for Organic Coffee
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