I love the smell of coffee in the morning

Scott Birdby Scott Bird | March 29, 2006
Filed in Diet and Nutrition , Favourites | 11 comments

Mmmm.... coffeeToo much to give up, it seems. Although the last run (a couple of months) wasn’t a bad attempt. As with everything I eat and drink, the goal is moderation. So far, that seems to be working.

I’m currently only drinking a cup of coffee every 2 or 3 days - far from previous levels. In addition to this is a fair amount (probably 2-3 cups per day) of green tea; once again this is well below previous levels. A couple of things to note here :

The first is timing. I never have coffee as an accompaniment to a meal; instead it’s considered a relaxing treat. The aroma and flavour - in fact the entire experience of preparing/serving/drinking it - is far more important than simply drinking it for short-term benefits as a stimulant. For this reason, it never coincides with a pre-workout meal.

The second is quantity. The days of drinking 5-6 cups in a row are not set to make a return because, quite honestly, I get hungry after the second cup and my mind switches instantly into food mode. Hunger makes everything else seem insignificant.

Nary a day goes by without one study or another looking at the effects of caffeine consumption. Strong coffee, caffeine tablets, soft drinks etc; yet the subjects of such studies are rarely those involved in weight training, or even some form of regular exercise. Instead, many of the studies focus on the average adult with what is believed to be a typical caffeine consumption.

As a result, there have been many varied opinions on weight training and caffeine consumption. A few I came across during today’s cup :

Caffeine Roundtable
T-nation
Dr John Berardi, Dr Lonnie Lowery and Douglas Kalman

Caffeine Limits Blood Flow To Heart Muscle During Exercise
Science Daily
NB : Full text of the referenced study is here (subscription - free abstract available)

Is Caffeine Withdrawal a Mental Disorder?


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Discussion

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Comments

1

I find myself drinking more and more coffee…well latte’s which are worse than coffee itself. Love the smell of ground coffee, but I can’t stand it when it’s black. I have to put a TON of creamer and sugar in it if I’m going to drink it in that form…I guess you could call it a latte of sorts at that point!

Posted by: Chris D. | March 30, 2006 2:26 AM

2

I avoid caffeine like the plague (as it can be a catalyst for my going blind for short periods of time), but have started drinking a mug of herbal tea in the evenings. It’s going to be very disappointing when I run out of the stuff my buddy brought back for me from Africa.

Tea is relatively new for me; until last Christmas, I had never drank an entire serving of any beverage warmer than room temperature.

Posted by: Blaine Moore (Run to Win) | March 30, 2006 3:08 PM

3

So, what’s the bottom line? I’m not surprised coffee restricts blood flow because after all it leads to constriction of blood vessels. My own observation is that I need to cut back because I am starting to lose sleep.

However, I do note that the right amount of aggression really improves lifting. Coffee can be an aid in getting that going.

Posted by: Bud Gibson | March 30, 2006 3:51 PM

4

Blaine, not sure what sort of selection you get there, but there are dozens of pretty good herbal teas available here. Do local supermarkets carry much, or am I just surrounded by tea drinkers in the UK?

Bud, the short answer is that there is no ‘bottom line’. Caffeine affects people in different ways, although there are common areas.

Personally, when it comes to the idea of a pre-workout coffee, I tend to believe that it helps endurance athletes more than those lifting weights. I can see value in having a cup prior to a cardio session, but not before hitting the iron.

It seems to stimulate the brain whilst reducing muscular flexibility slightly. What are your observations on the effects of pre-workout coffee?

Posted by: Scott | March 30, 2006 5:51 PM

5

Hmm, being scottish tea has a similar position in life as the Japanese, minus just a little of the ceremony :).

My caffiene restriction is based on my need to sleep, I tend to to have any caffeine after about 4 in the afternoon, but still drink decaffienated tea at night.

We recently got a rather nice espresso machine, so I’ll have the odd short black either as a little boost in the morning or if I get home from a bad day. The caffeine effect is a lot mellower from this than from the press or drip coffee.

My work actually has tea ladies, who make filter coffee in our tearoom all day (which incidentally is a big glass pyramid in the middle of a garden). This gut rot causes me some damage i think, I try to drink it as little as possible.

Posted by: Steph | March 30, 2006 10:18 PM

6

Scott, I posted my observations in my own post. Nice article.

Posted by: Bud Gibson | March 31, 2006 4:39 AM

7

4 in the afternoon? Steph, what time do you usually go to sleep? (got a feeling that my 2-4am is a little later than average).

Bud, I’ve commented over on your site.

Posted by: Scott | March 31, 2006 1:23 PM

8

I like to partake in the green tea myself. Although, after an incident with a friend of mine, I have definitely curbed my use.

If you’ve ever heard of adrenal shutdown, it’s nasty and can be extremely frustrating. My friend was trying to cut down to do a show and upped her caffeine levels to magnify fat loss.

The only problem is that she had been using caffeine in large doses for a while and then upped it even more. Needless to say, she started actually gaining weight!

She finally went to the doctor and they ran some tests. They found that the caffeine overload had caused here adrenal system, particularly her thyroid, to completely shut down. It took 6 months for it to bounce back.

Now, I have no evidence that any other drug use was occurring, although that could also have been the reason

Posted by: Brad Howard | March 31, 2006 4:04 PM

9

Brad, adrenal shutdown certainly isn’t one of my goals. How large were the doses?

Posted by: Scott | March 31, 2006 5:59 PM

10

Some of my fondest and calmest memories involve a cup of joe. As a kid in Puerto Rico, it was my grandma giving me a cup with some buttered Cuban bread and having that while watching the iguanas go by in front of the house. Conversations with my mom as a teenager. Faraway bistros with a saucer of flan. And so funny you mention it, Scott, the prep really is calming. And all that takes is a cup on a given day.

Posted by: Alberto Caraballo | April 3, 2006 5:01 PM

11

Man, I feel like travelling after reading that. It’s great that something so simple can conjure up wonderful memories.

Posted by: Scott | April 3, 2006 5:08 PM

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