Koffie en cafeïne voor duursporters

Coffee is often drunk before running or racing bicycles. Not without reason. Coffee used to be on the doping list, but caffeine was removed from it in 2004. Since then, everyone can enjoy a nice cup of coffee again before the marathon or the evening four days. But why is coffee so popular among endurance athletes and are there certain techniques that you can use to drink your coffee in such a way that you can get even more out of it while running or cycling. Coffee for endurance athletes, that's what we're going to talk about.

The fact that caffeine improves your sports performance is several times over demonstrated. For example, a study that shows that drinking coffee just before you do an endurance sport increases your speed. This is because caffeine indirectly produces more adrenaline, which makes you more energy and more blood goes to your muscles (including your heart). And another study shows that it also reduces your muscle soreness. The latter is because caffeine blocks certain pain stimuli.

Possible disadvantages of coffee for endurance athletes

What you've probably heard is that coffee makes you dehydrated. This is also correct. The caffeine stimulates your kidneys so that fluid leaves your body faster. Aahaah I hear you think, that's why I always have to go to the toilet immediately after a cup of coffee. This also sought to make you lose fluids, which in turn has a negative effect on your running performance, so when you go to the toilet, drink one to two cups of water again before you go out the door.

Timing coffee

Research shows that the effect of coffee kicks in ten minutes after you drink it and that it lasts for about an hour. Do you want to have more speed during your training? Drink your cup of coffee just before you start training. For more information on this topic, see here.

Now it may sound that caffeine is only good and it improves your sports performance. This is true to an extent, but wait until you take two scoops of pre-workout. Namely, when you get too much of it, it causes dizziness, palpitations and anxiety. Of course you don't want this when you stand on your pedals for the last climb up the hill. What they say is that you want a maximum of 3 milligrams of caffeine per kilogram of body weight. So if you weigh 70 kilos, that is, but…. 250 milligrams. Which is equivalent to two cups of coffee and less than 1 scoop of pre-workout.