Coffee Actually Does Help You Work Out Better

It’s not just in your head: coffee does actually help you work out better. Praise!

Related: New Cannabis Coffee Gives You More than a Caffeine High

So it’s long been said by nutritionists and trainers that you should abstain from all things caffeinated before getting your work out on. But that’s challenging for early morning worker-outers and for coffee enthusiasts. So one aforementioned coffee enthusiast Bruno Gualano, a physiology professor at the University of Sao Paulo, put it to the test.

Turns out Gualano is a cyclist and an avid coffee drinker. So he rounded up a group of competitive male cyclists and put them into three groups: a group who drank less than a cup of coffee per day, a group who drank about two cups, and a group who drank three or more cups. He then put them to the test and had them perform time trials after taking a caffeine pill equal to about four cups of coffee, after taking a placebo, and after taking nothing.

And almost every rider’s fastest trial was after taking the caffeine pill! Their speed averaged more than 3 percent faster compared to no pill or 2 percent faster compared to a placebo. It even worked for riders used to the caffeine. This isn’t the first study to higlight the benefits of coffee. Others have pointed out that coffee can accelerate fat loss, increase focus, and decrease muscle pain. 

Gualano said he could see that boost cut a few minutes of a marathon runner’s race time but of course, watch out. The effects of caffeine are totally individual and we’re no experts but you probably shouldn’t be guzzling café con leche before a triathlon. But what do we know.