Does drinking coffee enhance exercise performance?
Researchers have consistently shown that coffee’s high energy ingredient, caffeine, is a well-established ergogenic aid, with performance-enhancing effects across a range of sports and exercises. But much of this research has used caffeine supplements or powder, not coffee, as the test substance. For elite athletes who don’t want to take caffeine supplements—not to mention weekend warriors and erratic exercisers—can a regular cup of joe have the same effects?
How does it work?
We all know that the jolt of caffeine in your morning coffee can make you bright-eyed and bushy-tailed—or rudimentarily functional, at least. After all, people around the world drink about 1.4 billion cups of coffee every day, according to the International Coffee Organization.
Is coffee as good as caffeine?
Studies that investigate the effects of caffeine often use caffeine anhydrous, a highly concentrated caffeine powder typically found in tablet or capsule form. Just one teaspoon of caffeine anhydrous is equivalent to 28 cups of coffee, according to the FDA. But athletes also ingest caffeine through caffeinated sports drinks, gels, bars, gum, and even caffeinated sprays and mouth rinses.
So, is coffee as good as those methods for a caffeine fix before a workout or competition?
While the evidence isn’t totally consistent, caffeine and coffee appear to be equally beneficial for improving endurance performance when caffeine doses are matched, Pickering and Grgic found. For example, they pointed to a study in which cyclists who drank coffee (providing 5 mg/kg of caffeine) or took caffeine in a capsule (also 5 mg/kg) demonstrated similar improvements in aerobic endurance performance.
