While at the coffee roasters this morning and waiting for my coffee to be roasted, I was thinking about the effects that coffee/caffeine has on my workouts. It seems I am a better human when I have my morning coffee but, how does this effect the workout? Caffeine is a stimulant and this alone can help you get motivated to go to your workout. Caffeine is also an ergogenic aid. It helps start the process of fat burning earlier when exercising. Normally when you exercise your body uses glucose/ muscle glycogen to provide the fuel to exercise. This allows you to start burning fat. It is like having a car with 2 forward gears at the same time. You have to have the glycogen burning to access the fat burning. This is where caffeine comes in. It allows your muscles to access the fat burning stage earlier. Instead of using blood sugar or muscle glycogen to access the fat stores, the caffeine allows this to happen quicker. That is what you want, to burn fat. It is a more efficient fuel for endurance exercise and we want to reduce our body fat anyway. So enjoy a moderate amount of caffeine before you workout and if nothing else you will enjoy the pick me up :)
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