I love coffee! I’m not sure about you but I drink all kinds, all flavors, all roasts, all mixes. Plain espresso, americano’s, latte’s, and even black coffee. I drink it in the morning’s, before workouts, after workouts, before work, after work, before bed. I absolutely love coffee, and I know many of you do too. However, have you ever thought about the side effects of caffeine?
Caffeine: A stimulant, a performance enhancer, a drug, a supplement, and a daily fix for many.
If you didn’t know caffeine was a drug, then your welcome because it is considered a stimulant. The reason I talk about side effects is because of how it can impact your everyday life. My favorite coffee time is pre-workout because of how it effects my body during a workout. Caffeine is proven to lower rate of perceived exertion during workouts.
Squatting 315 pounds without caffeine might take 90% of your effort, but with… it may be closer to 75% or 80%.
Is that a bad thing? Absolutely not, often it will actually benefit you in the long run because you can push your body farther than it normally can. Yet, for those who rarely work out and simply pickup their daily Starbucks, caffeine is most likely the hidden enemy. If you smoke a pack of cigarettes a day for two weeks; chances are by the end of that period of time your body will be craving it, regardless of whether you truly want it or not. This is what happens when you give your body stimulants (i.e. caffeine). For those reading this that have a cup, or two, or three every single day take a day off and see how you feel. Chances are that foggy feeling that you feel every morning won’t go away, and that headache you nurse every night? Yeah that’s going to be there for a while.