Is Coffee Good For You Before You Workout

I have had many conversations about the benefits of drinking coffee, yet different research studies provide conflicting evidence as to whether it’s good for you or not. For the record I drink coffee every morning, and my husband loads up before and during his longer bike rides.

Legend has it that a goat herder named Kaldi first discovered coffee beans in the 15th century. He noticed that his goats became so energetic after eating berries from a certain tree that they did not want to sleep at night.

Today, about 64 percent of the U.S. population drinks coffee, consuming 400 million cups per day, or 146 billion cups per year. This makes the U.S. the leading consumer of coffee in the world. Coffee represents 75% of all the caffeine consumed in the U.S. That’s a lot of coffee!!

The good news is that coffee is good for you in moderation (up to 400 mg of caffeine per day), which is the equivalent of about four nine-ounce cups.

But is good before a Workout? The answer is yes!

Drinking coffee in the morning before exercise will give you energy and will work to accelerate the benefits of exercise; stimulating energy production and fat burning. In other words, it helps boost your energy helping you work out harder! Perhaps the greatest benefit of having coffee before your workout is the high amounts of caffeine in black coffee will increase your metabolism which makes you burn more calories throughout the day. Coffee can increase your metabolism by up to 20 percent!

Besides providing you with a temporary metabolic boost, other functional benefits of a pre-workout cup of coffee include:

1. Improved micro-circulation for better blood flow through the capillaries.

2. Pain reduction leading to less muscle soreness.

3. Improved endurance which can lead to improved exercise performance by more than 11 percent.

4. Muscle preservation to help maintain more youthful muscle tissue.

5. Improved memory for up to 24 hours.

The recommended amount of coffee is one 8-9-ounce cup about one hour before your workout. Caffeine is quickly absorbed from the stomach within 15 to 45 minutes of consumption, but it hits its peak stimulatory effects between 30 and 75 minutes.

Have a great workout!