Raise your hand if you can’t get through your morning without a cup of coffee. Good news for those of you with your arms in the air: you can count your obsession as one of your healthiest habits.
Coffee is associated with better gut and heart health, while reducing your risk of cancer. It can also improve your brain function in the long term, as well as increase alertness in the short term, making you much more able to tackle your to-do list after a morning flat white.
If a workout is part of your POA, you’re in luck: a caffeine boost can make you more motivated, improve muscle strength, burn more fat and enhance both anaerobic and aerobic performance.
Now a new study has looked at whether similar supplements can rival caffeine when it comes to improving your gym performance. Published in the International Society of Sports Nutrition journal, it compared coffee to paracetamol to see what would come out on top for exercisers.
The Study
Until now, caffeine’s ability to improve exercise output is generally put down to its ability to block adenosine, a chemical that makes you feel tired. Blocking it means you can work harder for less perceived effort and feel less pain.
Another way to block adenosine and reduce pain sensations is with paracetamol. The researchers from this study wanted to see if paracetamol could have the same effect as caffeine on muscular endurance, strength, power, anaerobic endurance and jumping performance.
They also wanted to see if combining the two could add an extra edge to competitive training.
The study included 29 participants who regularly resistance trained. They were given either a placebo, caffeine (3 mg per kilogram of body weight), paracetamol (1500 mg) or caffeine and paracetamol 45 minutes before a training session.
The session included bench press performed at 75% of their one-rep max for as many reps as they could until failure, knee extension and flexion exercises, a max-effort cycle and jump tests. Participants were also asked to indicate their perceived levels of exertion out of 10.
The Results
Caffeine was the best way to improve exercise performance across the different modalities. The biggest takeaways were:
- Caffeine increased the number of repetitions performed on bench press.
- Caffeine and paracetamol increased peak torque in knee extension and flexion.
- Paracetamol consumption increased rate of perceived exertion, meaning exercise felt harder for those using paracetamol than for those using caffeine or caffeine plus paracetamol.
- There were no differences across the groups for jump height and cycling.
What This Means For Us
If you want to improve your workout performance, you’re better sticking with your americano than with painkillers. Hopefully it goes without saying, but experimenting with paracetamol and other pharmaceuticals in your own life isn’t recommended, anyway. However, it is a common protocol used by professional athletes who are overseen by coaches and medical professionals – though this study suggests its not worth it.
Caffeine alone was the best way to improve muscular endurance in the bench press, strength and power, researchers concluded.
They worked with caffeine at 3 mg per kilogram of body weight taken 45 minutes before training, though the International Society of Sports Nutrition’s official stance is that 3-6mg of caffeine, 60 minutes before exercise, is best.
That means 255-510mg of caffeine for an 80kg man. A typical espresso shot contains 200mg, though is varies widely. It’s also worth noting that the official ‘safe’ limit for caffeine is 400mg a day, though people can be more or less sensitive.
The Bottom Line
It’s probably not worth getting hyper-fixated on grams and timing unless you’re a professional. Just know that a pre-workout coffee boost really is a staple part of your workout and health routine.
