Late last year, a team of scientists from Brazil published the results of a study exploring the effects of a performance-enhancing drug on fourteen male recreational cyclists.
The benefits were astounding. Subjects completed a sixteen kilometer time trial more than 40 seconds faster when they had ingested the drug compared to when they had just taken a placebo pill, a remarkable difference considering the trial took on average around 27 minutes to complete.
What’s more, the drug was very safe at the dose administered, about six milligrams per kilogram of body weight. The takeaway: any competitive athlete in an aerobic sport would crazy not to use it!
So what is this wonder drug? It’s good ol’ caffeine.
According to the International Society of Sports Nutrition, “Supplementation with caffeine has been shown to acutely enhance various aspects of exercise performance… Small to moderate benefits of caffeine use include, but are not limited to: muscular endurance, movement velocity and muscular strength, sprinting, jumping, and throwing performance, as well as a wide range of aerobic and anaerobic sport-specific actions.”
These myriad benefits are likely why caffeine was added to the list of banned substances by the International Olympic Committee in 1984 and the World Anti-Doping Agency in 2000. However, the agencies reversed their stance in 2004.
This is an excerpt. Read the original post here.
