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Caffeine+Carbs=Quicker Recovery from Exercise
Published on: September 19, 2008
If you're looking for a way to recoup after a miles-long bike ride, marathon practice run or similar exhaustive exercise, the newest prescription is coffee, in fact up to six cups, along with that plate of spaghetti.
The researchers found the following: one hour after exercise, muscle glycogen levels had replenished to the same extent whether or not the athlete drank a combination drink of carbohydrate and caffeine or one of carbohydrate only. However, four hours after exercise, a whopping 66% higher glycogen levels were indicated in those whoconsumed the carbohydrate-caffeinated drink compared to the carbohydrate-only drink.
The relationship between carbs and caffeine with exercise has been well explored, yet this recent Australian study is the first to show that combining the two following exercise refuels muscles quicker. Particpants were seven highly-trained endurance cyclists who were tested in four experiments, the first riding a cycle ergometer until exhaustion followed by a low carb dinner designed to reduce the athletes’ muscle glycogen stores prior to the experimental trial the next day.
The second session included the same athletes who were asked not to eat until after their exercise. Again, they cycled until exhaustion but this time, some drank a liquid of carbs and others drank a liquid of carbs with caffeine. They all then rested for four hours. Researchers took several muscle biopsies and multiple blood samples to measure the amount of glycogen being replenished in the muscle, along with the concentrations of glucose-regulating metabolites and hormones in the blood, including glucose and insulin.
The two-session process was repeated a week to 10 days later with the only difference being that those athletes who drank the carbohydrate-only drink in the first trial were given the carbohydrate plus caffeine in the second trial, and vice versa.
Throughout the four-hour recovery period, the carbohydrate-only drink resulted in higher levels of blood glucose and plasma insulin plus the elevation of several signaling proteins that play a role in glucose transport into the muscle. Caffeine may also increase the activity of several signaling enzymes, including the calcium-dependent protein kinase and protein kinase B (also called Akt), which have roles in muscle glucose uptake during and after exercise.
The researchers, from institutions in Melbourne, Sydney and Victoria, plan to do a similar study using lower amounts of caffeine. The experiments of the study were based on physiology or how molecules, cells, tissues, and organs function to create health or disease.
SOURCE: “High rates of muscle glycogen resynthesis after exhaustive exercise when carbohydrate is co-ingested with caffeine” by David J. Pedersen, Sarah J. Lessard, Vernon G. Coffey, Emmanuel G. Churchley, Andrew M. Wootton, They Ng, Matthew J. Watt and John A. Hawley Published in the July online edition of the Journal of Applied Physiology by the American Physiological Society.Dr. Pedersen is with the Garvan Institute of Medical Research in Sydney, Australia, Dr. Watt is from St. Vincent’s Institute of Medical Research, Fitzroy, Victoria, Australia. All others are with the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology University (RMIT) in Bundoora, Victoria, Australia.
