What effect do energy drinks have on your workout?

 

How do energy drinks affect your workout?

Whether you train first thing in the morning or choose to do it at the end of the day, you will need energy to fuel your strides, turns or kicks. While food is fuel for the body, there are also ingredients in energy drinks that promise to give you an advantage, such as caffeine. But the real question is, is it beneficial to consume energy drinks before training?

An energy drink is a beverage specially blended with caffeine and other energy boosters to add some energy to your day and help you get the most out of your workout.

Most energy drinks contain water, sugar (or an artificial sweetener), and caffeine, and may also contain additional ingredients such as B vitamins, amino acids such as taurine, and plant extracts such as ginseng or guarana, but caffeine is the common energy-providing ingredient.

ENERGY BEVERAGES AND COFFEE

Caffeine is a natural stimulant added to energy drinks to improve exercise endurance and performance, and caffeine intake of up to 400 milligrams per day does not seem to have adverse side effects, although consuming about 1,200 milligrams of caffeine may result in more serious side effects such as seizures.

When considering your caffeine intake, it's important to count the caffeine content in coffee, tea, soda, chocolate, and energy drinks. It's easy to overdo it with a big coffee in the morning and a few energy drinks throughout the day. Be mindful and stay within the range of no more than 400mg of caffeine per day.

• How do energy drinks compare to coffee in terms of caffeine?

2 teaspoons of instant coffee contains 62 mg, a large dark roast coffee contains 196 mg of caffeine.

By comparison, most energy drinks contain 250ml cans and roughly 75-90mg of caffeine per can.

It's important to read labels to see how much caffeine is per serving in an energy drink because the amount is not standardized across brands.

If you're drinking coffee before your workout, you probably don't need an energy drink either.

• How do energy drinks compare to coffee in terms of sugar?

If you're watching your sugar or carb intake, there's a huge difference between drinks.

The amount of sugar in both coffee and energy drinks can range from 26 grams (about 6 teaspoons) to 48 grams (12 teaspoons) in black coffee or artificially sweetened energy drinks.

PRE-WORKOUT SUPPLEMENTS

To improve workouts, some people rely on supplements such as protein powder, beta-alanine, nitrate powder, or creatine for muscle gain, endurance, or reducing fatigue.

These can come in the form of drinks, foods, powders, and supplements, and each has its own mix of performance-enhancing ingredients.

Caffeine is another popular pre-workout supplement and is often taken as a beverage.

These are of ongoing interest in examining the effects of different pre-workout supplements and energy drinks, both individually and in combination, to look at safety and effectiveness.

SIDE EFFECTS OF ENERGY BEVERAGES

The ISSN has recently published a position paper on energy drinks regarding caffeine intake and exercise. They found that energy drinks containing caffeine improved both anaerobic and aerobic performance, and that caffeine was usually drunk approximately 60 minutes before activity.

Of course, not everyone reacts the same way to caffeine in energy drinks, so it's not always beneficial for all athletes. Some people are more sensitive to the side effects of caffeine, such as a fast heartbeat or headache, which can negatively affect athletic performance.

Ultimately, our genetics will determine the way we absorb, metabolize, and use caffeine. Studies show individual variability in how well caffeine can affect exercise performance. In fact, a study of the effect of caffeine on cycling showed that 50 percent of athletes improved because of caffeine, while the other half performed worse.