The serious athlete is always looking for ways to improve his performance.
One substance that has gotten a lot of recognition, and over all accepted to improve sports performance, is Caffeine.
But how does caffeine improve sports? Caffeine effects are numerous, but here are some main effects: Increases awareness Increases reaction time Increases fat burn So for a sprinter, caffeine will improve your awareness and reaction time to boost your sprint capacity.
There are not many studies showing that caffeine directly supports a sprinter.
However, it is no doubt that you become more aware and focused when in taking caffeine.
This will easily result in an improved sprint, because sprinting has a lot to do with how focused a person is.
For the long distance athlete, it boosts your fat metabolism, which will allow you to keep a high performance for a longer period.
This is because the fat reserves are much larger than the carbohydrate reserves.
There was a study made, where two groups of cyclists were instructed to cycle at 70% of VO2 max, for as long as they could.
They would do this twice.
This means they would cycle, then have a couple of days rest, then repeat.
But the second time, there was one main difference; one of the groups was given a dose of caffeine, while the other group got a placebo.
Placebo is when you are given a substance that has no effect, but the person that intakes this substance has no idea about it.
So there were two groups, both believed they had taken caffeine, while in fact, there was only one.
The results were amazing.
The group that had taken caffeine had an impressive increase in their cycle time, and measurement showed that they had burned more than twice as much fat, as they did the first time without caffeine.
The main reason that they increased their cycle time was because they burned fat instead of carbohydrates.
Carbohydrates are the main fuel while doing sports, but long distance sports are more interested in burning fat.
So caffeine provokes the fat burning effect of the body.
So, to conclude.
Caffeine can help the sprinting athlete, as well as the long distance athlete.
However, there are more concrete studies showing the improving results for long distance athletes.
For the sprinter, caffeine will make you much more focused and aware, so that you can complete your sprint as perfect as possible.
For the long distance athlete, caffeine will increase the fat metabolism, of the body and thus increasing the work efficiency.