Continuing on from caffeine sensitivity & performance, caffeine can make you feel good, it can stimulate cortisol (which may be good to get you going in the morning), and can stimulate adrenaline, binding to the beta adrenergic receptors on fat cells releasing free fatty acid for energy. Pretty sweet right?
Not if you already have high blood pressure. Caffeine is a vasoconstrictor (no good for pumps) and in large amounts could potentially be dangerous for those with hypertension or at risk of heart disease. High BP is scary as it often has no symptoms. Less important but definitely note worthy, too much caffeine produces too much cortisol, causing a catabolic effect breaking down muscle tissue.
In my opinion, any energy gained from stimulants, is energy borrowed from the future. If you’re already suffering from low energy, adrenal fatigue, or sympathetic dominance, stimulants are not your friend in the long run.
How often have you heard someone say their pre workout stopped working so they doubled the dose? The supplement hasn’t stopped working, your body has a negative feedback loop that down regulates sensitivity to constant stimulus and therefore it becomes less noticeable.
Tea: 30-40mg
Coffee: 75-100mg
No Dos: 150mg
Pre Workout: 300-400mg
Biochemically caffeine has a half life of 3 hours. The most popular times in gyms are early morning and between 5-8pm. If you train at 6pm and use a pre workout containing 350mg of caffeine, at 9pm you still have 175mg in your system and 87.5mg at midnight.
Growth Hormone is released in early stages of sleep and when you do resistance exercise… unless you’ve had caffeine. Caffeine retards the release and production of GH. Any caffeine after 12pm has the ability to upset your circadian rhythm, so although you may be getting to sleep, you won’t be reaching the depths of slow wave sleep where GH is released. Now double the dose like many of the bro-fessionals are doing and think about that for a second.
Pre workout supplements have no correlation to superior muscle gains. Therefore, if the goal is health & hypertrophy, pre workout lacks all the hype it promises.
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