Coffee drinking reduces pain from exercise

Robert Motel, a professor at the University of Illinois, has been studying the relationship between caffeine and exercise for seven years. He found that caffeine affects the parts of the brain and spinal cord responsible for dealing with pain, so he speculates that it can reduce pain caused by exercise.

To prove this theory, Myrtle and the researchers organized experiments.

They divided 25 healthy men in their 20s into two groups. One group drank little or no coffee, while the other group consumed an average of about 400 milligrams of caffeine a day, equivalent to three to four cups of coffee.

The researchers first asked the subjects to ride a fitness bike to measure the maximum oxygen consumption per person. They were then assigned to two groups of high-intensity exercise cycling for 30 minutes each.

According to the rules of the experiment, subjects are not allowed to take caffeine within 24 hours before exercise.

Conclusion

The researchers gave the subjects a pill an hour before the exercise began. The first group took caffeine tablets containing 5 milligrams per kilogram of body weight, while the second group took caffeine-free placebos.

After the exercise began, the researchers recorded the pain in the quadriceps and their oxygen consumption, heart rate and exercise efficiency at regular intervals.

The results showed that the 25 people felt less pain during exercise to the same extent.

"the results were unexpected," Myrtle said. "it's clear that if you already consume caffeine regularly, you need to drink more to get a more refreshing effect. But this tolerance effect is not universal. You give caffeine to regular and infrequent coffee drinkers, and then scan their brain images and find that their brain activity is exactly the same. This is interesting. "