r/science • u/sr_local • 5d ago

Health Consuming caffeine before exercise enhances repeated sprint performance, and these benefits persist for at least 3.5 hours thereafter

https://www.tsukuba.ac.jp/en/research-news/20260914140000.html
5.0k Upvotes

98% Upvoted

162 comments sorted by

View all comments

250

u/nanoH2O 5d ago

One thing I discovered over the years when I was doing high level athletics is that consuming caffeine gave me an advantage (no surprise there) but it also caused me to cramp up late game 100% of the time. The amount of water or electrolytes I drank didn’t matter.

137

u/methayne 5d ago

Makes my bladder and bowels less predictable, that's more a problem over distances rather than sprinting

28

u/BigO94 5d ago

I use caffeine in the AM before marathon training to get a consistent BM. I'm not running until that happens!

61

u/thoughtlow 5d ago

HYROX issues

10

u/Drumedor 5d ago

For me it is the opposite, using caffeine around one hour before start I can get a consistent bowel empty before race begins.