American’s have a strange relationship with Gyms.

Gym membership has been growing overall by 20% since 2008.

Last year alone 54 million American’s paid for a new gym membership. 

On average, gym members worked out more than 100 times last year – the highest ever!

But that doesn’t tell the whole story.

Only a fifth of gym members use their gym regularly and over 13% of gym-goers have lied about going to the gym!

Americans also love their coffee.

In this survey, it was found that 64% of Americans were drinking coffee everyday. 

But is there anyway that caffeine can help with our workouts?

How Does Caffeine Help During Exercise?

Caffeine changes the way your body works.

Caffeine is one of nature’s best stimulants. It increases heart rate, blow flow to your body, and it also increases the rate of oxygen flow to your muscles

In fact, the U.S special Forces use caffeine to boost their performance and endurance.

It improves your focus, your muscle performance, and your body’s ability to burn fat. So, it could help you lose weight.

The more tired you are, the harder it is to exercise. And research shows, that caffeine can help.

It makes your muscles burn fat instead of glycogen, meaning you don’t get as tired when you exercise.

Caffeine affects the brain too. It switches on the parts of the brain that make you more focused and energetic.

This is the effect most coffee drinkers feel when sipping their morning coffee.

Coffee helps your body release endorphins – hormones that make you feel good. If you feel good, you’re more likely to stay on that treadmill a few more minutes.

Dr. Terry Graham, Professor Emeritus in the Department of Human Health and Nutritional Sciences at the University of Guelph believes that a cup of coffee before going to the gym will make you exercise easier.

The effects of caffeine on exercise are so overwhelmingly positive that the   NCAA (The National Collegiate Athletic Association) has started to ban its use in high dosage.

What are the disadvantages of drinking coffee before a workout?

Coffee stops blood getting to your heart. Drinking a cup of coffee reduces blood flow.

If your heart gets less blood, your muscles won’t get enough oxygen. You will feel dizzy and could faint – not so good for your morning trip to the gym.

This is even worse if you have heart troubles.

Drinking caffeine during high-altitude sports like mountaineering or hill-running could make you lightheaded. You might feel dizzy and fall- a long way down.

The caffeine in coffee makes it hard to get to sleep. It makes you restless.

Waking up all night is one of the worst things for exercise.

Coffee might keep you awake for your workout, but if you miss too much sleep, it will damage your body.

A recent study has found that while the effects of caffeine vary from person to person, regular intake of caffeine will affect your pattern of sleep. 

Another potential downside is that as well as being a very powerful stimulant, drinking coffee on a regular basis can become addictive.

The addiction to caffeine leads to nausea, headaches, anxiety, and cravings. 

And another common side effect with caffeine is is dehydration.

This is a serious problem, especially when exercising.

If you are drinking coffee before a workout; you will find yourself getting more and more thirsty by the hour.

How long before a workout should I drink caffeine?

So, you want a sip of coffee before you hit the gym in the morning?

Caffeine takes thirty minutes to get into the bloodstream.

But, it is most effective after an hour. It needs enough time to get into your system to improve your performance.

According to Heidi Skolnik, M.S., a sports nutritionist and owner of Nutrition Conditioning, Inc: caffeine is usually absorbed by the body in 15- 40 minutes, and after 30-45 minutes you will experience peak caffeine stimulus effects.

Don’t drink coffee on its own before you work out. You need plenty of fluids. Make sure you have a big glass of water with you to stay hydrated.

And there is some bad news for all you who workout in the evening. 

Caffeine stays in your system for up to seven hours but because we are all different, this is something that you might want to experiment with. 

Some people may be able to have a coffee before their 6pm gym session- others may stay awake all night.

Will Drinking Coffee (Before a Workout) Help Me Lose Weight?

Drinking coffee on its own won’t help you lose weight.

But, a cup of black coffee before you go to the gym will make you work harder.

The coffee itself won’t help you lose weight, but the extra effort you put into your workout will.

Cut out the milk and sugar though, those contain calories. Just use fresh coffee and water.

People who drink more coffee work harder, travel further and burn more calories.

Apparently, the caffeine in coffee helps fat break down so your body can use it as fuel.

So, when trying out caffeine with your workout, start with a small dose.

What Are The General Health Benefits of Coffee?

Coffee has a plethora of health benefits and some of them are given below:

• Coffee will generally keep you more energized.
• It will also trim your figure by burning quite a few fats.
• It will drastically improve your physical performances.
• Coffee contains a lot of nutrients like:
• Riboflavin (vitamin B2)
• Pantothenic acid (vitamin B5)
• Manganese and potassium
• Magnesium and niacin (vitamin B3)

It may help prevent diabetes and reduce your risk of getting liver disease.

It could ward off liver cancer.

Some research suggests it might keep your heart beating.

In Europe, people who drank four coffees a day had a 11% less chance of getting heart failure.

There is some evidence that it might help older people avoid Alzheimer’s and Dementia. But, coffee is only one of many factors to reduce the risk.

How Does Caffeine Affect Heart Rate?

Caffeine increases your heart rate. It increases adrenaline in your body.

Blood pressure goes up and your heart rate gets a bit faster. Your heart pumps harder.

From your first sip of coffee, it takes about 15 minutes for your heart rate to change.

For patients with some heart conditions, it can cause the heart to miss beats or change heart rhythm.

People who drink lots of coffee often feel an increased heart beat or flutter. Your heart is beating both faster and harder. This is a normal effect of caffeine on the body.

Consult a doctor if you heart rhythm is unusual, or you skip heartbeats. You might need to cut down on the coffee.

According to WHO caffeine is an addictive substance and drinking more than 250 mg daily will lead increase heart rate, and blood pressure.

Caffeine is a stimulus- it increases the blood flow to the body while also simultaneously increasing the heart rate.

Drinking more then 60 oz (10 cups) a day will lead to chronic heart issues and other heart problems.

Can Caffeine Help Make You Run Faster?

It can.

How? Caffeine improves your muscles reaction time.

When you drink caffeine, the messages between your brain and muscles get faster. It is effective over short and long distances.

With a cup of coffee, your muscles respond faster, burn more fat and work more efficiently.

Looks like your morning coffee might help you race to catch the train when you wake up late!

Caffeine can also enhance running endurance. It gives you the energy you need to finish the difficult last leg of a race.

Many marathon runners use caffeine to boost performance. It helps them keep going when they run out of steam.

What Other Things Should I Do Before a Workout to Help?

First things first, get enough sleep. Sleep is one of the best performance enhancers. Getting more sleep also makes you less hungry. It’s best to avoid using smartphones and computers before bed. The light makes sleep more difficult.

Drink lots of water. Drinking water is crucial when exercising. When you sweat, your body loses water and you get thirsty. Water is also vital to keep your energy levels high.

If you are hungry, eat a small healthy snack before working out. Don’t eat too much though otherwise you’ll get nauseous.

Last but not least, make sure you warm up. It’s crucial to prepare your body for the impact of your workout. It’ll help keep you in peak condition.

A staggering 75 million adults in American have high blood pressure. That means that 1 out of every three 3 American adults is suffering from some form of blood pressure. That’s 29% of the population.

The problem has grown to such an extent that heart disease and stroke are the 1st, and 3rd leading cause of death in America. Dr. Paul Muntner believes that these figures are further expected to rise.

It’s no coincidence that 64% of the American adult population drinks coffee.

A 2014 study also proved that there link between drinking coffee and raising blood pressure.

If you drink coffee and you suffer from high blood pressure, you might just want to stick around…

The Causes of High Blood Pressure

The pumping of blood in your body creates pressure on the walls of the arteries. High blood pressure means that the walls of the arteries are under too much pressure consistently. This can be due to a variety of reason, but the main causes are given below:

• Age: is a big factor when it comes to blood pressure. The older you are; the  more likely you are to have high blood pressure
• Family history: blood pressure has a genetic marker: which means that if your father or someone in your family has blood pressure, you are at a higher risk of developing high blood pressure.
• Temperature: A recent study has shown that cold weather also contributes to high Blood pressure.
• Obesity: Being overweight, or being obese leaves you at the risk of developing high Blood pressure.
• Inactivity: Doing nothing raise the risk of hypertension.
• Smoking: smoking causes your blood vessels to grow narrow. Meaning more pressure on the arteries.
• Alcohol: People who drink have a higher chance of developing hypertension than people who do not.
• High Salt, and High-Fat diet: Both high salt diet and a high-fat diet has been known to leave you at the risk of narrowing your arteries.
• Mental Stress: Compelling studies have found a very strong link between high blood pressure and the amount of stress a person has to endure.
• Diabetes: Studies have found that diabetic patients are more susceptible to hypertension.

Now that we have understood the causes, let us try to find the connection between caffeine and high blood pressure.

Caffeine and High Blood Pressure

The link between caffeine and blood pressure is a strange one.

What all the researchers unanimously agree on is this: Coffee causes a temporary spike in blood pressure.

The exact cause of this is unknown.

Some believe that caffeine blocks a hormone that widens the arteries; thus causing high blood pressure, while others believe it causes a surge in adrenalin; leading to high blood pressure .

People who regularly drink caffeinated beverages have also been known to build a tolerance to caffeine; as a result, it is safe to say that: Caffeine has no long-term impact on blood pressure.

Who would have thought?

But, this doesn’t mean that you are out of the woods yet.

People with high blood pressure should definitely avoid caffeine, while everyone else should drink coffee as per usual unless you are doing some really stressful work, or you are doing a job that requires a lot of physical exertion.

There have been some cases of people being extra sensitive to the blood pressure raising effects of caffeine.

In that case, check with your doctor, and try to cut back on the caffeine gradually. 

How Long Does it Take for Caffeine to Effect Blood Pressure?

As I said before: consuming caffeine will cause an immediate surge in your blood pressure.

The exact amount varies from person to person depending on a variety of factors, but for the average adult, caffeine can take anywhere from 30- 120 minutes.

The high blood pressure caused by the caffeine can last up to 3-6 hours, after which it gradually starts to decrease.

If the “caffeine high” lasts more than 4 hours constantly; go see a doctor.

Does Drinking Decaff Cause High Blood Pressure?

Again this is a tricky question to answer.

Most researchers do believe that drinking decaf can lead to high blood pressures, but the link is not all that clear.

Most studies on the subject have proved a more than a plausible connection between drinking caffeine and the rise in blood pressure, but these studies also point out that such effects are only temporary.

Only in a person with a high degree of sensitivity to the blood pressure raising the effect of caffeine can be dangerous.

To everyone else, decaf has no lasting impact on blood pressure.

People With High Blood Pressure: How To Drink Coffee Safely

When it comes to health you can never be too careful. Coffee raises blood pressure temporarily, but it still raises blood sugar.

My advice to you is:

• To drink coffee only when you want to relax, or at the start of the day.
• Avoid coffee when doing anything stressful.
• Avoid drinking coffee if you are doing an activity that requires a lot of physical excretion.
• If you feel that your blood pressure is high for more than 4 hours after drinking coffee: go see your doctor.
• If you plan on cutting back on coffee; do so over several days, or weeks to avoid withdrawal headaches.
• Remember too much of a good thing can be a bad thing, so two cups a day, or better yet if you have to drink coffee, drink decaf. Decaf has 97% of the caffeine removed.