Are you tired of the stiffness that comes out the day after your workout? Not sure what to do to reduce or avoid them?
The stiffness is that painful and uncomfortable sensation that is felt in the muscles worked the day before or the two previous days in the gym, and that everyone takes into account and expects with fear after workouts.
Numerous tips are given to avoid or reduce them, but is there really a miracle product that minimizes or helps us mitigate them?
Find out if caffeine can be a good remedy to deal with soreness .
Can caffeine reduce soreness?
Based on the latest studies by Hurley CF, JSCR and another published in The Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research , we can draw some conclusions about the effects of caffeine on performance and post-workout muscle soreness.
Although the reality is that there is not much research that supports or denies the relationship between caffeine and the reduction of post-workout muscle pain , in this latest study to which we refer, the reactions of some subjects who were supplemented with caffeine and others who were they took a placebo.
At the end of the study, it was observed that the individuals who supplemented with caffeine had a reduction in muscle pain after two and three days after training that was higher than the subjects who ingested the placebo. This would have occurred because caffeine could have helped reduce and block pain sensors in the body .
How much caffeine to drink to reduce soreness?
We are used to thinking that caffeine intake should be before training, but this depends on the goal we want to achieve.
If your goal is to increase training performance, you should ingest caffeine as a pre- workout as it will help you increase your stimulation and train with much greater intensity. If, on the other hand, what you are looking for is to take advantage of its benefits against soreness, the intake should be post-training.
In the study published in the Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research, the subjects who were able to reduce muscle pain took 3 mg of caffeine per day per kg of body weight , but they did so in doses after training, thus experiencing a reduction in the sensation of muscular pain the 2-3 days following the training sessions much greater than the subjects to whom the placebo was applied.
Conclution
Caffeine can be your ally to help you mitigate soreness , but you should take into account the doses and the time to apply it, since if you are a regular consumer of coffee your body will be used to the dose of caffeine that is proposed, and the results it will be much lower than for subjects who do not drink coffee regularly.
On the other hand, if you have never had coffee, you should bear in mind that starting with the doses of caffeine applied in the study can be counterproductive. You should start with lower doses and gradually increase them until you reach the indicated dose.
Reference
- Dupont, Doug. Caffeine Can Reduce Muscle Soreness. For Breakingmuscle. ⌊Revised December 2016⌋.
