Caffeine and Test MD article

[gladcow]

I was just reading an article in muscular development that was discussing a study done on chewing caffeine gum with anaerobic exercise. They found that sprinters who chewed caffeine gum after their first set of sprints had increased work done for the rest of their exercise along with increased testosterone and reduced cortisol responses. I thought this was really interesting and thought I would share the info.

There was a past study that looked at megadoses of caffeine and the corresponding results on test and cortisol that showed a significant rise in both but this experiment used a more practical dose of 240 mg's. There may be some hidden benefit to all these preworkout supplements afterall.

I found the study on pubmed that the article was referring too but I don't have enough posts to link it. I searched "caffeine testosterone" and it was the first hit.

I was personally skeptical of getting a preworkout drink because caffeine is a vasoconstrictor and antagonizes getting a pump these supplements aim to achieve. But the reduced cortisol and increased test response seems like the bigger benefit to me.

What do you guys think?

Edit* oh yea, thought I would add that they said the chewing gum entered the bloodstream quickly because it enters through the mucous membranes in the mouth rather than through the intestines like our preworkout drinks. But preworkout drinks are taken in advance of exercise so I imagine it would have the same result.

[PinchTheBear]

I was just reading an article in muscular development that was discussing a study done on chewing caffeine gum with anaerobic exercise. They found that sprinters who chewed caffeine gum after their first set of sprints had increased work done for the rest of their exercise along with increased testosterone and reduced cortisol responses.

http://forum.bodybuilding.com/showth...hp?t=126067533

caffeine is a vasoconstrictor and antagonizes getting a pump these supplements aim to achieve.

Caffeine is a vasodilator during exercise.

[Nom Z]

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18458357

[gladcow]

Caffeine is a vasodilator during exercise.

I swear I did a search first, it just slipped past me somehow. Lots of good information there though, thanks for directing me. And I didn't know it was a vasolidator during exercise, I always heard the opposite, very interesting.

[Birddog6424]

The research on caffeine and it's benefits has been out for years. I can go back and find articles in MD from years ago saying roughly the same thing. They do tend to reuse and recycle that information. Otherwise I think they would run out of topics.

But of course, not everyone has been around doing this for a long time, so it's good of you to post it up. Everyone should be educated on proper fitness.

Reps.

[neuron]

Here's a bit of physiology that some people are unclear about:

During exercise, there is a localized build-up of metabolic waste products within muscle tissue that ultimately results in intracellular acidosis (which is due to ATP hydrolysis NOT "lactic acid"). Since hydrogen and potassium exist in an electrophysiological axis between the intracellular and extracellular environment, the excess hydrogen ions produced through repeated muscular contraction force potassium into the intracellular space while the H+ ions simultaneously move into the interstitium (*think of it as a H+-K+ antiporter). The resultant hypokalemic state hyperpolarizes the membrane which lowers the resting membrane potential as well as relaxing arterioles due to lower intracellular calcium levels, resulting in vasodilation.

Since caffeine has the capacity to enhance the exodus of calcium from the sarcoplasmic reticulum after an action potential (calcium release from the SR in smooth muscle is calcium dependent), if you remove the initial impetus for calcium release (due to cellular hyperpolarization), you remove the potentiality for smooth muscle contraction (vasoconstriction). Furthermore, since caffeine also acts as a PDEI, the only possible end-state would be vasodilation.

[Birddog6424]

Here's a bit of physiology that some people are unclear about:

During exercise, there is a localized build-up of metabolic waste products within muscle tissue that ultimately results in intracellular acidosis (which is due to ATP hydrolysis NOT "lactic acid"). Since hydrogen and potassium exist in an electrophysiological axis between the intracellular and extracellular environment, the excess hydrogen ions produced through repeated muscular contraction force potassium into the intracellular space while the H+ ions simultaneously move into the interstitium (*think of it as a H+-K+ antiporter). The resultant hypokalemic state hyperpolarizes the membrane which lowers the resting membrane potential as well as relaxing arterioles due to lower intracellular calcium levels, resulting in vasodilation.

Since caffeine has the capacity to enhance the exodus of calcium from the sarcoplasmic reticulum after an action potential (calcium release from the SR in smooth muscle is calcium dependent), if you remove the initial impetus for calcium release (due to cellular hyperpolarization), you remove the potentiality for smooth muscle contraction (vasoconstriction). Furthermore, since caffeine also acts as a PDEI, the only possible end-state would be vasodilation.

Good post.