Caffeine: Can It Help You Run Faster?

Loads of banned drugs on the list

A nice cup of coffee

Although there are thousands of drugs on an athlete’s ban list most can be grouped into five categories

The five main categories of drugs that are banned are:

Drugs

1. Anabolic steroids-these are muscle builders, and can also help athlete’s recover faster after training
2. Peptide hormones - these are naturally found in the body but produce similar effects to the anabolic steroids
3. Analgesic painkillers - such as morphine
4. Stimulants - drugs like amphetamines and cocaine because they can raise heart rate and therefore improve performance;
5. Diuretics - chemicals that help the body to lose fluids, helpful in losing weight.

Be careful and read the label

Creatine

However there are legal drugs athletes can take including the controversial new generation of fitness supplements, many are used as a legal alternative to anabolic steroids.
These include

1. Creatine
2. Glutamine
3. Tryptophan or 5HT
4. And Protein powders

Two cups of strong coffee

latte.

However in a trial by an athlete he found that by drinking Coffee just before a race he performed better, he tried this over a period of time and found that if he abstained from coffee a week before a race and then had two cups of strong coffee just before a race his performance increased considerably, it was the caffeine.
Caffeine is a legal performance enhancer
Caffeine is not banned by the World Anti-Doping Agency. Caffeine is a potent and quick-acting drug and works in different degrees in different people depending on height build etc. It has an almost instant effect on your mind and body which will continue to influence your state for 6-8 hours afterwards.
Caffeine can be found in many products including tea, coffee, cola drinks, chocolate, and cocoa and some “energy drinks”
Espresso Coffee contains around 80 – 90 mg
Where a cup of Instant decaffeinated coffee contains about 3 mg, the same cup of regular instant coffee contains around 70-100 mg it all depends on the size of the cup, an average cup is 170 ml. A cup of espresso coffee contains about 80-90 mg whilst a cup of tea contains around 50 mg of caffeine and a can of coke between 35 and 45 mg. Some Cola's have more caffeine than other so it all depends on the brand.

And the winner is:-

Female sprinters

But the winner is the high energy drink depending on the brand it can contain as much as 400 mg or even more. Recent research into the effects of coffee has found it contains additional stimulating effects including an unknown chemical agent which stimulates the production of cortisone and adrenaline, two stimulating hormones