If you’re anything like me, caffeine and climbing go hand in hand. If I’m on a climbing trip, I can’t think about going climbing until I’ve had at least one cup of coffee. If I’m at home, most training sessions begin with either coffee or tea. While my caffeine consumption has never really been up for debate, I have often wondered if my pre-climbing consumption is good for my climbing performance or is actually hurting it.
In an attempt to answer this question for himself, climbing trainer Eric Hörst of Training for Climbing wrote an article discussing the truth about caffeine and climbing. In it, Hörst, a self described coffee lover, reiterates the positive effects caffeine can have in daily life and then describes the performance enhancing effects caffeine can have for climbing specifically. Ultimately, Hörst concludes that if consumed at correct levels caffeine can actually help climbing performance.
“The bottom line: caffeine use can potentially enhance your training and climbing performance, but caffeine “over dose” will likely hurt your performance. The key is to experiment with and understand caffeine’s unique effects on you. Ideally, you’ll learn to manipulate your caffeine dosage to get the best performance-enhancing effect via moderate dosing—that is, decrease daily dosing in the days leading up to critical climb or competition, then return to your “normal” moderate dose on the day of the event. This is a superior approach to simply doubling your caffeine dose on the performance day, thus risking the negative side effects listed above.” – Eric Hörst
While he ultimately comes to the conclusion that caffeine is good for climbing performance, Hörst does caution against simply adopting a “more is better” approach and lists some of the potential negative performance impacts that can result from over-consuming caffeine. As with most things, moderation and figuring out what level of consumption is appropriate for you personally seem to be key.
Click through bellow to read the entire article and learn more about how you can use caffeine to improve your climbing and training.
Click Here: The Truth About Caffeine and Climbing
(photo courtesy of trainingforclimbing.com)
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