A Complete Guide to the Performance Benefits of Caffeine

TWO-TIME OLYMPIAN AND 2018 Boston Marathon champion Des Linden drinks three to four cups of coffee each day. “I’m a huge coffee fan,” Linden says, which should come as no surprise since she and her husband own a coffee company, Linden x Two. “I have two cups first thing in the morning, and it’s beneficial in getting all systems—mind, and body—up and running before I head out the door for my first run,” she adds.

- NATALIE RIZZO,MS,RD

Many of us (elite and non-elite) use caffeine to our benefit, as research has shown that in addition to perking you up, it can also make you faster and help you focus during your workouts. But as with any other performance food or drink, education is key to achieving maximum benefits, so we tapped experts and the latest research to tell you everything you need to know about your favorite energizer.

The benefits of caffeine for performance

Unless you have a sensitivity, caffeine can be highly beneficial for most people, according to Todd Buckingham, Ph.D., an exercise physiologist at Mary Free Bed Sports Rehabilitation Performance Lab.

“[It’s] shown to increase mental alertness and concentration and improve athletic performance by increasing time to exhaustion, so I often do recommend caffeine to my runner clients, as long as they tolerate it well,” says Angie Asche, MS, RD, CSSD, a sports dietitian and Owner of Eleat Sports Nutrition.

In fact, a study dating back to the early ’90s found that taking in about 150 to 200 milligrams (mg) of caffeine from coffee one hour before exercise improved 1500-meter performance in well-trained runners. More recently, another study reported a 24-second, or 1.2 percent, improvement in an 8K run time with well-trained male runners when ingesting 3mg of caffeine per kilogram of body mass one hour before racing.