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	january 16, 2007
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	Study: Rapid response vital in curtailing disease outbreaks
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	A taxing time of year: UGA professor says it's already time to start planning for next April
	Advisory council recognized
	Indirect victims: Study finds that social workers are twice as likely as others to experience post-traumatic stress
	Researchers find that caffeine cuts post-workout pain by nearly half
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campus newS

Researchers find that caffeine cuts post-workout pain by nearly half

By Sam Fahmy
sfahmy@uga.edu

Although it’s too soon to recommend dropping by Starbucks before hitting the gym, a new study suggests that caffeine can help reduce the post-workout soreness that discourages some people from exercising.

In a study to be published in the February issue of The Journal of Pain, a team of UGA researchers finds that moderate doses of caffeine, roughly equivalent to two cups of coffee, cut post-workout muscle pain by up to 48 percent in a small sample of volunteers.

Lead author Victor Maridakis, a researcher in the department of kinesiology at UGA’s College of Education, said the findings may be particularly relevant to people new to exercise, since they tend to experience the most soreness.

“If you can use caffeine to reduce the pain, it may make it easier to transition from that first week into a much longer exercise program,” he said.

Maridakis and his colleagues studied nine female college students who were not regular caffeine users and did not engage in regular resistance training.

One and two days after an exercise session that caused moderate muscle soreness, the volunteers took either caffeine or a placebo and performed two different quadriceps (thigh) exercises. Those who consumed caffeine one hour before the maximum force test had a 48 percent reduction in pain compared to the placebo group, while those that took caffeine before the sub-maximal test reported a 26 percent reduction in pain.

Still, the researchers recommend that people use caution when using caffeine before a workout. For some people, too much caffeine can produce side effects such as jitteriness, heart palpitations and sleep disturbances.

“It can reduce pain,” Maridakis said, “but you have to apply some common sense and not go overboard.”

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