 Does caffeine improve your cycling performance? How much caffeine do you need and how much is too much? And what can you do to maximize the performance benefits that you get from caffeine consumption? These are the questions that we'll be answering today by taking a look at the science. Cyclists are big on caffeine, but the way in which you consume it, how much you consume and what you consume it with can all have an impact on how it affects your performance. At the end of the video, I'll talk about cyclists' favorite way to get caffeinated, which is drinking coffee. And whether or not this is actually the best way to use caffeine to improve your cycling performance. Welcome back to another video. My name's Dylan, and for weekly science-based coaching videos, just like this one, be sure to subscribe. I've done a video on caffeine before, but that was way back in the infancy of this channel. And given how many more viewers there are now and how prevalent caffeine consumption is amongst cyclists, I thought that it was time for an update. Plus, this video will have some information that I didn't include in the last video. Coffee consumption is almost universal amongst cyclists, and beyond that, a lot of the gels and drink mixes that cyclists consume also contain caffeine, and with good reason too. Caffeine is one of the few competition legal substances important to make that distinction there that has strong evidence to support it as a performance enhancer. For example, this study on caffeine's effects on perceptual responses and power output during high-intensity cycling. Dude, another one of these videos where you're just gonna read studies the whole time, I'm gonna need an IV hooked up to my espresso machine if I'm even gonna make it through this thing without falling asleep. Had cyclists consume five milligrams per kilogram body weight of caffeine or a placebo before a ramp test to measure maximal power output? Depending on your body size, five milligrams per kilogram of body weight of caffeine is roughly three to four cups of coffee worth. What they found was that when subjects had the caffeine, their mean power increased from 750 to 794 watts in a one-minute all-out effort, and during the constant rate portion of the test, rate of perceived exertion was lower. One minute is obviously a very short effort, but the evidence that caffeine improves longer endurance performance is actually even stronger. This meta-analysis on the effect of caffeine ingestion on exercise testing looked at 40 different double-blind studies and came to the conclusion that caffeine consumption significantly improved endurance exercise test outcomes even more so than graded or short-term exercise, and there is evidence to suggest that caffeine consumption may help spare glycogen use leading to increased endurance. This probably isn't too much of a surprise. Of course, a substance used to wake you up is probably gonna give you an edge during hard physical activity as well. However, not everyone reacts to caffeine the same way, and caffeine may not benefit everyone who uses it. This may be because there's a genetic component to caffeine response. This study on caffeine, the CYP1A2 genotype and endurance athletes had subjects complete time trials with zero, two, or four milligrams per kilogram body weight of caffeine. If you just look at the overall results of the test, it appears that caffeine improved performance. As the dose goes up, the time to finish decreases, meaning subjects were going faster. However, when you break the subjects down by genotype, a different trend emerges. Those with the AA genotype, which are fast metabolizers of caffeine, showed improvement as the dose increased. Those with the AC genotype saw almost no difference, and interestingly enough, those with the CC genotype actually had worse performances with caffeine. People with the AC and CC genotype are slow metabolizers of caffeine. There are a higher proportion of fast metabolizers of caffeine in the population, which is why when you look at the group as a whole, it looks like caffeine improves performance. However, caffeine won't improve performance for everyone, and this may take experimentation to see if this is the case for you, or you can get a DNA test to see if you're a fast caffeine metabolizer or not. With that, let's get into how much caffeine you need to see benefits and how much is too much. Spoiler alert, you probably don't need as much as you think you do. This study on the effect of different dosages of caffeine on endurance performance tested subjects cycling endurance after consuming a placebo, five, nine, or 13 milligrams per kilogram body weight of caffeine. Remember that five milligrams per kilogram is roughly three to four cups of coffee worth, so in that 13 milligrams per kilogram condition, subjects probably weren't even able to hold a cup of coffee steady at that point. What the study found was that caffeine did improve performance over the placebo, but the dose didn't seem to matter. Times were almost the same across all three doses. This study came to the same conclusion when testing subject cycling performance after consuming a placebo, three milligrams per kilogram, or six milligrams per kilogram of caffeine. Caffeine helped, but there wasn't a statistically significant difference between three and six milligrams per kilogram. This review on caffeine and sports specific endurance performance suggests a dose of three to six milligrams per kilogram body weight of caffeine. Two cups of coffee worth is likely all you need, and keep in mind too that a lot of the gels, drink mixes, and energy drinks that cyclists consume while riding, also contain caffeine. Yeah, man, I'm on my six cup this morning. I'm gonna knock back two more, got some KOMs to seal this afternoon. Oh dude, you didn't hear? Strava's making you pay for that feature now. What? Going a long ride where you consume a gel with 60 milligrams of caffeine in it every 45 minutes, plus a couple cups of coffee that morning, plus stopping for a coke halfway through, and you're way over the point at which caffeine is beneficial. So what's the big deal? Well, there is good reason to limit your daily caffeine consumption. Just like with anything, your body gets used to caffeine, meaning that if you're a daily caffeine consumer, it won't have as big an effect on you when you really need it, like during a hard workout or a race. Back to the review on caffeine and sports specific endurance performance, they stated that abstaining from caffeine at least seven days before use will give the greatest chance of optimizing the ergogenic effect. Many athletes will choose to go without caffeine the week before an event so that it'll have a greater effect on race day. Personally, I just never consume caffeine unless I'm doing a hard workout or racing. I know as a cyclist, this may seem sacrilegious. However, doing it this way means that I'm not dependent on it to feel awake. And when I do take it, it has a bigger effect. I know this probably won't work for everyone though. Now let's talk about timing. Is it better to take caffeine before or during your ride or does it not matter? This study on different protocols of caffeine intake on endurance performance tested just that by having subjects complete two hours of riding followed by a time trial after consuming six milligrams per kilogram of caffeine one hour before the test, one milligram per kilogram of caffeine every 20 minutes, six times during the test, a coke at the end of the test before the TT which obviously contains caffeine or a placebo. What they found was that again, caffeine improved performance. However, the timing didn't make a difference. Whether you prefer to caffeinate before your ride or during your ride, that doesn't seem to matter when it comes to how caffeine affects your performance. One thing that is important to note though when it comes to taking caffeine alongside other supplements that are meant to improve performance is that their effects often aren't additive. Meaning for example, if caffeine were to give you a 2% improvement and the other supplement were to give you a 2% improvement, you wouldn't see a 4% improvement from taking both of them at the same time. In fact, you probably wouldn't see much more than the 2% that the caffeine gives you. To show you what I mean, let's take a look at combining caffeine with beetroot juice which is a known performance enhancer. This study on the consumption of caffeine and beet juice on cycling performance had subjects consume caffeine, beet juice, caffeine and beet juice together or nothing at all before a cycling time trial. What they found was that caffeine improved performance and the addition of beet juice to the caffeine didn't offer any further benefits. This review confirmed these findings stating that the effects of supplementation with beetroot juice might not have a positive interaction with caffeine supplementation, mitigating the effects of beetroot juice intake on cardio respiratory performance. While caffeinated beet juice sounds like the next big thing to be marketed towards cyclists as the holy grail of performance supplements, it probably wouldn't improve performance much more than taking caffeine alone. And beet juice isn't the only supplement taking a hit when mixed with caffeine. This study on the effects of caffeine and sodium bicarbonate on performance tested subjects time trial performance after taking caffeine, caffeine and sodium bicarbonate together or a placebo. What they found was that when ingested individually, both caffeine and sodium bicarbonate enhanced high-intensity cycling time trial performance in trained cyclists. However, the ergogenic effects of these two popular supplements was not additive meaning that there was no further benefit from taking both of them at the same time. It's not safe to assume that you're getting the full benefit from different performance aids when you combine them together. In fact, there's even evidence to show that caffeine has less of an effect when in the presence of carbohydrates. This review on carbohydrate and caffeine consumption and endurance looked at studies that tested just caffeine consumption versus caffeine and carb consumption together. They found that caffeine was beneficial when added to carbohydrates but not nearly as beneficial when added alone. Essentially what this means is that if you're consuming carbohydrates on your ride, which you should be doing to maximize your performance, caffeine will have less of an effect. It seems likely that we all have a physiological limit to how hard we can go and simply adding these performance aids on top of each other can't take you past that limit. You're gonna have to do this thing called training in order to do that. Lame. If sodium bicarbonate drinking beet juice, eating carbs and taking in caffeine, I'll give you an extra five watts on their own and taking them all together will not give you an extra 20 watts unfortunately. Last but not least, let's talk about one of the most popular forms of caffeine consumption, particularly among cyclists and that is drinking coffee. Some believe that coffee mitigates the effects of caffeine and that it's therefore not the best source of caffeine. Is this true or is it just another myth? This study comparing caffeine to coffee for endurance exercise had subjects consume caffeine, regular coffee, decaf coffee or a placebo before a cycling time trial. What they found was that subjects improve just as much over the placebo and decaf condition regardless of whether they drank coffee or straight caffeine. This study tested taking caffeine with decaffeinated coffee to see if the addition of coffee would hinder performance. And the good news is that they found that it did not decrease the ergogenic effects of the caffeine. Finally, this review on coffee consumption and endurance performance found significant improvement with coffee in five out of nine studies and concluded that there is moderate evidence supporting coffee as an ergogenic aid. If your go-to source of caffeine is a morning coffee, then this appears to be an effective strategy. And the claims about coffee dehydrating you don't seem to hold up either. At least not enough to have a significant effect on your hydration status. Just remember not to go overboard with it and drink something else before you ride, like, you know, water. That's right guys, for those of you who are curious, I am drinking the new Hypergain Beast Mode Blend, which has five times the caffeine of a normal coffee and horse testosterone. Thanks for watching. And if you enjoyed this video, be sure to give it a like, share it with your cycling friends and subscribe if you haven't already. I'll see you in the next one.