 Question is from Tom LeBonk official. What are the benefits of caffeine cycling and how should I do it? Yeah, you know the benefits of cycling any type of a substance including caffeine that has Such an acute effect on the body makes it awesome again. Yeah is this like when you look at a substance You want to ask yourself? What are the what are the benefits? I'm getting from this So this is what I this is what I've done this with caffeine. Why am I taking this? Yeah? I look at caffeine. I think to myself the benefits are I get lots of energy. I'm up I feel less pain. I'm a better human. I feel more motivated You know my athletic performance goes up, so I want to get those benefits from caffeine Now what are the negatives that I can potentially get with caffeine? Well, I can get nervous It can affect my sleep. It can cause elevated heart rate It can affect my digestion maybe poorly So I want to maximize the positives and mitigate the negatives. Well, here's what happens when you use a substance like caffeine Existently your tolerance goes up very quickly with caffeine because your tolerance goes up You need more and more to try and get some of the benefits But as your your the amount increases so do the negatives and at some point the negatives start to outweigh the positives so the benefits of caffeine cycling are maximizing the benefits and minimizing the negatives but it takes discipline so like for me I found that caffeine three days a week is ideal three days a week I have about two to three hundred milligrams caffeine before my workout because that's when I get the most benefit and the days in between I don't have any caffeine at all when I have it every single day I notice that after a short period of time because caffeine really you get you gain tolerance caffeine very quickly. I Notice that having it daily. It just starts to turn into I need caffeine to feel normal Which to me is very much I've lost the benefit. This is true for a lot of Yeah, pretty much anything. Yeah, I think I think it's with all drugs. I mean caffeine the drug And it's one that we it's socially accepted. We all do it. There's a Starbucks in every corner But the reality of it is I mean personally if I if I want to enjoy the benefits of the drug the same way I did the first, you know, handful of times that I had it I have to cycle off it to get that same feeling so And and this is so individualized, right? I mean if you looked at mine Sal Doug and Justin's caffeine consumption, it's all different and it's to each their own You know I'm saying like some I really enjoy a cup of coffee every single morning. I don't know if I'll ever I mean I when I cycle off, I don't have it, but I don't think I would consistently do something that Sal's doing were I only a few days a week. Yeah, only a few days a week. I enjoy having a cup of coffee every single morning It's just something I enjoy to do but I also have just these things that I pay attention to and that is You know one cup of coffee turns into two then turns into three then turns into four and You know before I know it I'm doing that and then I'm having a pre-workout or having energy drink on top of it And so I'm I know myself and what kind of like how that scales And so I just kind of have this hey once I get to a point where I'm having you know Four cups of coffee which sounds like a lot, but I'm actually saying real four cups Like most people's mug is a cup and a half in itself like once I get to a place where I've drank Four cups of coffee Which is basically two big cups that I'd have in the morning once I'm like reaching for more That's always my sign to go back the other direction And that's just kind of how I always do it and I go back the other direction by scaling back first Which that that four cups is now like three to two to two and a half Eventually one to then go into a fast where I'm off of it completely and I for me It only seems that I have to take about a week or two of none at all to get that same feeling when I get back on It's the same thing that I met when I mess with things like Kratom It's the same way that I mess with things like cannabis. I notice the same type of facts like something that could be Start with me just a little bit every single day to multiple times in a day And once I feel myself scaling up on any of those types of drugs I I wing myself off slowly then I go to a fast And then depending on how long I'll fast a little bit longer with weed typically But with caffeine I take about a week or two off and then come back and it feels like it's the first time I've had caffeine again. Yeah, the slow weaning process is more tolerable Isn't it because it's like going from four cups to none. That's not gonna happen. Oh, it's brutal It's brutal and so there's a different way. There's a few different ways you can cycle it the way Adam's talking about I think is a is a better way to do it if you want to if you want to come down and what I've typically recommended to clients was to Reduce their caffeine intake by a quarter Every week so after four weeks, they're off so it gives them a four week period So it's like four cups goes to three do that for a week goes down to two goes that do that for week one and then none And then reintroduce it the other way you could do it is by doing what I'm doing now Which I actually prefer this because I hated the complete fast so much Like I hated the week that was off my workouts sucked They're just it was terrible, and I didn't like it when my tolerance was up either There was like a few weeks there that sucked you so the other way to do it is just to use it in a way That doesn't meet them that doesn't require you to cycle it like again like what I'm doing three days a week I don't need to cycle it. It's just three days a week Monday Wednesday Friday. That's it I'm strict with that. I never have to go completely off And I avoid that oh yeah, I think I think if you're using it less than your I mean if you're yeah If you're using it less than what you're off of it, you're gonna be fine Yeah, it's when you start getting to where we're at where it's every day And then it's multiple times a day, and then you're yeah, I enjoy that cup man I'm gonna be honest like that's that's one of those things like I have gone off before but it was just like Not my existence. Well, I like the ritual. I like the ritual of it. Yeah, I really do I enjoy that the smell out with us not just the smell of the coffee brewing in my house in the morning I enjoy sitting down and reading articles and sipping on the coffee So for me, it's not just the caffeine effect. Although that's obviously an amazing side effect of it It's the ritual. It's like a cognitive prime for me Like I mean for me like I need I need that that that that length of time drinking it in order to like Arise and become aware, you know of my world in front of me So that first cup for me is is not gonna leave but the rest of it cup zero Yeah, the rest of it like I I will like scale based off of just like you guys are talking about they can get to a point Where your workouts you just don't have the energy and you know that you need the stimulant to be able to you know Fuel that energy into the workout. That's a problem. Like I don't need that I don't need, you know something right beforehand to get me up and lively. So I do adapt to it very quickly Caffeine consumption has really exploded more recently with the with the widespread consumption of coffee Yeah, because coffee wasn't consumed by Teenagers and kids in their maybe in their 20s in college, but definitely not teenagers and fuck coffee was an old person's drink And it tasted gross. Yeah, now they're drinking coffee energy drinks didn't really exist I mean the only energy drink I can remember as a kid was jolt cola and I think it had 50 gram Cola and Mountain Dew I mean Mountain Dews weren't those weren't pretty high and and those weren't considered energy They're nothing dude. It's like 48 milligrams of caffeine, which is which is nothing So consumption is gonna now caffeine itself is not bad But if you have an intolerance to it or you're sensitive to it, it could be very bad And this is different from person to person my tolerance for caffeine is weight Doug and I have a very low Tolerance to caffeine in comparison to Justin and Adam So so the appropriate amount for me or Doug is far different than the appropriate amount that would be for for Adam or Justin I also this room this like conversation reminds me to reminds me of that old Seinfeld episode where they master my domain Right. Do you remember that one? No, you don't remember that master. Yeah master of your domain and they're talking about Fasting from masturbating right I find if I if I catch myself using words like need or have to Or right things like that like that's I always challenge myself Like I don't want ever to fill dependent on anything like that I see the connection between the episode of masturbating That's it's it being being addicted to anything. Okay, right, right. So you you brought up porn earlier in this episode and I It all it all to me. It's all the same It's all some whether it be a you know, you know physical energy addiction or it be a mental stimulation addiction Anytime I catch myself saying I have to or I need or I want every day. I always should be a red flag Yeah, I always challenge I always challenge that and then I always Restrict myself to prove that I'm in full control of this meat wagon I'm not a slave to anything and I think that's a good practice and anything and everything in the ritualization of morning coffee is definitely a piece of why it's so hard to stop and Supplement supplement companies who do pre-workout supplements or the first ones to come out with pre-workout supplements We're brilliant because they understood that if they took a product that you could feel Like then it's got full of statin stimulants that you could ritualize have this before your workout because what does every fitness person do? Workout, how do we ritual if you could ritualize a supplement? You have made a lot of money and they did and they did and I it's the number one seller for every supplement And I know a lot of people who work out who do not work out unless they have a pre-workout Which I find pretty fascinating because that was never a thing when I was when I was going up