Caffeine helps muscles after exercise

MELBOURNE, July 1 (UPI) -- Australian scientists say caffeine taken after exercise helps facilitate glucose uptake from the blood into the muscles.

The study, published in the Journal of Applied Physiology, also found higher circulating blood glucose and plasma insulin levels in those drinking caffeine after exercise. Athletes who ingested caffeine with carbohydrate had 66 percent more glycogen in their muscles four hours after finishing intense, glycogen-depleting exercise, compared to when they consumed carbohydrate alone.

"If you have 66 percent more fuel for the next day's training or competition, there is absolutely no question you will go farther or faster," senior author Dr. John Hawley of the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology University said in a statement.

The double-blind, placebo-controlled study was conducted on seven well-trained endurance cyclists. The cyclists first rode a cycle ergometer until exhaustion and ate low-carbohydrate dinner to reduce muscle glycogen stores prior to the experimental trial the next day.

The athletes did not eat again until they returned to the lab the next day where they again cycled until exhaustion. They then drank a drink containing carbohydrate alone or carbohydrate plus caffeine and rested in the laboratory for four hours while the researchers took several muscle biopsies and multiple blood samples.