Caffeine May Help Relieve Muscle Soreness After Workouts

You've decided it's time to take exercising seriously. You joined a gym and had your first workout. It was strenuous, but it felt good too. You feel like you're finally on your way to being fit, and plan to work out every day from now on.

The next day, though, there's a problem. When you wake up you're so sore you can barely move. You wonder if it was the workout that did this. But if it was, why didn't it happen sooner? And what can you do about it? Or should you just give up and forget about getting in shape?

This condition, called Delayed Onset of Muscle Soreness - DOMS for short - is actually fairly common in people who are normally sedentary and then suddenly have an intense workout. It comes from the inflammation of muscles that aren't used to being worked that hard.

DOMS is usually treated with painkillers like naproxen (Aleve), ibuprofen (Motrin), and aspirin. But now researchers at the University of Georgia in Athens have discovered that another "drug" may be even more effective - caffeine.

In the most recent study, a small group of female college students who didn't have a regular exercise program tried using either a supplement containing the same amount of caffeine as two cups of coffee or a placebo ("sugar pill") before a moderately intense workout. Researchers found that the women who took the caffeine had much less muscle soreness than those who took the placebo. They believe that caffeine may block the action of adenosine, which is released by the body as a response to inflammation and can cause pain messages to be sent to the brain.

This may sound like great news to anyone who's been trying to resolve their desire to start working out in the morning with their inability to wake up without coffee. However, researchers are quick to point out that the study's participants were all people who didn't use caffeine on a regular basis. Since people can build up a tolerance to caffeine, the participants in the study probably had a stronger response to the caffeine than would people who use it regularly - especially if they use a lot of it.

There are a couple of other considerations as well. For one thing, the study group was a very small one - only nine individuals. It's not known what would have happened if the group had been larger. Also, all the participants were women - young women. Older women and men of any age could react differently.

And speaking of reactions, besides the regular coffee drinkers who might not react much there are also individuals who are very sensitive to caffeine. Some of these people may not even be able to manage a half cup of coffee without experiencing caffeine's nasty side effects - anxiety, heart palpitations, increased blood pressure, and others. It's very hard to predict how someone who doesn't use caffeine much - or at all - would react to it.

Right now researchers are saying that caffeine may be most helpful for people who are new to exercise - and new to caffeine. But more research will need to be done before the pain-relieving effects of caffeine can be applied to others as well.

So if you're thinking of adding coffee to your list of sports drinks, it's probably not a good idea just yet. If you experience post-workout muscle soreness, stay with the traditional pain relievers. If the pain is severe then it's certainly worthwhile to consult with a specialist, like a certified trainer or your doctor. That way you can be sure that what you're doing really is good for you in the long run.