Everyone knows that caffeine can help your workouts, but surprisingly not many know how to take advantage of this. Most lifters who are familiar with this might drink coffee or pre-workout energy drinks.
But this is not the way to go about getting caffeine! At least not for working out. Let’s look at some research. And once we do this, you will see how to best get caffeine to not just help your endurance, but also your power and strength.
The study in question discovered that caffeine gum, when chewed for 10 minutes before certain tests of power and strength, acutely helped squat and benching performance, and this included whole-body power.
How did they test?
Nineteen bodybuilders chewed gum, half were given caffeinated gum, the other half were given a placebo. The caffeine gum had 300 mg. of caffeine.
Ten minutes after, they were tested on doing leg extensions, leg curls, bench press, and a rowing ergometer test.
The results
The test leaders reported the results of their tests:
“Caffeinated chewing gum using a dose of 300 mg. taken 10 minutes before exercise may greatly enhance jumping height, isokinetic power and strength of the lower-body, barbell velocity in the bench press, and total-body power.”
What to do next
Caffeinated chewing gum improved the participant’s performance on every test, and while its affect is not completely monumental, it is enough to make your workouts 20% more effective, if not more.
If you use caffeinated gum, ensure you chew it for at least 10 minutes. Another study on this issue reported that chewing the gum for only 2 minutes released just half the caffeine, while chewing it for 10 minutes gave 96.2%.