Of Snake Plissken, Coffee, and Squats

Glucocorticoids [such as prednisone] cause proximal muscle weakness and atrophy. Ultrastructural abnormalities in skeletal muscle include reduced myofibrillar mass, mitochondrial volume, and decreased capillary number. Lower extremities typically are the first affected, demonstrating the first signs of weakness during climbing stairs and rising from chairs. Quadriceps strength is markedly reduced in both kidney and heart transplant recipients and reported to be 80% and 69% of untrained sedentary control subjects.

The above is an excerpt from a study published in Kidney International in 2003, which can be found here. I remembered having read this when, after taking a week off from weight training while camping, I returned home and resumed with my regular weightlifting regimen. The first day back I was to do squats. I felt weak on my first warm-up set, and after the second warm-up set, I knew I would have to reduce the weights on my working sets. I dropped down 15 pounds, and it was all I could do to complete the sets. My legs were SORE for the next 3 days. I mean, it was as if I had caught 9 innings for both teams in a knuckleballer duel. If you're a transplant recipient and you work nothing else, work those legs. Hard.

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What is Snake Plissken doing inside this New York City Chock Full o'Nuts? With less than 24 hours before his potential demise, he needs a leg up on his competition. Sure, that automatic rifle he wields helps level the playing field, but a cup of joe might provide him with the kind of advantage he really seeks. According to the New York Times, in studies going back to 1978, researchers have consistently concluded that caffeine improves athletic performance. This has been shown to be true with sprinters, marathon runners, cyclists, rowers, swimmers, and tennis players. Dr. Mark Tarnopolsky of McMaster University in Canada says it is "unequivocal that caffeine improves performance." Following is an excerpt from the March 25, 2009 Times article:

Caffeine increases the power output of muscles by releasing calcium that is stored in the muscle. The effect can enable athletes to keep going longer or to go faster in the same length of time. Caffeine also affects the brain's sensation of exhaustion, that feeling that it's time to stop, you can't go on any more. That may be one way it improves endurance, Dr. Tarnopolsky said.

Just a little caffeine goes a long way. A 176-pound man needs only 4 ounces of coffee, or about two 12-ounce cans of coke to reap the full caffeine effect, according to Louise M. Burke, the head of sports nutrition department of the Australian Institute of Sport in Canberra. And Terry Graham, chairman of the Department of Human Health and Nutritional Sciences of the University of Guelph in Canada, found that at 9 milligrams per kilogram, athletes actually did worse.

As far as the adverse effects of caffeine, which are frequently repeated in the media, Dr. Tarnopolsky notes, "Athletes do not get dehydrated from caffeine, contrary to popular myth." And he says that though caffeine does increase the heart rate and blood pressure in people who are not regular users, "after three or four days, that potentially negative effect is gone." Dr. Tarnopolsky, an elite triathlete, ski orienteer and trail runner who has competed nationally and internationally, adds that even if you are a regular coffee drinker, if you have a cup of coffee before a workout or a race, you will do better.

Plissken never did get that performance-enhancing cup of coffee in what was, at the time, a futuristic version of 1997 Manhattan. He even lost his rifle not long after his hasty exit from the store. But, as it turned out, he made out pretty good. In fact, his competition was blown away. Literally.

~ Finding Chock Full o'Nuts coffee on the shelf recently at Food Lion assisted in the development of this post