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For people interested in using caffeine for tasks that don't provide an outlet for the jitteriness in the form of physical exercise: Check out L-Theanine[1], it works wonders for keeping caffeine's focus, but dampening the anxiousness. [1]: https://examine.com/supplements/theanine/
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What do you mean you work out for 2h literally every day?
It might sound wild but here in Texas getting ready for high school football often includes “two a days” to get in shape at the start of the season. That means a morning and afternoon workout. In total it can be 2 hours or more spent doing the routine (not solid 2 hours lifting or running, but within that time). I’m revisiting training and going light for now but if I go the PED route again I will definitely go harde…
One data point: I can drink 3 espressos at midnight, go to bed and fall asleep. Apparently I'm immune to caffeine which is both good (I can have a coffee at any time of the day) and bad (if I'm sleepy and I have to drive a coffee won't wake me up.) Maybe I also won't get any of those exercise performance effects.
I've found that caffeine tolerance is a huge factor in how it affects me, but tolerance changes quickly. A month off of caffeine for me is a complete reset and a few weeks do a lot to drop my tolerance.
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I've used 200mg caffeine pills back in college, exactly for the purpose of waking up in the morning. For me, the tolerance made the effect go away after a month or two. I could take a caffeine pill, and go back to sleep. I had to start taking two, then three, until one morning I took so many I was basically shaking from caffeine, yet I was still sleepy. Maybe it was just me, though. Everyone's metabolism is different…
As I understand it the body pretty quickly gets used to caffeine use, then taking your typical amount just gets you to the same level you'd always be if you never had caffeine. I still drink coffee though.
I'm an avid runner (50-70km/week) and I've been running for 5 years. I run long distances on trail. Seems that although it increases performance and stamina for me it also brings my heart rate up, which is not desirable in most cases since I'm training ~80% of the time in zone 2 (aerobic). At given pace I can have few bits higher HR when caffeinated (between 5 and 10 bpm) which means that I need go go slower in order…
As such, there are trainings where I use extra caffeine for a variety of different purposes, e.g. to get maximum speed to train my body to go faster, or for the mild analgesic effect to counter some discomfort from long distances. Depending on how much extra I take and when, I may have to take the attendant tiredness into account when planning the following day's activities, both physical (more training) and mental (programming).
I believe I benefit from my use of caffeine, but it's tricky. I log all the caffeine I take as well as all the calories, analgesics and alcohol in a text file (which I keep in a public repository in GitHub). I can then look back and try to figure out what's worked well in the past so I can do more of it as well as what has held me back.
One data point: I can drink 3 espressos at midnight, go to bed and fall asleep. Apparently I'm immune to caffeine which is both good (I can have a coffee at any time of the day) and bad (if I'm sleepy and I have to drive a coffee won't wake me up.) Maybe I also won't get any of those exercise performance effects.
What happens if you quit caffeine for a while? Have you tried to measure your tolerance? I've found that caffeine tolerance is a huge factor in how it affects me, but tolerance changes quickly. A month off of caffeine for me is a complete reset and a few weeks do a lot to drop my tolerance.
I'm an avid runner (50-70km/week) and I've been running for 5 years. I run long distances on trail. Seems that although it increases performance and stamina for me it also brings my heart rate up, which is not desirable in most cases since I'm training ~80% of the time in zone 2 (aerobic). At given pace I can have few bits higher HR when caffeinated (between 5 and 10 bpm) which means that I need go go slower in order…
For all of the fitness tracking that exists, perceived exertion and relative pace to your max is better.
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> Wasn't caffeine combined with contact sports linked to some brain damage? Contact sports and oats will be linked to some brain damage. Contact sports and listening to seagulls in the evening too will lead to brain damage.
I mean that’s true, but it’s still entirely possible that something like caffeine could make it worse.
One data point: I can drink 3 espressos at midnight, go to bed and fall asleep. Apparently I'm immune to caffeine which is both good (I can have a coffee at any time of the day) and bad (if I'm sleepy and I have to drive a coffee won't wake me up.) Maybe I also won't get any of those exercise performance effects.
Caffeine combined with L-Theanine does seem provide slight boost for focus to me. That said, I think biggest mood/focus/energy difference (besides a nice workout which is also important) for me was getting vitamins and other micronutrients in order. I highly suggest you to do a blood test or two per year for all the common vitamins/micronutrients to see which you need to fix. For men, I think it is especially importa…
To state the obvious; Since there are so many things changing in our lives, it's impossible to know whether the "improvements" you mention were specifically caused (/only) by taking more vitamin D.