Does RedBull Actually Give You Wings?

Does RedBull Actually Give You Wings?

We often see the commercials for energy drinks like RedBull, Monster and more recently, Bang. Every company claims that their drink increases mental awareness, energy metabolism and physical performance. Some of the older athletes on the team might have started trying out pre-workout drinks that also claim to increase performance. In a sport where any edge one has over the competition is needed, does caffeine actually help with physical performance? 

What is caffeine?

Caffeine is found within coffee beans, tea leaves, chocolate, cocoa beans and cola nuts. Caffeine takes anywhere from 30-60 minutes to take effect, and those effects can last anywhere from 2-10 hours depending on the product and the person’s tolerance to caffeine. For most healthy people, 400 mgs of caffeine is safe to intake in a day. That is equivalent to a venti drip coffee from starbucks. This can be ingested into the bloodstream by drinking coffee or soda and eating chocolate. When it comes to more of the “performance driven” caffeine drinks, it is important to look at the advertising  and labeling. If a drink is labeled as a supplement, the FDA has not approved or regulated what is in it. If it is labeled as drink or beverage, then it has been regulated by the FDA. 

What does caffeine do to our bodies?

When it comes to the actions that caffeine takes on the body, it is important to know the difference between Central and Peripheral. Central actions affect the brain and spinal cord. Caffeine acts as a blocker or antagonist in certain receptors in the brain which results in increased neural activity. This increased activity potentially leads to increased alertness and wakefulness. Additionally, it releases an angelistic affect on the body, reducing the perception of effort. Peripheral effects are actions that affect the tissue, organs and basically everything else that is not our brain or spinal cord. Two of the biggest things caffeine does to our peripheral system is that it opens up calcium channels and it increases epinephrine release. The opening up of calcium channels allows for better motor recruitment, allowing for better muscle contractions. Increased epinephrine release causes an increase in heart rate, blood pressure and respiration rate.

Can caffeine increase physical performance?

A few studies concluded that taking 320-360 mg of caffeine 60 minutes before a bout of exercise decreased the perceived rate of exersertion among people taking part in the study. This means that the right amount of caffeine can make exercise feel easier. In a swimming specific study, male and female swimmers consumed 6 mg of caffeine were taken for every 1 kg of body weight that they had. 2 hours before a 1500 m time trial, the subjects took their prescribed caffeine drinks based on their body weight (6 mg of caffeine/kg of body weight). On average, the subjects swam 2% faster when they had caffeine before their race. In a more power based study, caffeine seemed to extend the time to exhaustion on short-term anaerobic power tests. This would be equivalent to reducing the time to exhaustion in a 100 free or stroke.

Although caffeine is promising when it comes to increasing physical performance, too much caffeine can do the opposite. Just like with most things, there is such a thing as too much. Low to moderate doses of caffeine, ~3-6 mg of caffeine for every kg of body weight, are considered effective in enhancing physical performance. Anything above that either has no additional effect on performance, or can be detrimental by causing psychomotor agitation, headaches, unnecessary fluid loss, increased heart rate for prolonged periods of time and premature ventricular contractions.

To sum up, RedBull does in fact give you wings. Just be sure to limit the amount of caffeine you intake, and if you are going to buy a supplement, make sure you are not going over the recommended dose of caffeine in a day based on your body weight.

GO SMAC!

Julian