Coffee After a Workout: A Must-Have or Must-Skip?

We’ve talked before about how drinking coffee before a workout can help you power through your sweat sesh, especially if you’re intermittent fasting. Drinking caffeine before the gym can improve your athletic performance during intense exercise for up to 20 minutes. That’s not all! Another study showed that caffeine can boost your endurance during exercise, allowing you to work longer before exhaustion shows up.

But, is drinking coffee after a workout as beneficial?

 Research suggests that the caffeine in a post-workout pick-me-up has benefits on renovating carbs in muscle. This process is called “glycogen resynthesis,” and it’s critical for facilitating peak exercise performance.

It used to be said that having caffeine after an extended period of exercise would hurt the re-synthesis of glycogen and carbohydrate absorption. But now it’s clear that exercise changes how caffeine impacts your body, so it’s easy to put that argument to rest.

For gym-goers who want to achieve peak physical performance, it’s best to combine caffeine with carbs for a post-gym treat in order to hone-in on glycogen synthesis. Plus, coffee after a workout can help athletes amp up fuel for muscles and increase energy.

So the short answer is yes… coffee after a workout certainly makes sense, as long as you want to restore your muscles and enhance the intensity of your next workout.