Caffeine

For optimum performance, go "caffeine naive" for a week or two before a big meet, then drink a cup or two about 45 minutes before a big event. A better approach than drinking is Jolt gum. Chew a couple times and stick the wad under your tongue. It gets absorbed and shoots to your blood stream in 15 minutes, and you don't have to worry about urinating. All in all, the ergonomic benefits of caffeine probably have more to do with motivation than anything else. It does juice you up a bit, and some researchers used to believe it helps mobilize fat stores for use as a substrate during long workouts. Now, however, the consensus seems to be that it energizes you mentally in a way that keeps you training on those days when you'd otherwise be tempted to phone it in. To sum up: moderate and regular dosing of caffeine to train better a break from all caffeine usage during the taper period in order to become caffeine naive--i.e., regaining your caffeine virginity--before a big meet resumption of caffeine, ideally 15 minutes before an important event via buccal absorption of Jolt gum briskly masticated several times Thus was delivered to his people the wisdom of a semi-educated pontificator of dubious albeit reasonably authenticated lore Email me if you want an article I wrote for Men's Health on caffeine a couple years ago, one which, if memory serves, included an interview with the former US Olympic team nutritionist

For optimum performance, go "caffeine naive" for a week or two before a big meet, then drink a cup or two about 45 minutes before a big event. A better approach than drinking is Jolt gum. Chew a couple times and stick the wad under your tongue. It gets absorbed and shoots to your blood stream in 15 minutes, and you don't have to worry about urinating. All in all, the ergonomic benefits of caffeine probably have more to do with motivation than anything else. It does juice you up a bit, and some researchers used to believe it helps mobilize fat stores for use as a substrate during long workouts. Now, however, the consensus seems to be that it energizes you mentally in a way that keeps you training on those days when you'd otherwise be tempted to phone it in. To sum up: moderate and regular dosing of caffeine to train better a break from all caffeine usage during the taper period in order to become caffeine naive--i.e., regaining your caffeine virginity--before a big meet resumption of caffeine, ideally 15 minutes before an important event via buccal absorption of Jolt gum briskly masticated several times Thus was delivered to his people the wisdom of a semi-educated pontificator of dubious albeit reasonably authenticated lore Email me if you want an article I wrote for Men's Health on caffeine a couple years ago, one which, if memory serves, included an interview with the former US Olympic team nutritionist