Hey everyone,
One thing that stuck out in my mind when competing at PanAms this past year is how many people were drinking energy drinks or 5-hour energy drinks before competing.

I personally use to take 1 caffiene pill before training to get the energy and alertness up... but would never think of taking something before competing cuz my heart would explode. Now I rarely do this... but here and there after a long day.



What do your guys do?
-------------------------------

Drink/take something for energy before training, competitions, or both? ---> if so, what is it and how does it work?
or
Stay Ol' Natural?

Caffeine intake depends a lot on the individual who is taking it. For example some named Joe Snow could have a immunity / tolurance to certain say higher amounts of caffine than Jane Doe. I have seen several people that it may not affect and some that should not be taking. I would say someone doing this for the first time is an extreme warning of a not smart choice at all and which like I said earlier just because Joe Snow can do it and perfrom better does not nessicarly mean Jane Doe while have the same out come and could very much have a heart attack or extra. In a side not Caffinee does also aid in speeding muscle recovery as well as alertness best scource would be plain coffee.

you will never see me taking any caffeine. i want my heart rate as calm as possible when competing. i also rarely drink or have any caffeine in my diet

I'm not a fighting competitor, but my son who is only 9 years old is. Kickboxing, boxing, judo, and tae kwon do, of course, not MMA or cage fighting. However, I was an athlete, hard core trainer, mostly weights and plyos and was diagnosed with a global cardiomyopathy (heart failure) at 26. I now have a deibrillator that was implanted in my chest at 27. My docs blame the weight loss "supplements" which are essentially caffeine, caffeine derivatives, and similar products. I also drank energy drinks, and of course took protein with creatine.

As the guy mentioned above, it's different for everyone but I highly recommend avoiding these products, especially pre-fight. Frighteningly enough, one of my son's coaches is a fighter that I do a lot of photography and marketing work for and his heart stopped during a kickboxing tournament mid-fight. CPR was required to re-start his heart because he didn't have a pulse. This was several years ago, he's in amazing condition and was in amazing condition then. He's a national kickboxing champion and MMA champion locally, not a newcomer or uneducated competitor. He did have several energy drinks the morning of the fight as well as during the week before.

I'm not sure if you are interested in any advice from a "non-fighter" but that's my two cents. From another athlete (or a woman who use to be an athlete) and someone who has both professional and personal experience in this particular sport for the past five years, I would stay away from the caffeine as much as you can. If your body is strong, your conditioning is there, and your talent and skills are in place- caffiene isn't necessary.

I have read up on this topic quite a bit, and studies show that caffeine does improve performance, if only a little. A recent article I read showed a 5% increase in performance with controlled testing of elite athletes taking a high dose an hour before activity (tried to find it online to cite, but no luck). 5% sounds low, but for Olympic and pro level competition, the margin between first and second could be less than .1%. Studies also show several side effects, especially with long term use – some pretty nasty. Where it really gets scary is in energy drinks where it is combined with other stimulants. Heart problems, anyone?

The way I think of it is that frequent or regular intake of high doses is not good for you, and regular use of energy drinks is even worse. But occasional use before a competition is probably not so bad, though I doubt weekend warriors and lower level athletes would see the 5% mentioned above… it may almost me a mental thing, and physically they may have little to no increase in performance.

you cant trust one study. you can only rely on multiple studies from independent sources that say the same thing. i would be curious to see who sponsored the study to. usually people who sponsor these studies are lookign for a outcome out of them