Early morning wakeups, laser focus, and energy to keep grinding are the basic ingredients of any climber.
It’s no wonder that coffee and climbing are a match made in heaven.
Climbers instinctively know that the benefits of caffeine extend beyond just a warm cup to share with fellow adventurers in the morning. On some level, we understand that it impacts our physical performance as well.
At Megaton Coffee, we make physical performance our job. We fuel some of the most interesting athletes on the planet (from daredevil climbers to MMA fighters and we study the impact of caffeine on performance.
From a physiological standpoint, caffeine has a number of known positive effects that are well documented in scientific literature and sports performance studies. The most popular among our performance athletes is the ability for caffeine to increase endurance and to enhance mental alertness.
We’ve broken down the highlights of both and linked out to the science behind the findings for anyone who has their curiosity piqued.
- Increased Endurance
The primary impact of caffeine while working out is that it helps our body oxidize fat for energy as opposed to glycogen from our muscles. This helps athletes, not only because it is a more powerful form of longer lasting energy, but also because it reduces muscle fatigue and soreness. In fact, some studies even show that caffeine can help post-workout muscle recovery, especially when paired with carbohydrates.
- Enhanced mental alertness
That caffeine buzz is real and that feeling of alertness is well documented. Caffeine fights off mental degradation from lack of sleep and improves alertness. However, it should be noted that caffeine doesn’t help with tasks like learning or memory retention.
All this is great… but what does it mean for climbers?
It’s a fair question. Climbing is a unique sport which demands a blend of endurance and strength that’s hard to find anywhere else. Indeed, even within the sport, the power and endurance demands can vary widely.
For instance, endurance is crucial for big wall climbing. Push too hard too fast…and you’ll find yourself midway up and out of gas. Compare this to bouldering, where it’s all about anaerobic bursts of extreme strength and power over a short period of time. Different climbing disciplines demand different aspects of physical performance.
Does that mean different climbers should think about coffee differently?
We interviewed two of our favorite climbers and Megaton athletes – Jeremy Fullerton and Kathy Karlo to see what they had to say.
The answer is simple.
No.
… and yes.
Jeremy is a bouldering extraordinaire climbing all over the Western United States. The first thing he emphasized was the ritual of sharing coffee with fellow climbers before the ascent. But when we pressed him on how coffee helped him perform he added:
“An underrated part of coffee is the benefits it has for the hike to the site. I wake up before the sun and drink coffee before and during my trek in. When I get to the boulder site I’m alert and ready to go. In terms of performance while climbing, the buzz from coffee gives me the energy to push through anything. I just keep going until I make it and don’t give fatigue a second thought. Also – I try and bring high-caffeine coffee so I can get the same effects while physically carrying less. I take long hikes in the Colorado Alpine, so I want my pack to be as light as possible.”
Kathy, on the other hand, focuses on longer climbs demanding more endurance. She blogs about her experiences on “For the Love of Climbing” (oh and by the way is launching a podcast too) and is a self-proclaimed “coffee aficionado”. When we asked her “why coffee” she said:
“Coffee keeps me alert and stoked for the send. The alertness is key, I have to focus on the technical aspects and can’t be distracted by pain or being tired. The caffeine fuels me for the entire climb. When you’re close to the finish you need every ounce of energy – that’s why I love coffee.”
Climbers love coffee for good reason. It improves alertness, reduces fatigue, and keeps you going. But what about the concern of burning out too fast?
We couldn’t find any scientific journal articles looking specifically at coffee and climbers… but there have been plenty of studies on other endurance athletes like cyclists and distance runners that show improved endurance over sustained periods of time without a premature burnout.
Coffee improves endurance because it helps our body oxidize fat and reduces muscle glycogenesis. However. Coffee also gets us amped…and that might make us more likely to push further than our optimal pace. Just as a marathon runner can’t sprint out of the gate and expect to keep pace throughout the race, the same principle applies during the climb.
Finally…the most important thing of all might actually be what’s NOT in coffee. Just about all documented performance benefits of coffee come from the caffeine it contains. Added sugar, chemicals, and supplements don’t do a whole of productive things for your body. So, don’t waste your time or money on drinks with a list of ingredients that you can’t even pronounce.
Megaton Coffee
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Megaton Coffee brews the best coffee for climbing and extreme athletes alike. Check them out and get a bag of their high octane coffee!
