Here’s a tasty little pre workout treat/pick-me-up for you. There’s some great evidence behind caffeine as a performance enhancer and it’s one of the few supplements that the science is pretty much unanimous on.
If you want to find out more on the how and the why behind caffeine as a performance enhancer, read this previous post for more information; https://nutrition4fighters.co/2020/08/31/caffeine-the-athletic-performance-enhancer/
Try these chocolate coated coffee beans between 40 and 20 minutes before you workout.
Dosage:
Performance enhancing effects are seen from caffeine at a dosage of 3-9mg per kg of body weight. Your average single coffee bean reportedly contains around 6mg of caffeine in it. To support you doing the calculations, 35 coffee beans weigh 4g which equals 210mg of caffeine.
Let’s take a 70kg fighter. To workout the caffeine dose I’ll take a midway recommend dosage of 6mg per kg of body weight – 6 x 70kg = 420mg needed. I weighed 35 beans with 6 x 35 being 210mg. 35 beans weighed 4g so double that to 70 beans at 8g and you you have roughly 420mg of caffeine.
Ingredients:
- Unground coffee beans
- Dark chocolate (70% plus)
- 1 tsp of Ceylon cinnamon
Method:
- Melt dark chocolate in the microwave until it’s liquid
- Add coffee beans and stir
- Empty coffee beans onto a non stick surface of plate or tray, (try using small piece of butter, margarine or grease proof paper).
- Dust over with cinnamon
- Leave in fridge over night
- Break up and enjoy
Warning:
In honesty it’s extremely difficult to predict exactly the caffeine content in a coffee bean. I’ve read it can be potentially half or even double the 6g proposed. Therefore, if you’re really looking at tracking and serious on dosages, in reality the best option is to go with a caffeine supplement, (it just won’t taste so good!).
Nutrition 4 Fighters 