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Performance Enhancing

Coffee is the New HGH

Gina Kolata, the best name in fitness journalism, writes today about the performancing enhancing effects of caffeine. To sum up: Caffeine makes you better, stronger, faster...

Exercise physiologists have studied caffeine’s effects in nearly every iteration: Does it help sprinters? Marathon runners? Cyclists? Rowers? Swimmers? Athletes whose sports involve stopping and starting like tennis players? The answers are yes and yes and yes and yes.

Apparently not much caffeine is required to get a bump -- the equivalent of four ounces of coffee. And, in lab conditions, we're talking about a 20-25% bump. In baseball terms, that's the difference between, say, an average of .250 and .313. Yo, A-Rod: Stop with the Primobolan, and start hitting the double soy vente lattes.