A morning cup of Joe is an unbreakable ritual for many of us. As one of the most consumed beverages in the world, it’s the instant caffeine hit that can revive even the most lethargic of starts to the day, but new research has indicated that rolling out of bed and into exercise could be a better way to jump-start your day.
As a psychoactive agent, caffeine can help us feel more energized, lifting our mood and increasing our alertness, but it can also trigger anxiety and muscle tremors in those more sensitive to caffeine. For this reason, avoiding caffeine is often recommended for children and pregnant women, and even those who can tolerate a lot of coffee can end up suffering in the form of caffeine withdrawal, which can be felt as a headache, tiredness or irritability.
As such, some prefer to shun the hard stuff, which has got people asking what else can provide such a reliable burst of morning energy. The study published in the journal Scientific Reports suggests the answer could be aerobic exercise. Under lab conditions, they decided to test the benefits of exercise and caffeine intake on cognitive ability, which dictates our memory and capacity to complete mental tasks. They tasked a group of healthy adults with taking a brisk 20-minute walk on a treadmill and compared their mental ability to their performance after taking a dose of caffeine comparable to one cup of coffee.
Their findings revealed that the prescribed moderate exercise was as effective as a dose of caffeine in improving memory and cognitive function for both people who consumed a lot of coffee in their everyday lives and those who didn’t. The good news is that replacing a cup of coffee with a morning walk could provide the same boost in cognitive function while also potentially providing other health benefits associated with exercise.
The team also wanted to look into whether or not the same exercise could remedy the symptoms of caffeine withdrawal so tasked their caffeine consumers with undergoing a 12-hour caffeine deprivation period. Following this, they visited the lab so their withdrawal symptoms could be assessed, with common reports including fatigue, difficulty concentrating, lack of motivation, headache, and feeling a bit grouchy. As if that wasn’t bad enough, the researchers then asked them to take a brisk 20-minute walk but fortunately found the exercise actually reduced withdrawal symptoms, boosting mood and lifting fatigue.
Previous research has suggested that exercise could provide these benefits by improving blood flow to the brain and releasing neurotrophic factors, which are sort of like food for brain cells. Furthermore, the release of hormones like dopamine and epinephrine, which are associated with exercise, would also go some way towards boosting mood and energy.
So, hard as it might seem the next time you’re running low first thing in the morning or finding it hard to focus in the middle of the day, try taking a brisk walk and it might set you right without having to spend your wage on expensive takeout coffees.
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