Reduce post-workout muscle pain – by drinking two cups of coffee before you start.

It may sound a little unlikely, but a recent study indicates that drinking coffee can reduce the muscle pain you feel after a workout.

More specifically, the study looked just at women who were not habitual coffee drinkers. It was in this group that drinking two cups of coffee before a workout seemed to help so much in reducing muscle pain.

(If it worked for the women in the study, we don’t see any reason why it wouldn’t work for men either. Not that we’re medical experts.)

Here’s what researcher Patrick O'Connor of the department of kinesiology at the University of Georgia said...

"A lot of times what people use for muscle pain is drugs like aspirin or ibuprofen, but caffeine seems to work better than those drugs, at least among women whose daily caffeine consumption is low."

Better than aspirin or ibuprofen? That’s pretty amazing, when you think of the number of people who take over the counter pain killers to ease their muscle pain after exercise.

The researchers did add one cautionary note, however. Two cups of coffee, for the caffeine, is about right. But don’t go crazy and have five coffees instead. You may end up having heart palpitations or, at least, a case of the jitters.

Other research confirms these findings.

Research published in the March 2007 issue of The Journal of Pain, suggest much the same. The finding they reported indicate that consuming the equivalent of two cups of coffee an hour before training reduced post-workout muscle soreness by up to 48 percent.

And coffee doesn't just help you after your workout, it can also help you improve your exercise routines.

According to a 2015 study from the University of Georgia, drinking a cup of coffee before exercising can increase your endurance.

Many athletes already take supplements before exercise, many of which contain caffeine as a principal ingredient. But it seems you can do just as well simply by enjoying a cup of Joe.

The study noted that, in the nine trials, between three and seven milligrams per kilogram of body weight of caffeine from coffee increased endurance by an average of 24 per cent.

That means a single cup of coffee could increase your endurance by almost 25%. pretty amazing.

It’s good to come across more and more studies that show coffee lovers some of the benefits of drinking our favorite brew.