Does Caffeine Cause Muscle Cramps

Most of us like a little jolt before we run, but at what price? Can caffeine cause muscle cramps?

Coach Laura explains in today’s daily podcast!

Audio Transcript

Coach Laura McLean: Hey everyone. I’m here with you for this latest episode of Extra Kick brought to you by Runners Connect. Thanks so much for joining me today.

If you have a question that you’d like one of our expert coaches to answer in an upcoming episode, you can submit it at runnersconnect.net/daily.

We’d love to help you train smarter and faster, so please don’t hesitate to ask whatever has you curious.

Today’s question comes from George in Northern Ireland. He says, “Have you come across any research that suggests the connection between intake of caffeine and muscle cramps? I’m asking because in October I ran a marathon.

My tune up races and my early pace suggested that I was set for a personal best time. Twice in the race I got severe cramps in my leg.

The cramps in each case started about 15 to 20 minutes after I had taken a caffeinated gel. That was about an equivalent of two shots of expresso.

Each time the cramps started after I took the gel and after about three miles of running, the cramp passed over and I got back to normal speed.

At the time I didn’t connect it with the gels as I thought it was a misfortune, but looking at the details Strava records afterwards, I could see the cramps were synchronized with the intake of the gel and [and it seemed to be plausible that as the 00:02:48] caffeine passed out of my systems, the cramps stopped.

I take it that the caffeinated gel was the one different thing I did in that marathon compared to different marathons.

Laura: Hey George. Sorry to hear that your experience and cramping in the marathon. It is a tough and long event and many things can go wrong, so I am sorry that your experience that.

It does sound to me like this marathon was the first time I’ve ever taken a gel with caffeine, so I am going to make that assumption in answering this question.

It does stick out to me as something that may have caused the cramping, considering they started at the 15 to 20 minutes after you took the gels and then and another three to four miles the crap and wore off.

Studies show that the effects of caffeine can be felt after 10 minutes and peak caffeine concentration takes 45 minutes, so the timing seems right.

Of course, it could be a coincidence. It could have been weather or dehydration. It could have been the course conditions you are adequately trained for or your body rebelling for some other of numerous reasons. Let’s continue to explore caffeine and muscle cramps.

Caffeine increases body temperature. An overdose of caffeine can cause muscle cramping twitching and involuntary contractions. It also leads to increased urination which can cause dehydration, but it doesn’t sound like you needed to stop for a pee and it probably wouldn’t cause dehydration that quickly.

How your body reacts to caffeine is individualized and different for every person. Many studies show that caffeine has a positive effect on insurance training by lowering perceived exhaustion. Therefore, they make the products like the gel you took with caffeine in them in the first place.

These studies however, use a lot of caffeine. One study showed a zero point three to two percent improvement of time in a ten K. which accounts for 4 to 24 seconds but that study had athletes take 5 to 6 milligrams of caffeine per kilogram of body weight.

If you weigh 60 kilograms that’s 300 to 360 milligrams of caffeine. When you say that the gels that you talk have the amount of two expressos you took two of those gels, that’s the amount of four expressos.

You may have had a coffee before the marathon with your breakfast, but since you didn’t mention it for simplicity sake, let’s imagine you didn’t. Two ounces of espresso has about 80 milligrams of caffeine.

That means that you took at around 160 milligrams. That’s half the amount of caffeine that was used in the study that showed a 0.3% to 2% improvement of time in a 10K.

Based on the information you’ve provided me, to me it sounds like the risk of using the caffeinated gels it outweighed the benefit.

I would avoid trying anything new on race day. I would be interested though, if you decide to train for another marathon to see if you experience the cramping again on one of your really long runs by taking the same gels. It would be interesting for us to see if it was in fact the caffeine that had a negative effect on you on race day.

George, I hope that that provided a little bit of information for you in seeing if it was or was not the caffeine that caused the cramping. To me it sounds like it probably was but I guess until you try that product again on a long run we may never know.

Finally, if you get value and enjoyment from the show and believe in what we’re doing here, please consider joining our awesome community of Patreons.

Not only will your support help us to keep the show going and cover the production costs needed to make the best show possible, but will also allow us to completely do away with those pesky advertisements that cut into your valuable time. A win-win, right?

With your support, you’ll also get access to amazing bonus content with new stuff added all the time. This includes; access to our weekly live coach chats, 30-day weight loss program, marathon nutrition program, new and old summits, discounts on essential running products, and a whole lot more.

Basically, you can think of your pledge as much appreciated financial support to keep the show afloat and all access behind the scenes pass for tons of bonus content, and a chance to shape the future of the show.

If you’re interested in joining our incredible team of Patreons, check it out at runnersconnect.net/pledge. Your support goes a long way and we can’t thank you enough.

If you have a question is like one of our expert coaches to answer log on to runnersconnect.net/daily.

We’d love to help you train smarter and faster. Until tomorrow, I’m Laura McLean and you’ve been listening to the Extra Kick Podcast brought to you by Runner Connect.

Enjoyed this question and answer? Consider subscribing to our daily podcast where we answer your questions.

By subscribing, you get to learn every day while you run or while at the gym. Plus, you can always skip over questions you already know the answer to.

Have your own question? Ask our coaches!

You May Also Enjoy...

Running downhills

How do you get better at downhill running? Are there any tweaks you can make to your form or things you can do in training

What to do at stop lights

How should you handle unplanned breaks in your run for things like stoplights, etc? Should you jog in place, walk, or stop? Does it even

When to replace your shoes

When should you replace your shoes? Many of us have heard every 400-500 miles, but what if they were all treadmill miles, or still look