Love Letters + Hate Mail 12.09

For the first installment of this column, I sent out an email to a bunch of folks on my mailing list. I wanted to gather some thoughtful fitness & nutrition-related questions, but preferably stuff that was a bit more off-beat than the topics covered in the ‘abs & biceps’ newsstand mags. The response was great, and I really appreciate all of your cool ideas. I picked a few questions that I thought were particularly interesting, and hit up some XXL brains to tackle the answers.

We’ll be doing this kind of thing every month- with a revolving panel of smartypantses- so if there’s something that’s always made you go “Hmmm”, be sure to drop us a note at letters@marshalltully.com.

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Coffee: Not Just for Closers

Is it true that having caffeine prior to a workout will help my body burn more fat as fuel?

- Kevin D.
Vancouver, B.C.

Alex Hutchinson responds:

Let’s start with one key fact: caffeine is a performance-enhancer. In fact, it’s probably the best there is – it works for sprints, for strength, for endurance. And that’s part of the problem: because it’s so versatile, researchers have had great difficulty trying to figure out exactly how it works. But they are making progress ruling out how it doesn’t work, according the University of Guelph researcher Terry Graham, who is one of the world’s leading researchers on the topic. And I’m sorry to report that Graham and his fellow researchers have ruled out the idea that caffeine improves performance by increasing the use of fat as a fuel.

While we’re debunking myths, we might as well also mention that coffee and tea do not leave you dehydrated from caffeine’s diuretic effect. The fluid you take in compensates for the fluid you lose, as long as you’re reasonably habituated to the drink.

So what does caffeine do? Part of its magic is that it’s a stimulant, acting directly on the central nervous system. But Graham has also found that stimulating muscles with an electrode – and thus bypassing the central nervous system – produces stronger contractions after you’ve taken in caffeine. That means your muscles can work harder, and your brain can push harder, which is a pretty unbeatable combination. Researchers have also found that habitual caffeine users get the same boost that caffeine virgins get, so in theory you could take caffeine before workouts on a regular basis.

One caveat. Personally, I don’t think it makes a lot of sense to look for workout success from a bottle of pills. If you’re a coffee drinker, timing your coffee intake to give you a boost before workouts might make a lot of sense (though it’s not entirely clear that coffee gives the same boost as pure caffeine). It may be a false distinction, but somehow that’s a lot more palatable to me than pill-popping.

Alex Hutchinson is a journalist and writer based in Toronto, Canada and Sydney, Australia. He is a contributing editor at Popular Mechanics and a senior editor at Canadian Running magazine. His popular column on the science of exercise, Jockology, appears biweekly in the Globe and Mail. Alex’s site, Sweat Science, can be found here.

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Baroque Brawn

I wondered something during a recent trip to an art galley: Ancient Roman sculptures and Baroque paintings often depict men with physiques comparable to drug-enhanced modern bodybuilders. Is it possible that there were actually real-life models that looked looked like that 500-plus years ago?

- Amy R.
Toronto, ON

Christy Anderson responds:

As in ancient Rome, so too, now: things look better in pictures. Or, to be more specific, in art. Painters and sculptors, like photographers today, could amplify the body to make it look bigger, harder, more ripped. When Michelangelo was looking for a model for his Adam on the Sistine ceiling or even just a model for one of his drawings, he could study the ancient sculptures being excavated in Rome. The ancient Romans were not showing mortals; they were making images of Gods. So its not surprising that they showed those figures without a toga, and better than life.

Did anyone have bodies that really looked like that back then? Not quite. Or well, at least not that we know. But in Michelangelo’s vision of a powerful god-like man, every feature, every muscle would be super-defined. For Michelangelo, this wasn’t just about a physically beautiful body. Physical strength also stood for political savvy, a powerful intellect, and certainly a sign of an almost divine religious spirit as well. There was no separation of what was above and below the neck. No one was ever that perfect, except in the hands of an artist.

Filed Under: Love Letters + Hate Mail