this is really interesting, but i would imagine overall that might do more harm than good b/c coffee is dehydrating. On top of sweating for an hour and needing hydration, then to have coffee seems like more of the same. Maybe double fisting between water and some joe is a good option.

Who will be able to spin when you are drinking caffeine and water at the same time. You'll be running to the bathroom---now that's a new workout!!!  I do know that taking caffeine helps migraines because it shrinks the blood vessels, so the fact that it may have additional medicinal purposed doesn't surprise me.  I did read in another article that the more caffeine your system is used to the less effect it will have helping you after a workout.

i would be incredibly cautious about the use of caffeine and exercise, before OR after.  anyone with tachycardia issues (racing heart)...caffeine is a stimulant, and would be accentuating that?!?!

 yes, hydration is good with plain old water first, and coffee is a diuretic (makes you pee more, but you aren't retaining any to use intracellularly or extracellularly, and you need clean water for your hydraulic spine, for the billions of cells that are instruction cells, and function cells...if you don't have the clean water, your cells are working off of dirty water...they won't let go the old water...and your body is functioning off of dirty water, it's like taking a bath in the same water for a month...how can your body possibly function at top notch??)...proper hydration can actually reduce pain...as the opposite, "dehydration" can increase the pain sensation.

 i have a chronic pain syndrome, rare connective tissue disorder...quite familiar with pain.  last month, i said forget that and detoxed myself off of the morphine, vicodin, excedrin, ibuprofen, flexeril (muscle relaxer), and fasted for a week (not a pretty week - but i wanted it OUT of my system, all at once!)  they don't have any cures or treatment for what i have.  BUT, i have done my homework!!  five years of research and 30 doctors' involvement, searching for a drug-free (including caffeine) pain management approach.

when your body hurts...it is doing exactly what it should, by telling your brain...hey, stop it....you have over-worked your muscles...and it is sending the proper and appropriate signals to match the situation.  DON'T mess with something that works in your body.  TRUST me on this.  once you get into a "i need a pill to fix this" mentality...you lose a lot of good time finding other pills to deal with side effects, and then doctors aren't treating illnesses....they are treating side effect symptoms.

 as for proper hydration...if you notice that you are light-headed while working out...you would want to drink an electrolyte...NOT a sugary sports drink...clearly NOT the same...but a pedialyte or (as compared to pedialyte - plenty of generics out there).  if you feel like your chest is too racy....then i would increase your plain water intake...NOT the fruit-fancy sugar-filled waters. there is a salt/water balance that your blood maintains...and low bp tends to accompany too low a level of salt, and high bp tends to accompany too high a level of salt, and drinking water to desalinate your blood is the best method.  remember that too much water (like 2 gallons or more) in a short time, is dangerous...so don't OVERdo it.  (**now the blood's salt/water balance isn't the ONLY issue for high/low BP...just addressing it for the current situation)

a quick note on the mineral imbalances...you should make certain that you have proper plain water; sodium; calcium; and then in addition to those...make sure that you have the proper MAGNESIUM.  and the BEST way to get this...is an epsom salt bath.  epsom salts come in what look like milk cartons (the kind we drank from at school...or larger ones that look the same, but like a quart of milk in the opaque cartons that you tear the one side of and then pour).  this is highly suggested for kids with pain issues, as opposed to meds/pills/drugs.  some medical journals even suggest that people who need magnesium therapy....should absorb it via the bath salts through the skin, as opposed to the I.V. magnesium.  i am a HUGE supporter of epsom salts.

if hydration isn't enough to pull you through the pain...understand that everytime you exercise and/or stretch...you are breaking down the muscle fibers, and building muscle is a repair process.  if you are having muscle spasms or twitching, or an identified trigger point (travell and simons trigger points, for reference)...THEN, the best thing to do, is to treat it like someone (for example, in the leg), who has had knee surgery...the muscles that are "controlling you", YOU need to "control them"...do isometric exercises.  contract as tight as you can and breathe in and out, count to 5-10, or whatever you can withstand.  this will work with tight muscles.  then relax.  you will notice that your muscles are MUCH more relaxed than just laying down and trying to concentrate on relaxing.  some guided imagery suggests this.  how can you know that you're really relaxing your muscles...unless you tighten them, conciously, as tight as you can...and then relax.  people with IT band syndrome will do something like this as well.  and generally a physical therapist (which i have been to at least once a year every year for 15 years - lol) will tell you to only do 2-3 sets of this, and once a day at first.  then see if it is beneficial. 

 now, if you are familiar with trigger points, then working your trigger points is a good attempt as well.   on a normal body, these are very helpful.  in my body...to an extent they are helpful...but my body is not so normal.  i suggest (or what was suggested to me, by my physical medical doc/pain management doc, and it was suggested to him by the man who taught him about travell and simons trigger points)...is to invest $19.95 US dollars (at least that was how much my book reads on the back) into the book, "the trigger point therapy workbook: your self-treatment guide for pain relief" by clair davies, NCTMB with amber davies, NCTMB.  this was a HUGE help for me.

the difference between a trigger point and a tender point, generally speaking, is that a trigger point on palpation (uh, fancy for touching) will increase pain in "referred" areas...but a tender point just hurts if you keep pushing (so don't keep pushing ;o)  sometimes with a trigger point, the pain reference pattern (which is clearly outlined in the aforementioned book), may include the point that you are palpating :o)

in fact...the discussion of migraines/headaches...they are predominantly caused by tight upper traps; tight neck muscles (the frontal sternocleidomastoids, both the clavicular and sternal branches - or the back side of the neck, where the muscles attach to the base of the skull - there are a boatload, (wink wink) of muscles that are in this area...very complex, and when you have one tight muscle...the whole groups start kicking in and picking up the slack, and you can have an insane involvement of muscles that are over-worked creating pain that you had no idea you could be donned with); or even (i just learned this one...and was amazed) in the cheek muscles, the masseters.  it can cause pain in both the upper and lower teeth (confusing that you may think that you need dental work), can cause tooth hypersensitivity to hot and cold....can be confused with sinus pain, can cause congestion, tearing eyes...the list is LONG, and i don't want to get into trouble for quoting the book here so, you have the title and the author....i suggest this to everyone i care about, and to others who are in search of a non-pharmacological route to pain management.  if you don't want to buy it...check out your library...and you'll probably want to buy it anyway, as even i have yet to read it cover to cover...but i have learned so much...AND, i have been able to communicate with my docs (i see 3-4 a week to keep me mobile).

 remember that your muscles need a break.  they cannot be contracted all the time.  or you can become controlled by pain, as people with my disorder are destined to be.  but i am in less pain now, than before they started having me take all those useless meds.  and after you experience intense relentless pain, bordering trigeminal neuralgia....i'll take muscle soreness from exercise and even over-exercising ANYDAY!!  i have actually been able to be on a treadmill everyday now that i have stopped taking any meds, and being wary of all these techniques.  (now there is an additional issue...i was having constant reactions to anything in a box - food, that is....i couldn't walk, it was like having a bad reaction to poorly prepared mahi mahi, for 30 years - yes, i had this as a young child...but the white refined flour products and other miscellaneous ingredients is a longer more-detailed conversation...we'll just say that fasting was an amazing detector, and i have been more active than ever in these last few weeks).

now, if you need to take something like a tylenol or an excedrin...i would stick with going to the health food store (or whatever your local establishment is classified as), and try white willow bark.  now i have a bottle right in front of me, but i haven't needed to use it yet.  the explanation that was given to me, is that white willow bark is the chemical compound that they modeled aspirin off of (i want to say that other than the computer in the health food store, i have not coroborated this with any further research, and i don't typically share info unless i have coroborated with multiple sources...so be wary that i have only the store's consultant and their computer information as justification, and i still have not used it yet).  always be aware of your meds, their active ingredients, and what their role is in the body.

if you're having pain all the time, even prior to exercising...that's a whole different ball of wax.  or if you have restless leg syndrome (whoever came up with this term and the ridiculous justification to create a drug to treat it should be fired, and not allowed to practice or should have their license taken away...or whatever their position is....they shouldn't be allowed to be in a decision-making position)...if anyone is interested, i will reply, but not right now.  if i type too long, my fingers dislocate.

 alright...i'm done ranting.  i know i have forgotten something, but this is long enough ;o)  if i re-read this and catch that i have made any mistakes while trying to type too quickly...i'll post a correction later.

~k

ergerg