High Caffeine Intake and Overstimulation Can Hurt Performance

We now live in a society where caffeine (while legal) is like a drug. Everyone is consuming it — many of the times in excess. Unfortunately, this high caffeine intake and overstimulation will cause some negative effects that people don’t always realize.

For instance, when overstimulated, your mental and physical performance can take a nosedive.

Many of us have experienced drinking multiple cups of coffee to energize our workouts, only to end up feeling jittery and unfocused. While a little caffeine can provide a boost, excessive stimulants can hurt your progress and results.

Research indicates that too much caffeine can increase your heart rate and delay recovery time.

In this article, we’ll dive deeper into why a high caffeine intake and overstimulation can move you further away from your goals, leaving you frustrated, confused, anxious, and jittery.

Disclaimer: This article is for informational purposes only and is not meant to treat or diagnose any condition. It is recommended that you speak with your doctor before starting any exercise program, changing your daily nutrition, or adding any supplements to your regimen.

What is Overstimulation?

Overstimulation hits when our senses get too much input. High caffeine intake often causes this state, making your body and mind work overtime.

You can look at overstimulation as being similar to sensory overload, where your body gets too much input. High caffeine intake is a major cause of this issue.

You may feel jittery and anxious when you become overstimulated by consuming high-caffeine beverages. While the beverage of choice these days is coffee or energy drinks, you also have to throw pre-workouts into the mix.

RELATED: The Hidden Side of Stimulants — Coping with Caffeine Withdrawal

Overstimulation causes your heart to beat faster, and you’re unable to relax.

This hurts your workouts and how well you can recover.

Caffeine is a strong drug. Sure, it wakes us up, but it can also do harm if we use too much. More than 1,000mg a day often leads to issues. It can mess up your sleep cycles, recovery, and make you feel stressed.

For athletes, this means slower healing after exercise and less focus during training.

Effects of Overstimulation on Performance

Too much caffeine can mess up your workout. It keeps your heart racing and makes it hard to recover after training. Let’s dive a little deeper into the effects.

1. Heart Rate Doesn’t Come Back Down

When you’re overstimulated from high caffeine intake, your heart rate will increase. Unfortunately, this overstimulation causes your heart rate to remain high even after you’re done with your training session. This isn’t good.

High heart rates for long periods can hurt your training. You won’t be able to recover as quickly between sets since your heart rate and respiration will stay elevated, and your body will remain in a stressed state. What this means is you’ll be unable to perform at an optimal level, limiting your results.

If you’re overstimulated in the evening, it can lead to poor sleep and more anxiety. Over time, it might even cause health issues.

2. Hurts Post-Workout Recovery

High caffeine intake can slow down your post-workout recovery. Your muscles need time to heal after brutal workouts. Too much caffeine keeps your heart rate elevated and limits your ability to recover properly.

This ultimately makes it harder for your muscles to repair and grow. Also, you might feel sore and tired the next day. Your body can’t bounce back as fast when you’re overstimulated.

Caffeine also affects how you perceive pain after exercise. It can mask soreness for up to two days following an intense training session. What this means is that you may go back to the gym and push yourself again before you’ve properly recovered from the previous training session. Ultimately, this can put you at risk of injury if you push your body before it fully recovers.

3. Anxiety and Stress

If you are someone who has a high caffeine intake, you probably feel anxious and stressed throughout the day, right? There’s a reason for that.

Consuming excessive caffeine each day can make you feel worried for no reason. It changes how your brain works and can make your body feel “scared” when there is no real threat or reason.

This happens because caffeine wakes up your whole body, including parts that control fear.

Your body isn’t meant to be on high alert all the time. A high caffeine intake keeps you in that state, though. It’s like your brain is always looking for danger. This makes it hard to focus on workouts or other tasks.

A lack of focus due to overstimulation can lead to poor workout performance, and you don’t want that.

In the gym, you may feel shaky, have a fast heartbeat, or sweat more than normal. These signs tell you that you’ve had too much caffeine and need to cut back.

4. Decreased Focus During Training

Piggybacking off something mentioned in the previous section is a lack of focus due to high caffeine intake. Too much caffeine can actually hurt your focus during workouts. While moderate caffeine can help you stay focused, overstimulation creates a negative effect.

Overstimulation causes your mind to get jumpy, and you may have issues staying on task. You might feel wired but can’t zero in on our form or reps — your brain and focus are all over the place. This makes your training session less effective.

RELATED: How to Properly Use Nootropics & Caffeine Throughout the Day

It has been shown that high-caffeine users don’t get the same boost from pre-workout drinks. Their bodies are used to the stimulant, so it doesn’t help, and in order to feel the same effects, they need to take an even higher dose (which isn’t good or healthy).

Overstimulation from high caffeine intake also messes with your concentration. It’s hard to count reps and sets or follow a routine when your thoughts are all over the place.

A lack of focus also means that you may rush through exercises without proper form. This scattered focus may lead to poor results and a higher risk of injury.

What Are the Signs of Overstimulation?

There are several signs that may indicate overstimulation due to high caffeine intake. Below are some of the main signs to be aware of.

1. Insomnia and Sleep Disturbances

A high caffeine intake can disrupt sleep, making it hard for you to fall and stay asleep, which hurts workout recovery and performance.

Since caffeine can stay in the body for up to 8 hours, it’s best to avoid it at least 8 hours before bed.

Excessive caffeine also leads to lighter sleep, preventing the deep rest needed for optimal training.

2. Frequent Jitteriness and Nervousness

Overstimulation due to too much caffeine, especially over 1,000 mg daily, can cause jitters, nervousness, shaky hands, a racing heart, and sweating, making it hard to focus or stay calm.

This can negatively impact workouts, leading to poor form and even injuries.

Caffeine-induced anxiety mimics regular anxiety, causing racing thoughts, stress, and trouble sleeping, which hurts workout recovery.

Managing Overstimulation

Managing overstimulation is crucial to peak performance. Let’s look at some ways that you can prevent overstimulation and support optimized performance in and out of the gym.

Lowering Caffeine Intake

We can boost our workouts by cutting back on caffeine. Let’s look at some ways to lower our intake:

1. Gradual reduction: Cut back slowly over 2-3 weeks. This helps avoid withdrawal symptoms like headaches.

2. Switch to decaf: Replace 1-2 cups of regular coffee with decaf each day. Decaf still has a tiny bit of caffeine.

3. Drink more water: Aim for at least 8 glasses per day. Water keeps you hydrated without the jitters.

4. Track intake: Keep a log of caffeine use. Seeing the numbers can help you cut back.

5. Limit pre-workout drinks: Using pre-workouts for their main purpose (using them before training) will provide you with the best results. Using it throughout the day to boost energy is not recommended (especially if you’re also going to use it before your training session).

A Solution to Prevent Overstimulation

Too much caffeine can hurt your workouts. You need to find balance. That being said, you don’t even need caffeine in order to get in a great training session. Evogen Nutrition EVP-3D is the ultimate stim-free pre-workout that provides insane muscle pumps, heightened mental focus, and roadmap vascularity.

The great thing about EVP-3D is that if you want to stack it with a pre-workout that contains stimulants, you can find the perfect combination you’re looking for.

Don’t get caught up in a high caffeine intake every day. Balance things out and leverage stimulants around the times of day you need the energy boost and focus (like your training sessions). Overstimulation is an unfortunate reality these days, but you can break free from the jitters if you follow what we’ve laid out in this article.

Resources
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5. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4668773/
6. https://www.sportsrd.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/Caffeine_and_Athletic_Performance_WEB.pdf
7. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6343867/
8. http://www.medparkhospital.com/en-US/lifestyles/caffeine
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10. https://www.sleepfoundation.org/nutrition/caffeine-and-sleep
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12. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S277259872200071X
13. https://health.clevelandclinic.org/sensory-overload