If there's one thing that's certain after entering the new year – it's that everyone wants to start off the year with their best foot forward. For a lot of people, this means incorporating an exercise into their daily routine. Maybe it’s a brisk walk as the sun comes up, or maybe it’s a full-blown run or heart-pounding bike ride. It’s winter now, which means things have cooled off and it’s a great time to get some morning exercise.
Before you stumble out into the half-darkness, you’re going to want some coffee. According to medical studies, that’s a very good thing.
Get quick, fast
If you’re heading out the door in a hurry, coffee can get you awake and alert within 10 minutes of your first sip. Caffeine is a fast-acting stimulant, and has long been used to improve awareness and reaction time — just the thing you need as you’re dodging traffic on your morning jog.
Feel the burn
The caffeine found in coffee is one of the few chemicals that can actually boost your metabolism and release fat into the bloodstream. So when you’re taking your morning exercise, you’re getting an extra boost of tummy trimming — assuming you took it easy on the cream and sugar.
Go longer
When caffeine triggers the body to release fat and burn it as fuel, it leaves glycogen — the body’s main source of energy — in reserve. That means that if you put coffee in your bloodstream early in the workout, you’ll still have some gas in the tank at the end.
Don’t worry about dehydration
It’s a common myth that caffeine is a diuretic, but in normal quantities, your body treats coffee like any other liquid. In other words, your morning cup is as hydrating as the stuff in your water bottle — so drink some joe before you go!
All of these benefits are real — and you don’t even have to be exercising. Coffee provides hydration, alertness, and metabolism boosts whether you’re training for a marathon, or just rushing out the door to catch a train.