Ok, so after thoroughly reading that caffeine roundtable discussion this is what I came away with, and you may comment if you like:
Caffeine pre-workout increases epinephrine levels which will decrease insulin sensitivity by a whole lot, as well as decreasing glucose uptake by another whole lot (%25+ in both cases). But at the same time it provides free fatty acids for your muscles to eat up instead of glucose, and it gives you that mental focus and desire to push through the hard stuff during your training or study session or whatever.
So… this sort proves what we already knew about caffeine, it’s good for burning fat and keeping you sharp throughout your training.
And we know caffeine definitely increases epinephrine, which definitely has a negative impact on insulin sensitivity and glucose uptake.
And glucose uptake seems to be pretty important during this protocol, what with all the sugars we’re feeding our bodies before during and after with the peri-workout protocol…
And not to mention we are trying to “spike” insulin with this protocol, so we can uptake all the good muscle-building sugars and amino’s etc…
So, I would conclude that if gaining weight and getting big and strong was your goal, caffeine is counterproductive for this goal.
Might be good for “lean gains” though, as it would burn fat etc. during exercise.
But I would like to see/experiment with workouts with and without caffeine over some period of 4 weeks or something, maybe same individual 4 on 4 off, or 4 off 4 on. That would be an interesting study, because what effect would the “high” you get from caffeine have on your poundages? Maybe your growing more off of it, but progressing more slowly on the weights cause your not as “in to it”… I don’t know.
Anyways, got these crazy ideas from that link Davinci posted: Strength Training, Bodybuilding & Online Supplement Store - T NATION