Thomas Tuchel explained what the captain drinks when he’s not on the pitch
England captain Harry Kane has a well-documented favourite drink that surprised Thomas Tuchel when the striker joined his squad at Bayern Munich. Kane is known to drink ‘ridiculous’ amounts of cappuccino, with Tuchel revealing his shock at how much the captain gets through.
When Tuchel was asked what surprised him, about Kane when he joined Bayern Munich, the England manager said: “How many cappuccinos he drinks a day! It’s ridiculous. Every time I go into the kitchen, he is there on the coffee machine. It must be so good.
“I have started doing it. He looks healthy and in good shape.”
According to Eisa Edelstein at TransparentLabs: ” Coffee is one of the most widely studied performance compounds across sports nutrition, and for most athletes, caffeine works. Caffeine, the active compound in coffee, is classified as an ergogenic aid and can improve physical performance.
“About three-quarters of elite athletes report using it intentionally before a competition, which makes it a rare substance, alongside creatine and carbs, with real, consistent evidence for its effects. Admittedly, caffeine isn’t a golden ticket to optimal performance. The benefits are dose-dependent, timing makes a difference, and in some cases, caffeine can work against you. “
Elisa said c affeine ‘removes the signal in the body that tells you that your energy is running low’. It works by blocking adenose. Lisa said: “ The pituitary gland senses the spike in neural activity and signals the adrenal glands to release adrenaline (epinephrine), resulting in a rise in heart rate and a shift into a higher-output state.” She added: “ For athletes, this translates into better recruitment of fast-twitch muscle fibers and measurably higher power output.”
Caffeine also encourages your body to burn fat rather than deplete glycogen – which fuels your muscles, which ‘ means you can sustain harder efforts for longer before performance drops off’.
Dr Neil Clarke, Principal Lecturer, School of Life Sciences, Coventry University, said: ” There’s a wide variety of research to say that caffeine can improve endurance exercise such as running, cycling and rowing, as well as resistance exercise in the gym, and intermittent sports such as football and rugby.”
He told Coffee and Health: “ There is a lot of research to say that a moderate dose of caffeine, equivalent to around 3mg/kg body weight can improve a variety of sports such as endurance activities and high intensity sports. There is also evidence to show that caffeine can reduce muscle pain during exercise and reduce perceived exertion during exercise.”
And according to The International Society of Sports Nutrition: “Small to moderate benefits of caffeine use include, but are not limited to: muscular endurance, movement velocity and muscular strength, sprinting, jumping, and throwing performance, as well as a wide range of aerobic and anaerobic sport-specific actions.”