Every athletic event has an optimal arousal level, ranging from stone cold in marksmanship to blind range in the conventional deadlift.
While speed-strength sports call for high excitability, endurance events lasting longer than 2min need the opposite. Elite distance runners do not like the “on” feeling before the start as this reduces their endurance. They prefer feeling a little low on energy because the name of their game is pacing the efforts over a long haul, not focusing them in one moment in time.
In a classic Soviet experiment mid and long distance runners who were given mild sedatives like valerian outraced the athletes who had taken placebos.
In another, caffeine underperformed the placebo, which means it reduced the performance.
Caffeine and other “uppers” jack up one’s adrenaline. This hormone increases the tissues’ demand for oxygen while simultaneously upregulating glycolysis. In other words, the athlete who chugged down an “energy drink” will be sucking wind long before the one who just said no.
The StrongFirst 5min swing and snatch events fall into the “mid distance” category and must be faced with cold detachment, not fiery rage.
