Green tea is a refreshing beverage with many benefits for your body. It is made of the Camellia sinensis plant. Green tea is the second most consumed drink in the world, after water.
Green tea has many advantages for athletes, especially for long-distance runners.
When you drink green tea, your muscle cells get new energy. It is a highly complex process in which green tea helps you enhance your athletic performance by improving metabolic flexibility and generating energy. So by improving metabolic flexibility, your body can derive more energy from fat than from carbohydrates.
Green tea is fantastic for your bones, better than milk. It could help slow the process of age-related bone loss and decrease the risk of fractures caused by osteoporosis, which is very common in athletes.
According to Harvard Medical School, regularly drinking green tea could help lower your risk of heart disease. In a Japanese study, regular tea drinkers showed a 26 percent lower risk of dying from a heart attack or stroke, so drink up if you’re after a healthy heart.(1)
Green tea is exceptionally rich in flavonoids, increasing your heart health and lowering your blood pressure. Also, it boosts your immune system, mental alertness, and weight loss and has an anti-inflammatory effect. These beneficial effects are proven both in green tea as well as in its supplemental form.
Is It OK to Drink Green Tea Before Running?
One of the best drinks to have before your running or workout is green tea. Every runner needs an energy boost, and green tea is an excellent energy boost with zero calories. One eight-ounce cup of green tea contains 24 to 45 mg of caffeine versus the 100 to 200 mg of caffeine in a mug of coffee. Green tea offers a boost of energy with a lower risk of headaches and nausea with caffeine overload. And that shake of caffeine can boost exercise endurance, according to a study published in the American Journal of Physiology. So do not hesitate to have your cup of green tea before your daily workout.(2)
Green tea or extract of green tea is very beneficial to athletes, whether it is about enhancing performance or the recovery process. It is well-known that workouts or just running produce oxidative stress and damage body cells. Antioxidants in green tea, such as catechins, have the ability to decrease cellular damage and also can postpone muscle fatigue.
It will be helpful to target weight loss because green tea has proven to be a good fat burner. Green tea flavonoid content also acts as a good antioxidant and vasodilator.
It promotes oxygen supply to all cells, tissues, and muscles. Green tea provides you with an additional boost of energy and stamina. It also regulates the metabolism and storage of fats and carbohydrates.(3)
Recipe for Green Tea that will Boost your Metabolism
Put in a tea kettle a cup of water with one cardamom seed. When it boils, put a teaspoon of cinnamon and a tea bag of green tea. Mix it well and add a teaspoon of honey. Little lemon lemon juice should be added for the taste.
Your green tea booster is ready.
Is Green Tea Good After Running?
Consuming green tea after running might be very beneficial for your health. Green tea is excellent after, just as much as before running.
When you finish your workout or run, you will be exhausted. A cup of green tea will boost your lost energy almost instantly!
At the same time, it will stimulate your metabolism to burn calories faster and more effectively. A fast and strong metabolism is essential for your health, so by drinking green tea, you are doing a big favor to yourself.
Including green tea in your everyday diet is a great idea, especially after a workout. Green tea helps produce norepinephrine, a hormone that signals your brain to tell fat cells that this is the time to get burnt.
Unsweetened green tea is calorie-free. After a run, you have already lost some amount of calories. But you continue to lose more by drinking green tea after your run. Also, it helps to rebuild your stamina without adding calories.
One of the many benefits of drinking green tea is controlling your sugar level. So when you finish with your workout or a run, your power is drained. It would help if you had something to level up your energy. If you have problems with your high blood sugar, you can’t have too much glucose to keep the balance in your body. Drinking green tea allows keeping stable your energy and sugar level.
Green tea has a relaxing effect. After running, your heartbeat increases. A cup of green tea can calm you down. You will feel much better.
Also, keeping yourself hydrated after an intense workout or run is vital. There are great chances of getting dehydrated faster after that, but by having green tea, you will prevent dehydration.
Recipe for Refreshing with Green Tea and Watermelon
Put a cup of prepared green tea, a few drops of fresh lemon juice, and a slice of watermelon in a blender. Add some ice cubes.
This refreshing drink will revive you in a moment!
Which Type of Green Tea is Best for Runners?
There are many types of green tea. They originate from China, Japan, and Korea. Various kinds of green tea from the same Camellia sinensis plant. Each kind of green tea is grown in a different area, with different horticultural methods. Furthermore, each type of green tea has a distinctive manner of processing and time of harvest.
The best type of green tea for runners is matcha green tea.
The apparent difference from other tea is that matcha green tea does not come in tea leaves but is finely powdered.
You can combine matcha tea with smoothies, juices, chocolates, and ice creams.
Why is Matcha Tea the Best Green Tea for Runners?
Matcha tea is produced using steamed tea leaves.
With steaming, all-natural nutrition is preserved.
The steaming process of preservation makes matcha tea rich in antioxidants, which are vital for athletes.
One of the many antioxidants in matcha tea is catechin, especially the type named EGC, which is powerful against free radicals. These antioxidants are vital for runners’ health because their bodies are more exposed to free radicals.
ESG has a unique potential to stop fat cell growth. According to a 2005 study published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, people who regularly drank green tea high in catechins lost almost twice as much weight as people who didn’t throughout 12 weeks. It has been confirmed that drinking green tea accelerates thermogenesis, which describes the body’s calorie-burning rate.(4)
Matcha green tea contains two powerful energy boosters. One of them is ECG catechins, and the other is L-theanine.
L-theanine is found in matcha caffeine and is delivered much more subtly to the runners’ body than caffeine from the coffee itself.
This unique amino acid, L-theanine, releases much more gradually.
L-theanine in matcha tea delivers runners’ body calm but stimulative energy boost, which is much different from an instant energy boost from coffee.
And besides all the amazing advantages catechins provide in matcha tea, there is another significant benefit to mention.
They don’t only improve performance and prevent disease but also speed up the body’s recovery from strenuous exercise. Catechins achieve this by accelerating the body’s capacity to replenish glycogen stores consumed during endurance activities. By activating fat-burning, they also aid in reducing the production of lactic acid, a byproduct of using glucose as an energy source. Runners naturally want as little lactic acid as possible because it causes the body to feel sluggish and sore the day after a workout. And most important, matcha’s catechins support the immune system’s ability to combat inflammation brought on by exercise’s oxidative stress.
Oxidative stress can harm DNA, proteins, and cells. That’s why it is crucial to avoid it.
Below, you will see a comparison table with the nutritional values of green tea bag(2g) versus matcha tea(serving is 1g). You will notice that matcha tea has significantly more nutrition than regular green tea.
Recipes with Matcha Tea for Runners
Matcha tea comes in powder, meaning you can consume it in many different ways.
Here are a few simple recipes for how to mix matcha tea with some ingredients and make an excellent tea, smoothies, drinks, or snack.
It is important to mention that you should never combine matcha with milk.
You can combine it with almond, coconut, or soya, but never animal milk.
-Matcha with Banana and Coconut Milk
Take one teaspoon matcha, one banana, and a cup of coconut milk.
Add a few ice cubes and mix them in a blender.
You will get a great energy booster which is also very tasty and an excellent smoothie for pre-workout.
It will raise your performance to a higher level.
Enjoy!
-Matcha and Chia Pudding
Take a cup of almond milk and whisk it with one tablespoon of matcha and two tablespoons of Chia seeds. You can add one teaspoon of honey.
Put it in a freezer for two hours. You can add a few berries to lift the taste.
Voila! The breakfast for the champions is ready.
-Matcha with Coconut Water Latte
Mix one tablespoon matcha with two cups of coconut water in a blender. Add a few ice cubes. Mix it well, and your refreshing drink is ready in no time!
-Matcha energy balls
You can easily make these energy balls if you prefer something solid before liquid.
They are delicious and will truly boost your energy to the roof!
You need a few dates or Medjool dates, raw almonds, unsweetened cocoa powder, unsweetened almond milk, and matcha powder.
Put all ingredients in a blender or food processor, and mix them until they form into one sticky ball.
Divide the mixture into smaller balls, and dust them with more matcha powder.
You will get instant energy that will last.
