Mark Ottobre says coffee's cortisol spike is tiny compared to what hard resistance training does to your hormones. Sleep and nutrition balance cortisol naturally. Coffee sharpens focus and boosts performance, so ignore influencers who say it ruins your gains.
This is a cup of coffee. Every time you drink it, it spikes your cortisol. And high cortisol destroys muscle, stores fat, and wrecks your hormones. And that's pretty— yep, alarming. But when you do a hard set of squats, your cortisol spikes higher than a cup of coffee. And when you do a full hypertrophy workout, your cortisol spikes even higher than that, because it's literally what hard training does. Cortisol breaks tissue down. Sleep and food and recovery builds it back up. In an evidence-based fitness community, coffee is what we call a non-issue. It's a tool that sharpens focus. Improves performance and helps you train harder. So the next time a fitness influencer tells you coffee is ruining your hormones, listen to them, smile, drink your coffee, and then go lift something heavy because you know better. Have a nice day.
