Next 2pm hits and your energy levels start freefalling, don’t reach for coffee or a soft drink. For a more powerful energy boost, swap caffeine for a short burst of exercise.
A new study from the University of Georgia suggests walking up and down stairs for 10 minutes is as energising as 50ml of caffeine — about the amount in a can of soft drink, and slightly less than in a cup of coffee.
“With exercise [study participants] did feel more energetic and vigorous. It was a temporary feeling, felt immediately after the exercise, but with the 50mg of caffeine, we didn't get as big an effect,” said Patrick J. O'Connor, a kinesiology professor who co-authored the study, in a statement.
While O’Connor says more research is needed to explore the effect, he said the study points towards a practical solution for office workers to boost their flagging energy levels.
“A lot of people working in office buildings have access to stairs, so it's an option to keep some fitness while taking a short break from work," he said. "You may not have time to go for a swim, but you might have 10 minutes to walk up and down the stairs."
How to have more energy
It seems logical that physical activity should make you more fatigued, but studies have long indicated it’s the other way around. Anyone who’s loafed in a chair all day — either at work, on a plane, or on the couch for an extended Netflix session — knows how draining it can be.
According to Dr Libby Weaver, author of The Energy Guide, that’s because lengthy periods of sitting have been shown to mess around with how your body sources its energy.
“It was work that originally began at NASA. They were looking at the degradation of muscle mass in astronauts when there's no gravity,” she explains to Coach. “It led to a whole stream of research on sitting for long periods of time and the effect on humans on Earth.”
Dr Joan Vernikos, former director of NASA’s Life Sciences Division, determined that production of an enzyme called lipoprotein lipase decreases in your body when you’re inactive and increases when you’re active.
That matters because lipoprotein lipase regulates how your body uses fat as fuel, which provides us with more consistent energy levels.
“Because of the decrease in this enzyme, sitting for long periods of time leads us to feel fatigued because we lose the ability to use body fat as a fuel,” Weaver says.
The drop in lipoprotein lipase can be counteracted by working against gravity — which is why simply standing up from your chair can boost your energy levels during those long afternoons at work.