My relationship with caffeine is very much like one you might share with an inappropriate love interest. A short-term boost that ultimately ends in a crash, leaving me drained and slightly irritable.

Needs must though, and whether it’s my morning coffee to see me through my work, the pre-workout I down before hitting the gym or the coffee-blended protein shake I have afterwards, it’s fair to say that caffeine is an integral part of my life. Turns out, maybe not so much for my overall health, though.

After wearing my smartwatch for a few days, I came to learn that my resting heart rate tends to sit at around 55bpm (a typical resting heart rate can be anywhere between 60-100bpm). As a higher resting heart rate can be a sign of stress, I decided to test out how my pre-workout drink impacts me. Pre-workout is essentially a blend of caffeine, creatine and B vitamins that you mix with water and drink before a big session at the gym so that you have more energy and focus and can perform better.

As I sat in the changing room after drinking my neon green concoction and felt the familiar tingling sensation on my skin I decided to run an EDA (electrodermal activity) scan, using my on-wrist app.

The scan works by asking you to place your palm on the face of the watch and breathe for a ‘quick scan’ of two minutes as it picks up any EDA responses in your skin. Sure enough, my scan showed 12 EDA responses while the heart rate on my smartwatch screen jumped up by 20bpm, as opposed to my lowered heart rate and 0 EDA responses when I did a scan before bed on a previous night when I was winding down.

Considering I was simply chilling in the changing room at that point versus smashing the treadmill, it was pretty shocking to see just how much my body was responding to the caffeine in my pre-workout.

With caffeine potentially playing a role in how my body responds to stress, I’ll reluctantly try to limit my pre-workout intake to one session a week or a really busy morning to keep my overall health in check.

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