caffeine = muscle catabolism?

[Beast]

One of my friends saw me drinking a cup of coffee today and said that caffeine is bad for your muscles, especially when you're on creatine. I explained to him that I drink a lot of water, so it probably isn't bad. Is there any validity to his argument?

[BCC]

If it's that bad for them, then I probably shouldn't have any muscles.

[EdgeCrusher]

I read in a Men's Health (yeah, I read that crap sometimes) that it's actually OK before workouts because lifting is not aerobic so it might help you in your workouts.

But, Caffeine can block about 50% of the iron from your blood, so it's not a great if you're not taking proper vitamins.

[bradley]

I would space caffeine intake and creatine intake apart by a couple of hours and you should be fine. I have never heard of caffeine being detrimental to muscles or muscle growth.

[KievenRus]

I have coffee 4 times a day, all of them mixed with protein and the one prior my workout with creatine.

I must say it`s had a positive impact on me so far.

[powerhalf]

I don't have any real research to back this up, but something tells me that if caffeine had a detrimental effect on your muscles or thier growth, it wouldn't exist in ECA-type stack products.

[ElPietro]

Perhaps your friend just meant that caffeine being a diuretic can make creatine supplementation less effective if you aren't consuming added water to compensate for this loss.

I'm not sure if Iron would be a concern, we can get plenty through diet and it is only a trace mineral anyway. Maybe in women it could become a concern as they are much more suceptible to anemia. (sp?)