A new study says coffee can make exercise less torturous.

Another good reason to drink coffee in your activewear. (Image: Van Vuren Bros/Youtube)

If there’s one thing I love, it’s coffee. And if there’s one thing I don’t love but have to do, it’s exercise.

Now, in what is probably the most glorious news I’ve ever heard, combining them will apparently make my workout way, way easier.

This is not a drill.

In a recent study by the University of Kent, published in Sports Medicine Journal, researchers found caffeine not only reduces your perception of effort during a workout, but it improves your actual physical performance.

Even if you have a relatively low dose of caffeine before you hit the gym, the study findings indicated it can actually make your workout feel easier, to the point where you might even enjoy it.

Yep, having a coffee pre-workout can actually make you feel more pleasure when you’re midway though that unbearable lunge set.

Watch: Will coffee also help you hold a yoga pose longer? Hope so. Here’s a routine to try, from Paper Tiger. (Post continues after video.)

According to the report, the caffeine’s beneficial effect on effort levels occurs because of changes in the motor-related part of our brain during physical activity. Look, I might have failed science at school, but this is some scientific news I am keenly interested in.

On top of that, drinking a cup of coffee before you exercise can also reduce any muscle pain you might experience during and after the session. Plus, you’ll be left with more energy after exercise.

In fact, the benefits of consuming caffeine before or during exercise are so widely recommended that three out of four elite athletes are on board. (Post continues after gallery.)

So… having a cup of coffee before working out increases your performance and energy, reduces your muscle pain, and leaves you with more energy after exercising. Come on! As if we needed another excuse to drink more of it.

However, there is one teeny, tiny catch.

The researchers noted that studies so far have only explored the effects of caffeine on people who are already physically active. In other words, more research is required to see if the same effects present in people who don’t exercise and to determine whether caffeine can actually change physical activity behaviour.

What do you do to make your workout easier?