'What happened when I replaced coffee with short bursts of exercise'

SICK of standing in line to pay $4 for your daily (or hourly) fix? One guy kicked his coffee habit and replaced it with something rather unexpected. The results: amazing.

Ready, set, go ... and keep going until you're well past the coff...

RECKON you can't get your brain ticking until you've had your morning cup of Joe?

Well, you're a coffee addict. Welcome to the club.

While we're in no position to judge, we must ask: Have you ever considered answering your coffee cravings with something a little more wholesome?

A guy called Gregory Ferenstein did, and he's done a little homemade experiment to test which is better for his productivity - coffee or exercise.

According to a post on The Daily Beast, Ferenstein replaced his regular trips to the barista with short bursts of intense exercise.

"Whenever I need a pick-me-up, I find a quiet corner and perform some form of body-weight exercise that jolts my heart up to at last 70 per cent of the maximal beats per minute (for me, that's about 170)," he writes.

He favours a set of 20 burpees (ugh, the worst) or 40 mountain climbers.

But what good is it doing him?

He's been using the brain-training experiments at Quantified Mind to test his reaction time and short-term memory after the bursts of exercise, compared with caffeine.

Overall, his mental performance was 12 per cent better after a mini workout than on a coffee high.

He quotes some science to support his regimen, but acknowledges that it won't work for everyone. And he even says his short-term memory was stronger after coffee than exercise.

Plus ... sweaty work clothes. Gross.

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