[Maria]

I think it depends on what kind of coffee you drink (instant, drip, percolated, expresso) etc. I only drink a half a cup of instant caffeinated coffee basically to avoid the h/a but not upset my GI tract and I don't find that it tightens up any musculature too much. Maybe when I was drinking a more heavily caffeinated dose of coffee and a bit to excess as to tensing up (for me as I believe we probably all have our individual levels of tolerance) I did tense up more around the shoulders especially/neck area.

I tried going back on a drip half cup of coffee recently and did Ok for about 2 days and then back to GI discomfort so back to instant. I guess I don't really like instant enough to drink more than the half cup so it works for me thus far.

I hate the caffeine withdrawal headache.. sometimes turns into a full blown migraine (my migraine med has caffeine in it). Anyway whatever seems to work for each of us individually sounds right.