Why should you not drink alcohol before working out?

How does alcohol affect an athlete’s body? What can happen in training if a person has had a little to drink?

Fitness trainer answers.

After work, a colleague invited you to celebrate his promotion, and you have an evening workout. The question arises, what to do – to delicately refuse your friend or to agree? Probably, the second option should be excluded, of course, if you do not want to reduce the effectiveness of training, even if you go to the gym the next day.

supervisor and master trainer of World Class gyms

My personal opinion about alcohol, both in sports and in everyday life, is that the less alcohol the better, but I don’t try to impose my point of view on others, including my clients. If suddenly a client comes to me for a training session after drinking alcohol (it has never happened in my memory), most likely our training session will simply be canceled. At the very least, it will be a stretching or joint mobility session, but definitely not a high intensity strength session, no matter how much they ask me to do it.

Why shouldn’t I drink alcohol before a workout?

Alcohol has a negative effect on the body, slows down metabolic and recovery processes and worsens physical performance. Roughly speaking, the body will spend all its resources not on adaptation to the load or recovery after training, but on excretion of alcohol residues.

The “stress hormone” will increase

Perhaps after drinking alcohol, some people feel a surge of strength and desire to work. But at the same time, cortisol – the stress hormone – rises. It is only useful in situations of short-term stress, such as during a competition. Cortisol mobilizes the body’s energy resources by breaking down fats into fatty acids. Accordingly, if your training is long enough, the hormone will continue to extract energy, but already from proteins, mainly from muscle tissue, which will lead to its reduction.

The body will become weaker

Scientists from the Institute of Nutrition and Health in New Zealand conducted the following study. Ten healthy men performed exercises on the quadriceps of their thighs. They then drank either a drink containing 1 gram of ethanol per kilogram of body weight (in the form of vodka and orange juice) or a soft drink. Performance was measured after 36 and 60 hours. Scientists found that those who drank alcohol had 45% weaker muscles after 36 hours.

The body will get “empty” calories, which it will then burn up

In first place in the number of calories are liqueurs. They have about 300 kcal per 100 g. In second place – vodka, cognac and whiskey, which have 240 kcal per 100 g of drink. In third place is semi-sweet champagne, which contains 120 kcal per 100 g. The lowest-calorie alcoholic beverage is light beer. Despite the fact that there are only 60 kcal in 100 g of the product, they can quickly turn into all 1200 kcal, because beer is usually drunk in large quantities.

All the calories we get from alcohol are empty. They contain no proteins, fats or carbohydrates. The body will throw all its energy into getting rid of these calories. Because of this, fat and carbohydrate reserves will remain in the body in the form of deposits in unwanted places.

In what cases is alcohol useful?

Elena: If we are talking about professional sports, then in many sports, including martial arts, alcohol will be considered as doping. Accordingly, if it is found in the athlete’s tests, sanctions will follow. In general, alcohol increases pain threshold, relaxes and calms, but only if consumed in small amounts. For example, you had a tense (amateur) sparring, the level of excitement is off the scale, here a small dose of alcohol will help relieve the tension.

It should be remembered – only a small amount of alcohol and not every day has a positive effect.

Combining sports and alcohol is everyone’s business. It is necessary at the beginning of the journey to make a choice, what is more important for you – a beautiful and healthy body or drinking alcoholic beverages in the company of friends.