January 19, 2010

Alcohol vs. The Muscle Builder

Alcohol is one of those things that has long been a nemesis to muscle builders around the world.

We’ve all heard of the infamous “beer belly” and have seen what it does to people.

Ironically, people work so hard to get rid of that fat and get a six pack when it was a “six pack” that did it to them in the first place.

I’m writing this post because I had a run in with our old friend recently.

By no means am I a big drinker. I may go out for drinks less than 10 times a year and even then it’s usually a Heineken or Mojito.

But this past weekend was a different story as my fraternity had a party.

We don’t have frat parties in the house with beer pong, we rent out clubs and have tons of girls show up.

Free drinks for brothers, and well, you get the picture.

The next day (Monday) I went to the gym for my usual Monday workout. Monday’s are usually hard, but this one beat my behind.

I experienced first hand how unwise it is to drink before you workout.

Alcohol does number of things to your body that are counter productive to your muscle building efforts.

It lowers your testosterone level. We know that testosterone is one of the major hormones your body releases when repairing your muscles.

Alcohol disrupts your sleep cycle, further messing up the release of other hormones like Growth Hormone which is crucial to muscle repair as well.

Alcohol will dehydrate you. Having plenty of water in your muscles is very important to a successful workout since your muscles are made up mostly of water. It allows them to move smoothly which will prevent muscle strains, tears, and other injuries.

Alcohol decreases your energy levels because it is a depressant. I was so tired when I went in to the gym. High energy levels from food and proper rest are very important to a workout as well.

Alcohol is very good at making you fat because it has a lot of calories and it’s easily converted to fat. This will definitely put a damper on things.

These are just some of the things that alcohol can do to you to negatively effect your muscle building efforts. I’ll stay away from the bar the next time I know I have a hard workout coming up.

It comes down to knowing your goals and not doing anything to take you away from that.

What has been your experience with alcohol and building muscle?

Mitch

Bookmark It