Alcohol and training: what is the best drink

Geschatte leestijd: 8 minuten As a dedicated athlete, you want to achieve maximum results and tailor your nutrition, training, and recovery entirely to your goals. When you occasionally want to relax, there is a good chance you will come into contact with alcohol. What positive and negative effects does consuming alcohol have on rest days? And if you are tempted to consume alcoholic beverages, what choices do you have, and what are the least harmful alcoholic drinks?

Disadvantages of alcohol

Let’s start with the disadvantages of alcohol. In the article Briefly stated: When it comes to muscles, alcohol sucks! And it does so in various ways.

Alcohol inhibits muscle recovery

Researchers from the New Zealand Massey University studied the effects of alcohol after intensive training. They had participants, averaging 23 years old, do three sets of one hundred repetitions on a leg extension machine. Negative eccentric training was performed. This means that they trained with a weight too heavy to lift alone and needed assistance to lift it, and on the way back, the negative part, as much resistance as possible had to be provided. They gave the participants 80 grams of alcohol in the form of vodka. This is equivalent to about 8 glasses of beer or wine. The control group received orange juice. After the training, the researchers looked at the difference in maximum strength before and after the training at three different times. In this way, they wanted to determine whether there was a difference in muscle recovery with or without alcohol use. That difference was clear. At the three times after training, the maximum strength of the group that drank orange juice decreased by 12, 28, and 19 percent. In the group that drank vodka, this difference was much greater, namely 34, 40, and 34 percent. Various causes were cited for this difference. Muscle growth is muscle recovery. The longer it takes for your muscles to recover, the longer it takes for them to grow, but also the longer it takes for you to train them again.

Alcohol inhibits muscle anabolic action

One of the reasons that recovery is inhibited has to do with the way the body provides energy to and grows muscle cells. This has to do with a process called phosphorylation. This is the attachment of phosphate groups to molecules in the muscle cell, giving them more energy, making them more active, and promoting growth. Protein synthesis, the production of protein from amino acids, also depends on this process. Phosphorylation is therefore necessary for growth. Research by American researchers from the Pennsylvania State University College of Medicine has shown that the action of signaling molecules that stimulate this process is inhibited by alcohol.

Alcohol lowers testosterone

The anabolic-androgenic hormone testosterone plays a crucial role in building muscle mass. The lowering effect of alcohol on testosterone has been demonstrated in several studies. Researchers from TNO in Zeist showed a decrease in testosterone in men after “moderate use.” I say “moderate” in quotes because this depends on your definition. The quantities used for their study were above the often stated definitions of moderate use. They had men drink 40 grams and women 30 grams of alcohol per day. That’s respectively 4 and 3 glasses of beer or wine per day, while most relevant authorities consider half of this as moderate. In any case, their research showed that with 4 glasses per day, testosterone in men decreased by almost 7%. If you really drank moderately, then the effect seems less to me if the decrease in testosterone would be twice as small. Alcohol use had no effect on testosterone for women. Looking at clearly excessive use, the numbers are much clearer. Researchers from the University of Granada found this when they examined people brought to the emergency room “showing clear signs of drunkenness,” likely meaning they crawled in swimming in their own vomit or were carried in. That’s more than moderate use and it’s reflected in the effect on testosterone. Remarkably, the opposite happens in women. Whereas in the TNO study, “moderate” use in women did nothing for testosterone, this study shows that at high levels in women, testosterone increases. Another interesting point is the difference in the influence of alcohol on testosterone between young and older men. The older you get, the greater the influence. In young adults, testosterone decreased by about 25%, while for older men, it decreased by almost 50%.

Alcohol increases cortisol

In the first part of this series on the influence of weed on muscle growth, I already discussed the stress hormone cortisol. Whereas testosterone acts anabolically, that is, tissue-building, cortisol acts catabolically, breaking down proteins from muscle cells in favor of energy. It has been shown in several studies that not only do cortisol levels rise immediately after alcohol intake, but they are structurally higher in alcoholics. Researchers at McGill University in Montreal suspected that this is due to (influence on) the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis, which is responsible for cortisol production. The good news is that elevated cortisol decreases after prolonged use when drinking stops, although it initially rises further. This is probably due to the stress caused by withdrawal symptoms. Also in the aforementioned study from the University of Granada, cortisol was found to increase in heavily intoxicated participants. Whereas there is a difference between men and women for testosterone, for cortisol, both significantly increase under the influence of alcohol.

Alcohol dehydrates

Muscles need moisture to grow. Almost everyone who has ever had a hangover and wondered how to prevent it knows that alcohol dehydrates. Dehydration is one of the four known causes of a hangover. Researchers at the University Medical School, Foresterhill in Aberdeen had subjects exercise, looked at how much fluid they had lost by looking at the difference in body mass, and then had them ingest 150% of this in fluid. The test group drank an alcoholic beverage (with varying alcohol content) and the control group drank non-alcoholic beverages. They found, among other things, that the diuretic effect (the change in the amount you need to urinate) of alcohol was very low at alcohol percentages below 2%, but was certainly significant at 4%. In 1986, French researcher Montastruc concluded that drinking 50 grams of alcohol dissolved in 250 ml of water (about 4 to 5 beers) in the hours afterwards can result in 600 to over 1000 ml of fluid loss. Drink a quarter liter and you’ll lose over half to a full liter of fluid. In summary, alcohol can have the following disadvantages for you as an athlete:

• Alcohol inhibits and limits the anabolic processes that lead to muscle growth
• Alcohol lowers your testosterone levels, which can result in less muscle mass being built
• Alcohol increases cortisol levels and thereby promotes muscle breakdown
• Alcohol inhibits muscle recovery
• Alcohol dehydrates the body

In addition to these disadvantages, alcohol also has a number of other disadvantages, including:

• Reduced reaction time
• Decreasing hand-eye coordination
• Poorer balance
• Decreasing endurance
• Decrease in strength
• Damage to brain cells
• Decreasing Vitamin B levels

Finally, excessive alcohol consumption, with the above disadvantages, is not the only thing that can negatively impact your results. The meals after a night out and the next morning can also play a negative role in this. A night out often ends with a calorie-rich meal, and the next morning often includes breakfasts with high fat content. When the concentration of alcohol becomes too high, important organs such as the stomach, liver, and brain can suffer permanent damage.

Benefits of alcohol

In addition to the many disadvantages of alcohol, there are also a number of modest benefits. Alcohol can contribute to an overall feeling of relaxation, which should be fine every now and then and with moderate alcohol consumption. Alcohol thins the blood, resulting in better blood circulation. As a result, moderate drinkers are at lower risk of a heart attack, unlike heavy drinkers and complete abstainers.

Do you get fat from alcohol

As you can read, there are many disadvantages when it comes to alcohol and muscle growth. Note that you can actually drink alcohol and achieve results in the gym, but it’s not optimal. Especially when you realize that alcoholic drinks often provide you with extra calories. Alcohol itself provides 7 kcal per gram, which is more than the macronutrients carbohydrates and proteins, which in turn provide 4 kcal per gram. Only fats provide more kcal than alcohol, namely 9 kcal per gram. The extra calories you get from alcohol can lead to an earlier positive energy balance. This will eventually lead to weight gain. So the chances are that you will get fat from alcohol. Below you will find the number of calories per drink:

• beer 115 kcal per glass
• red wine 123 kcal per glass of 150 ml
• white wine 102 kcal per glass of 150 ml
• rosé 105 kcal per glass of 150 ml
• champagne 58 kcal per glass of 85 ml
• vodka 87 kcal per glass of 35 ml
• whiskey 45 kca

What is the best drink?

Based on the above list, you can make a decision about which alcoholic beverage you want to choose. Red wine is often recommended as the least bad alcoholic beverage, but based on the number of calories, it turns out to be something else. If you drink for enjoyment, then have that glass of red wine and enjoy it. Red wine also contains flavonoids from grape skins. These flavonoids contain antioxidants that contribute to protecting LDL cholesterol from attacks by free radicals. That’s why you often hear that drinking 1 to 2 glasses of red wine a day can reduce the risk of heart disease.

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