Hey T-guys. I was just wondering how beer effects your training. Im not a huge drinker but i like to drink now and then. I know it has high calories, but what does the alchol actualy do to the muscles, and how does it effect the recovery, say if you were to stop off at a bar right after a workout and have a few?? Thanks guys
It can lower T-levels and interfere with REM sleep, which in turn affects recovery. A couple every once in a while are okay (worthless cals though) but avoid getting drunk.
In addition to lowering T levels it can also lower thyroid level which is double whammy - slower metabolism and extra empty calories. Also metabolizing alcohol is hard on your liver and BB requires a extra healthy liver. Just a guess on my part but put enough extra load on your liver with alcohol may impair protein synthesis as protein synthesis is related to liver function.
I really don’t think its a good idea …especially right after when the body is most need of good carbs and some protein. Although i doubt its anything big and assuming that you really aren’t being anal about nutrition, its no biggy. Just don’t be on a good diet to bulk up or lose and drinking cuaz that would kinda like wasting your time (my opninon). Your liver will worry about getting the toxin out first then worry about everything else…you get me …?.I myslef like a few …but when i am seriously on a bulk up diet i tend to chill with that until its over then i go have a few cold ones now and then…hope it helped bud…peace
Beer: Estrogenic compound ='s Lowered “T” Levels and “Man Breasts.” Also as Heb said, it taxes the liver which ='s depressed IGF-1 production; not good!
Why not just lay off the damn alcohol stuff anyway. It ain’t good for your liver, for you test level, for your IGF-1, for your thyroid plus it’s extra empty calories (lots of them!). The kicker is that a night out drinking with the boys or gals, erases all the work you did in your previous workout. My choice: to hell with the booze I want my low BF and my muscle mass.
i would say drinking is ok. i would recommend not using it as a post work out supplement, but hitting the bar scene on the weekends has been such a bad thing for me. i still make progress in respest to muscle and lowering bf%. My bf% went from 9,5 down th 8.3 from sept. to december and i still went out on ythe weekends. It all depends on how hard you train and yur diet otherwise.
Read an article saying wait 2-3 hours after wo is important(mens health article).
When I was in school for Exercise Physiology in one class there was talk of a study done on the effect of six beers on 1RM benching.
In the study the test subjects performed a 1RM, some individuals were then given six beers while the others rested 10 min and then repeated the 1RM. The group that drank the six beers were unable to repeat the 1RM for 72 hours! Since most studies are done w/college students I would assume that it did not make them falling down drunk.I believe that the initial inability to perform a 1RM after the beer was neural inhibition which probably lasted for up to 12 hours. I believe that at least part of inability to repeat the 1RM untill the 72 hr mark is the diuretic effect of alcohol which takes several days to truly recover from. Lets face it part of creatine’s benafit is a proper or suprrahydration of the cells which may make them more add stability to the surrounding cells to produce more force. Reduced hydration= reduces strength. Ditch the alcohol and use the Caffine/Ephedra jolt on weak bodypart days only or during fat loss. I never used diuretic substances during the season if my colege soccer games were within 3 days of each other because according to the bioelectrical hydration tests we did, i couldn’t rehydrate fast enough without becoming anal about my water/electrolytes.
I think it all depends on your goals. If you want to have a beer now and then without it ending up on your gut, then post workout would be the best time to do it, because the high glycemic carbs would be absorbed by the muscles and the alcohol would probably used as energy rather than getting stored as fat. But if your goal is to gain the maximum amount of muscle, then there obviously better ways to replenish your glycogen. For all the harm that alcohol supposedly does to your T levels, it is not a difference I noticed when I cut out alcohol completely versus when I drank a couple of beers a night. Of course, if I drank a 6-pack each night, I’m sure the results would have been bad.