What Impact Does Alcohol Have on Your Exercise Results?

The Impacts of Alcohol on your exercise results

Your workout is done, you have sweat dripping off every inch of your body, and you feel mighty pleased with your effort.

You deserve a treat, right? A well-deserved reward for achieving your exercise goal for the day. An icy cold shower beer, a refreshing glass of wine, or even a nice smooth scotch. Or maybe you plan to head to the pub with your mates for a celebratory lunch or dinner.

We hate to be the bearers of bad news but before you crack open that coldie, here are six reasons why drinking alcohol after exercise is not such a good idea.

1. When you exercise, small tears occur in your muscles. This is a good thing because those muscles will repair and grow back stronger. Alcohol can slow down this repair process, or even prevent it from happening, meaning your strength training may not improve your strength at all
2. Having alcohol in your system may decrease the levels of human growth hormone your body produces, which will also prevent your body from building muscle
3. Alcohol is treated as a toxin by your body. Your system will prioritise the metabolisation of the alcohol and put muscle-building and fat-burning on pause until this is done. All the effort you put into your workout may be for zero effect if you drink alcohol too soon afterwards
4. If your goal is to lose weight, remember that one alcoholic beverage often contains as many calories as an average-sized meal, without any nutritional benefits. You may also make less-than-ideal food choices while under the influence of alcohol
5. The quality of your sleep may be negatively impacted if you have alcohol in your system. We have previously talked about how a lack of quality sleep can undermine any progress you make towards your health and fitness goals
6. While it might seem like a good thing to replenish your fluids with an alcoholic beverage after exercise, alcohol is a diuretic. It will increase fluid loss and put you at greater risk of dehydration, which means your workout will be less effective than it could be.

Ideally, it is recommended that you wait six hours after exercise before consuming alcohol. If you are planning a boozy lunch or dinner, it pays to plan ahead and schedule an early exercise session, so your body has plenty of time to recover before you start drinking. At an absolute minimum, you should wait at least one hour before drinking anything alcoholic after your workout.

At BeFit Hire we genuinely care about your health and fitness. Every single piece of BeFit Hire equipment is tested, cleaned and disinfected prior to delivery. We also have contactless delivery available if you are in voluntary or medically directed self-isolation or quarantine.

BeFit Hire has been hiring out home exercise equipment for more than 50 years. As a family business we pride ourselves on offering only the highest standard of service to every customer. We offer free delivery to most of metro Adelaide and Melbourne for most hire periods, and our expert agents are ready to advise the best type of home fitness equipment to help you achieve your individual fitness goals. Please get in touch today.

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