Why Alcoholism and Bodybuilding Shouldn’t Mix?

By Staff Report
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Updated: March 28, 2019

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If you care enough to go through this article, then it must be because you love training, eating healthy and staying fit in general. But then, that doesn’t mean you don’t indulge in a few alcoholic drinks from time to time. It could be with friends or by yourself. After all, it feels good to have some fun after all the hard work you have been putting in all day long, right? But then, have you taken time to consider what effects those alcohol drinks could have on your training and bodybuilding to be precise? If not, then here is why alcoholism and bodybuilding shouldn’t mix. Keep scrolling!

1. Your Energy Levels

When you drink way too much alcohol, then you’re probably going to wake up with a hangover. And when that happens, you won’t have enough strength and energy to go through with your workout regime. This is because the components of alcohol lower the amount of glycogen in your body. So you will be typically boosting the absorption of alcohol than that of glycogen and that means you get to feel tired pretty fast.

2. More Dehydration

There is a reason as to why you are always advised to walk around with your water bottle; hydration! Your body needs sufficient water to function properly, especially during workouts as you’re expected to sweat a lot. But that’s something that alcohol takes away from you. It literally milks-dry your system, leaving you more thirsty than ever. And because of this, your muscles take longer to recover and you might suffer from heat stroke.

So if you want to achieve tangible results, then it’s better to quit alcohol once and for all. But if you decide to do so (which you should), then let an expert help you through the appropriate quitting process lest you suffer from the dry drunk syndrome. The syndrome makes you feel overloaded as if you are white-knuckling through life without your drink of choice. And there are many negative side effects that come with it like hot temper, sadness, etc.

3. Decreasing The Levels Of Human Growth Hormone

Your body’s pituitary gland is responsible for the production of the Human Growth Hormone(HGH), that’s responsible for the growth of muscles. And this is a very important aspect of bodybuilding. When you consume too much alcohol, it interferes with the level of production and your muscles might suffer from growth stagnation. It’s the last thing you would ever wish for yourself, especially when you have been investing so many resources to achieve your goals.

4. It Messes With Your Judgement And Coordination

It even gets worse when you decide to take a little booze before your exercising sessions. You will not only lose your focus; but also risk making wrong decisions and movements. This will go as far as frustrating the efforts of your gym instructor or personal trainer.

From the above points, we hope it’s now clear as to why you shouldn’t mix alcoholism with your bodybuilding exercises. It will be a total waste of resources and you wouldn’t even have enough energy to meet your goals. So it’s always better to quit and focus all your energy on delivering results.