Can booze undermine your fitness goals?

Have you been training during the week so you could drink more, guilt free, on the weekend? 

After having a bit of a chat with Brad Dwyer at Jetts Forest Glen, I realise those sneaky drinks cost me more than I thought. Here's the bottom line:

Sleep Quality

Even just a couple of drinks before bedtime can impact the quality of your sleep – although it may help you get to sleep initially, you’ll miss out on the deep REM cycles that are needed to feel rested. This can lead to skipping a workout or two altogether. 

Metabolism

No matter how well you may be managing your diet, when you drink alcohol, the liver prioritizes processing the ethanol. During this process, the metabolism of other energy sources is stopped or slowed and may be stored as fat.

Alcohol is also calorie dense. With one standard drink holding about 14 grams of alcohol, that’s 100 calories – and let’s all just remember a standard drink is about 100ml of wine, one nip of alcohol. Much smaller than my old home pours!

Performance

Moderate consumption of alcohol (1-2 standard drinks) may not affect your workout on a given day but once you hit 3-4 drinks things can change. Aerobic performance can be affected by up to 11.4%. And the liver is less efficient at producing glucose to fuel your workout, leaving you feeling fatigued.

Dehydration

Hydration helps circulate blood and oxygen to your muscles and regulate your blood pressure. Alcohol is a diuretic and unless you replenish fluids after drinking (or after exercising and before drinking) you can compound the dehydration and force your heart to work much harder during your workout.

Muscle Growth

Lifting heavy weights creates a tear in the muscle which can take 48 hours to heal – consistent weightlifting over time grows the muscle. Drinking beyond moderate levels (1-2 drinks) during the healing process can impair muscle growth.

 

Injury and Recovery

Drinking beyond a moderate level can impair the soft tissue recovery process meaning it takes longer to heal even minor injuries – this keeps you from performing at optimum levels during your workouts.

 

So how can you keep your drinking at a moderate level and not feel like you’re missing out?

Our guest blogger, Brad Dwyer from Jetts Forest Glen shared some tips with us.

 

Silly Season Checklist: How to not end up with a belly like Santa🎅🏼

Limit drinks to 3 standard drinks for males and 2 for females. Here are some tips to avoid going overboard

• Always have a drink in your hand. This will stop others from getting you another. We recommend our party pack mixed case - these babies look and taste like the real deal but with less than 1/4 of the sugar or calories.
• Follow every alcoholic drink with 2 glasses of water. This will slow you down & keep you going to the toilet with less chance to drink more alcohol.
• Drink slowly. Enjoy every sip.
• Here's a great bar cart for inspiration. Smug fits nicely amongst the usual bar accoutrements.

Get a workout in before eating the big lunch or dinner full of carbs.

• If you don’t get a workout in just do a few air squats. It may seem crazy in the moment but you’ll be smug AF with the results.

Keep portion sizes small 

• Try it, enjoy it, just don’t eat too much of it.

Get on the dance floor. 

• Move your body and have some fun

Go home before it gets messy.

• Often parties reach a peak then people try to keep them alive with extra indulgences.
• Get in have some fun, connect and get out.

Most importantly, enjoy yourself.. one or two days of indulgence isn't going to undo all your hard work. Enjoy being with friends and family for the first time in a few years.