Alcohol consumption and its effects on training

[BreezerD]

Obviously there are a plethora of studies on the subject, but Rip, what's your opinion on how detrimental (or beneficial?!) drinking is to training? Say if it's a few beers after training twice a week, or 8 beers on a Saturday night, how detrimental to training does it become once it becomes habitual?

[Jamie J. Skibicki]

alcohol reduces the effects of training. ANY alcohol. How much you drink depends on how big of a hit you are willing to take on your training.

I know several ruggers that drink heavily and are fit by most accounts.

[dsp]

alcohol just makes you fat, and you have to eat cleaner to compensate. i'd go for the 8 on saturday, one slosh fest is better than two moderately tipsy days. it's not like it eats your muscle like pac man eats balls

[Jamie J. Skibicki]

It does lower test. I think for training, getting drunk on Sat is better than 1-2 a day.

[Regin Smidur]

check it, yo

http://www.leangains.com/2010/07/tru...nd-muscle.html

[cpbellavia]

Dehydration. A lot of the exercise and drinking studies are on cardio or the test subjects are chronic drunks. There's studies both ways on the testosterone effects and studies about 1-2 drinks vs x drinks on weekends, etc.

Dehydration is the only reason not to drink that doesn't have conflicting evidence in the plethora of studies.

[Dragos]

Breezer,

why don't you test yourself that? Don't drink for one week and see how this affects your workouts. Listen to your body

[vikvik20]

I only drink on Friday or Saturday so that I'm good to go by Monday. i know booze isn't optimal for gains, but you gotta have some fun. What i do now to moderate is I drink Mich Ultra, Rum and Diet, and alternate with water. I've learned that it's not really about the booze but about the company and environment. Still, every rare now and then I get drunk enough to black out some ridiculous antics I get to hear about the next day.

[denbrkln]

The answer to your question is to smoke bud.

[ZKP]

Drinking makes reading posts on message boards easier, I know that for sure.

Life is to be lived. Don't drink yourself into oblivion, but don't be a baby about it either. Are you going to the Olympics? If not don't worry about small shit like this, have a beer, and save your emotional energy for squatting more. Good luck!