Beer as a carbohydrate source

[Johnsonville]

Robert, I’ve been reading about your recommendation for high carbohydrate intake and saw you suggest dextrose in a post workout shake. That reminded me on an old Arnold Schwarzenegger interview where he mentioned drinking a pitcher of beer after a long workout, and I was just wondering if there are any drawbacks to that other than the health issues that come with excessive alcohol consumption.

It reminded me of when I was 24 and on my first lp, I was basically living at the local bar and drinking probably ten beers a night and 6-8 servings of whey a day. That was also the strongest I have ever been and got yo to 435 for three sets of five just on the lp before getting a hernia. I always thought it was more because I was younger and not as beat up as I am now, but am starting to think my macros were really a helping factor in how easy I was progressing.

Sorry it’s kind of a dumb question, but I’m genuinely curious. Thanks.

[Robert Santana]

What was your deadlift?

[Johnsonville]

At that time it was 400 for 3, but I couldn’t even break 405 off the ground. My form wasn’t great on either lift, in fact I screwed up my knees and elbows with chronic tendinitis squatting like that. I was also 6’ 190lbs. This was four years ago and i bested that deadlift this past year, but I have never been able to lp a squat even close to that before, every time I touched the bar it felt the same as the workout before, and I never had to grind. In fact I remember doing 405 for 13 reps after happy hour to be a hero in front of my workout buddies. I’m now starting to be convinced it was all those carbohydrates I was drinking every day.

[Logan1]

Bill Starr on training with a hangover.

"The first thing I taught them when they stumbled into the weight room with giant hangovers was that the alcohol was nothing more than expensive carbohydrates. Which means it can be used as fuel for physical activities."

Training With A Hangover | Bill Starr

[Robert Santana]

At that time it was 400 for 3, but I couldn’t even break 405 off the ground. My form wasn’t great on either lift, in fact I screwed up my knees and elbows with chronic tendinitis squatting like that. I was also 6’ 190lbs. This was four years ago and i bested that deadlift this past year, but I have never been able to lp a squat even close to that before, every time I touched the bar it felt the same as the workout before, and I never had to grind. In fact I remember doing 405 for 13 reps after happy hour to be a hero in front of my workout buddies. I’m now starting to be convinced it was all those carbohydrates I was drinking every day.

Having a bigger belly will drive up a squat but if you can't pick it up you just aren't strong.

[Johnsonville]

Bill Starr on training with a hangover.

"The first thing I taught them when they stumbled into the weight room with giant hangovers was that the alcohol was nothing more than expensive carbohydrates. Which means it can be used as fuel for physical activities."

Training With A Hangover | Bill Starr

I love that article and remember reading that a while ago, starr is the man. I was just wondering if there are negative affects the alcohol would have that would basically negate the carb intake, such as lowering testosterone or energy.

Having a bigger belly will drive up a squat but if you can't pick it up you just aren't strong.

That was actually the only time in my life I had slightly visible abs, mostly from moving block and mortar all day as a mason tender, but that’s a great point about the deadlift. The reason my deadlift was shit was because I was doing that greyskull lp that only had one pull a week, once I bought practical programming and started pulling multiple times a week my deadlift shot right up. Thanks for the responses though, your work is always appreciated.

[dalan]

I really want beer to be a good post workout drink but it's not. Most of the calories in beer are from alcohol not carbs and alcohol calories aren't very useful. If you don't mind the empty alcohol calories, I'd say go for it just because beer is awesome.

[Robert Santana]

That was actually the only time in my life I had slightly visible abs, mostly from moving block and mortar all day as a mason tender, but that’s a great point about the deadlift. The reason my deadlift was shit was because I was doing that greyskull lp that only had one pull a week, once I bought practical programming and started pulling multiple times a week my deadlift shot right up. Thanks for the responses though, your work is always appreciated.

Anytime you gain weight your squat, bench press, and press will almost always increase like clockwork due to improved leverage without much training complexity required. The deadlift, however, will not always respond if the programming isn't in line and a quick search on this board will illustrate weight gain, squat improvement, deadlift stagnation. The overall theme: NDTP.

[Johnsonville]

I really want beer to be a good post workout drink but it's not. Most of the calories in beer are from alcohol not carbs and alcohol calories aren't very useful. If you don't mind the empty alcohol calories, I'd say go for it just because beer is awesome.

Good point, I actually looked up the carbohydrate content of Pabst, which is what I was drinking at the time, and it isn’t nearly as high as I thought it would be, especially for the calories.

Anytime you gain weight your squat, bench press, and press will almost always increase like clockwork due to improved leverage without much training complexity required. The deadlift, however, will not always respond if the programming isn't in line and a quick search on this board will illustrate weight gain, squat improvement, deadlift stagnation. The overall theme: NDTP.

Yessir. Who would have thought a guy coached by bill starr and tommy Suggs would know more than some random jackass with a webpage. I wish I bought the books ten years ago when I first came across “starting strength”, which was really some bastardized version of the nlp some dick posted on bodybuilding.com

[Snake Plissken]

My 2 cents from personal experience. I used to drink 2 beers/day on average just with meals and was starting to feel run down after a while so I quit about 2 months ago (not going without it for life, just a break) and I noticed my weight dropped about 4 pounds in 2 months while I got stronger doing the Texas Method. It sounds odd that you would lose weight and gain strength (except my Press has hit a few snags, but it's very sensitive to weight change). I take progress pictures about once a month and record my weight daily and noticed that even though I lost weight, I went from having some fat rolls when sitting down to seeing my abs under my slab of fat even in poor lighting.

TL;DR Beer isn't a good source for macros. Drink it if you like it, but stick to quality complex carbs for your macros.