Exercise and Alcohol Consumption
On some Friday afternoons, after you leave work for the week, you
possibly
sometimes think about going out and having a few drinks with friends to
relax and wind down. After all, it is the start of the
weekend!
Well, even though you may think you absolutely deserve to
go
out and have a few drinks, there are some things that you should
certainly keep in mind.
Hopefully, tomorrow, or the next day, is going to be a day for
exercise, and
since you are now exercising on a regular basis. Surely, a
few drinks of alcohol
won't really hurt anything, right? A cold beer, a daquiri, a
Rusty Nail, or just a couple of glasses of wine, maybe.
Before you decide to rush
out
to the local bar, here are a few things that you perhaps
should think
about before you make your choice about going out to drink some alcohol.
Results of
Alcohol Consumption
Research has definitively proven that small amounts of alcohol
will commonly increase
muscular endurance and the output of strength, but these types of
benefits are very short lived. After 20 minutes or
so, problems will begin to surface. All of the
negative side
effects
which are associated with alcohol will easily outweigh any possible
benefits that
it can have.
Alcohol is
Actually a Poison, and Alcohol Consumption is not Generally a Good Thing
Face the facts! Alcohol is a poison that can really harm your
body if you aren't careful. True, there are some positive
health benefits. A glass of wine a day is good for the heart.
However, once you get past that first glass, the benefits of
alcohol consumption begin to decline, and the dark side begins to
emerge.
The negative side of alcohol can actually reduce your strength,
endurance,
aerobic capability, recovery time, ability to metabolize fat, and even
your muscle growthl. Alcohol will also affect
your nervous system and brain. If you use it long term, over
a few years, you
can
eventually cause severe deterioration of your central nervous
system.
Even with short term use, however, nerve muscle interaction can be
reduced which
will result in a loss of strength.
Now, no one wants to imply that you should become a teetotaler, nor
that the occasional cocktail party, or beer bust will destroy you.
Even Arnold
Schwarzenegger, who is from Austria where beer drinking is a
part of life, has been known to down a few in his time.
We are talking about somewhat regular use for the most part,
but we are also talking about the short term effects on your health and
fitness efforts as well. Exercise is not a good match with
alcohol consumption.
To continue.....
Once alcohol reaches the blood cells, it can and probably will damage
them to some extent. Inflammation of muscle cells is
a
very common thing among alcohol users. Over periods of time,
some of these cells
that
have been damaged may eventually die which will result in less
functional muscle
contractions. Drinking alcohol will also probably leave you
with more
soreness of your muscles after you exercise, which means that it will
take you a lot longer to recuperate.
Alcohol
Consumption and Your Heart
Alcohol will also have many different effects on your heart and
circulatory system. When you drink any type of
alcohol,
you may begin to see an almost immediate reduction in your endurance
capabilities.
Anytime you drink, your heat loss will increase due to the alcohol
stimulating blood vessels to dilate. This loss in heat can
cause your muscles to become quite cold, hence becoming slower and
weaker during your muscle contractions.
Alcohol
Consumption and Digestion
Drinking alcohol can also lead to digestive and nutritional problems as
well. Alcohol causes a release of insulin that will increase
the
metabolism of glycogen, which spares fat and makes the loss of fat very
hard. Due to alcohol interfering with the absorption of
several
key nutrients as well, you can also become anemic and experience B
vitamin deficiency and other nutritional problems.
Alcohol
Consumption and The Liver
Because your liver is the organ that detoxifies alcohol, the more you
drink, the harder your liver has to work. The extra stress
alcohol places on your liver can cause serious damage and even destroy
some of your liver cells.
Alcohol
Consumption and Hydration
Since alcohol is actually a diuretic, drinking large amounts can put a
lot of
stress on your kidneys, and other organs, as well. During
diuretic action, hormones are secreted which can lead to
heightened water
retention and no one who exercises will want this to
happen...especially if they are exercising to lose weight.
If you feel that you must drink alcohol anyway, and I do enjoy my glass
of wine, you should do it in moderation and never
drink before you exercise, as this will impair your balance,
coordination, and also your judgement. Think about your
health
and how you exercise - and you may begin to look at things from a whole
new prospective.
As with many other things in life, exercise and alcohol consumption do
not go well together.
Click Here to learn about Alcohol and Body Fat.
While I do not normally recommend diets themselves, healthy eating is
important to any health, fitness, or weight loss program. Click Here
to learn more about Diet To Go
meals.
P. S. If you want to learn more about why Diets Don't Work,
please click here.
If you want to learn how to burn fat, a great book to read is Burn the Fat, Feed the Muscle by Tom
Venuto
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