Alcohol and Exercise – What Happens When You Combine the Two

Alcohol And Exercise – What Happens When You Combine The Two

We take a look at what these things are and how important it is to keep drinking in moderation to ensure exercise benefits are not reduced if combining a few drinks with your regular physical activity routine; so, stick with us and find out for yourself!

If you are the average Joe – or Jane – you will also want to hit the local pub or hang out with pals on a Friday evening after signing off from work; though, there is nothing ethically wrong with such a thought, it is not a very healthy one that your physical instructor would endorse if you have a day of exercise coming up ahead.

Yes, you may well feel put out with the thought of having to do without your week-end water-hole visit that could very well be relaxing for you, especially in the company of friends who make it fun to drink together, but you do need to understand why drinking and exercise benefits do not go together.

You may think you can hold your drinks well – and perhaps you do; but that is not the point health instructors stress over here when asking you to lay off strong drinks or even multiple rounds before you hit the gym or your jogging route. It is the fact that alcohol in the blood stream reduces your power of reacting to situations that require you to be alert and therefore benefit from exercise that concerns the average health instructor and thus has him advising people off- alcohol. In fact, scientific research gives evidence to this belief that even small traces of alcohol help build muscular endurance so one may feel a sudden surge of energy initially, but the effect soon peters off and thus, the benefits of good exercise are short-lived, which is totally undesirable for those looking at long-term advantages of sticking to an exercise routine.

Besides, in as little as 20 minutes, most people who have swigged a pint or two before exercising reveal that negative side-effects are experienced, such as giddiness or even sudden rush of blood to the head with reduced aerobic capability and loss of energy felt immediately after the instant surge of power felt initially.

These points aside, taking more than the prescribed amount of alcohol can result in reducing a person’s strength, endurance and recovery ability besides also adversely affecting their ability to me metabolize fat that would otherwise have been easy to shed, without the stress of alcohol in the blood stream. It also has negative side effects on a person’s nervous system and brain besides adversely affecting the amount of muscle growth a person could have benefited from if exercising without imbibing alcohol before the activity.

Alcohol taken before hitting the exercise floor can thus harm the body in many ways: from causing stomach muscles to get inflamed to permanently damaging muscle cells in other parts of the body to resulting in long-term, irreversible damage to muscle function, drinking can do it all.

So, those who wish to keep a healthy heart in a healthy body with no ill-effects of alcohol that can cause blood vessels to dilate, result in heat-loss from the muscles, stiffening them in turn to react slower than ever and thus adversely affect a person are advised to keep a hand over the tipple offered to them – and stay fit for life.

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