Many people have been querying about Can Alcohol Affect Muscle Growth or does it have a negative impact on your fitness level? Well, go through this blog to have your doubts clear.
Most of us enjoy having drinks on the weekend. As the workweek ends we all want to celebrate and let the work pressure go. But, if you are someone working out for getting fitter, alcohol might be a problem.
Alcohol and Muscle Growth do not go hand in hand. It does affect your muscle growth and fitness level.
Now, you must be wondering, if you have to give up alcohol completely to up your fitness game. Well! In this blog, we will be talking about what are the effects of alcohol on your body. And Can Alcohol affect Muscle Growth?
Let’s begin with the relation between Alcohol and Muscle Growth.
Alcohol and Muscle Growth
Alcohol consumption affects Muscle Protein Synthesis. A study was conducted on over 8 men who were working out regularly. The results were that their Protein synthesis reduced by 24%-37%.
Alcohol is often related to decreasing the rate of metabolism. Thus, it slows down the process of burning fat in your body. Consuming alcohol shifts your metabolism from burning fat to removing toxins.
People assume that having a good diet can prevent the negative effects of alcohol on their bodies.
However, having a good nutrition plan does not outweigh the negative effects of alcohol.
To get results in the gym, you need a combination of exercise, nutrients, and recovery.
If you get a hangover, it is best to avoid working out that day. It can increase the risk of injury because alcohol causes dehydration. So, alcohol also causes ineffective training.
Thus, according to researchers, Alcohol does Impair Muscle Growth. However, the effect of alcohol may vary from person to person.
Now, let’s see what are the effects of alcohol on your overall fitness.
Alcohol and Fitness
Alcohol causes major setbacks in muscle gain and in your fitness level. According to some research, alcohol affects your muscle protein synthesis, hormone levels, metabolism, and ability to burn fat.
People tend to over-drink alcohol. This way it causes adverse effects. However, alcohol in moderation helps in insulin resistance and good cholesterol.
Alcohol itself has no nutrients. Our body treats it like a toxic substance. But, it also prevents the body from absorbing other nutrients. It especially prevents absorbing nutrients like Vitamin B and zinc.
Many try combining protein sources with alcohol to prevent the negative effects. This does not prevent the negative effects.
However, it helps limit the severity of negative effects, you can work it out earlier in the day. This limits the effect it has on muscle protein synthesis and metabolism.
Now, we will discuss Alcohol Consumption and Muscle Growth with the aspect of hormones.
Alcohol Consumption and Hormones
Consuming excess alcohol can lead to an imbalance in hormone production. Especially, in the male, the testosterone production is disrupted. Alcohol affects the conversion of testosterone into estrogen.
You might be wondering How Can Alcohol affect Muscle Growth by affecting the hormones. So, to answer that you need to understand that how does testosterone works?
Testosterone is a male hormone that helps in gaining muscle mass in your body. Alcohol is directly toxic to testosterone-producing cells in your testicles. In the long run, this toxicity reduces the capacity of testosterone production.
In the short term, light drinking might increase testosterone in the first few hours. It takes around 24hours to recover from alcohol toxicity if you are drinking light.
So, How Does Alcohol Rally Affect Muscle Growth? Testosterone stimulates muscle growth in your body. It creates pathways for enzymes that signal muscle gain in the body. Since alcohol decreases testosterone levels, the enzyme activity also decreases.
Thus, Alcohol affects Muscle growth in the body.
For muscle growth and fitness, it is very important to have faster muscle recovery after training sessions. So, now let us discuss the effects of alcohol on muscle growth in terms of muscle recovery.
Alcohol and Muscle Development & Recovery
Alcohol causes inflammation in the body which affects the immune system. The immune system is responsible for recovery from injury or sickness. A better immune system means better recovery and muscle growth.
Consuming alcohol puts too much stress on the immune system. In the course of time, this weakens your immune system. Thus, muscle recovery stops, and the focus shifts to recovering from alcohol consumption.
Consuming alcohol leads to weight gain and stress, which causes higher heart rate and blood pressure. When the body’s immunity weakens, hypertension and cardiovascular disease start to creep in.
People often think few drinks will cause no harm. However, alcohol causes dehydration. Insomnia and insanely impacts your sleep cycle. Thus, Alcohol and Muscle growth do not go hand-in-hand.
Now, let us discuss How Does Alcohol Impair Muscle Growth?
How does Alcohol Affect Muscle Growth?
Bodybuilders and Athletes often keep their alcohol consumption in check. This is because Alcohol Affects Muscle Growth. Let’s see how it really affects you.
Impairs muscle growth
Working out under the influence increases your chances of injury, it can also impede muscle growth. In the long run, alcohol diminishes protein synthesis, resulting in a decrease in muscle growth.
Dehydrates your body
If you want better athletic performance, then need faster recovery from sore muscles. Alcohol slows this process because it is a powerful diuretic, which causes dehydration. Dehydration is bound to cause muscle injuries like cramps and strains
Prevents muscle recovery
Getting proper rest is important for building bigger and stronger muscles. However, drinking alcohol negatively affects your sleep patterns, your body is robbed of human growth hormone when you drink.
HGH has an important role in building and repairing muscles. However, alcohol decreases the secretion of HGH by 70%.
Now let us conclude this blog with our final thoughts.
Conclusion: Can Alcohol Affect Muscle Growth?
Becoming fit and gaining muscle should not take away the fun of your life. Alcohol in moderation is okay. But, always try to make healthier choices. Gaining lean muscle and burning fat is not easy so don’t let alcohol get in the way of your hard work.
Thus, in this blog, we discussed the Effects of Alcohol on Muscle Growth and How does Alcohol affects muscle growth. Hopefully, it helped you guys make better choices.
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