Don't Mix Alcohol and Body Building Workouts

By Ricardo d Argence

There are people who wonder if alcohol affects muscle building. The studies and research shows that if you drink alcohol, your workout will not be as effective, as well as that you will deplete your body of important vitamins.

A key ingredient in you diet when you exercise if protein, you should not interfere with this. Unfortunately, alcohol impairs protein synthesis. Protein synthesis is the process where amino acids are joined together to create complete proteins, consumption of alcohol has been shown to slow this process by 20%.

There are another factors that affect your muscle gains like the level of testosterone in the body.Have you noticed that women do not have the same amount of muscle as men? The women have 15-20 times less testosterone than men do since this is because of low levels of testosterone. What does that have to do with alcohol? In the body alcohol decreases the amount of testosterone and increases levels of estrogen.

When you drink alcohol, the kidneys must use massive amounts of water to process the toxin. Yes, the body recognizes alcohol as a toxin. When this happens, the body can quickly become dehydrated.

Nerves control and contract muscles by producing stimuli from electrolyte minerals dissolved in water. Water is very beneficial to you and your body during work outs and exercise. Not only will it keep you hydrated, but you will find that water will help lubricate your joints and reduce the risk of injury during your exercise workouts.

Drinking alcohol robs your body of key vitamins. Alcohol depletes Vitamins B, C and A; in addition to calcium and phosphorous. If you consider the most important vitamins to develop healthy muscles are B and C, that is just one more reason that drinking alcohol while building muscle is such a big deal.

In order to build muscle, you must breakdown fat deposits while increasing muscle mass. Alcohol works against this effort. Alcohol works against this effort. Alcohol contains empty calories, that is a calorie with no nutritional benefit. It also has twice as many calories as carbohydrates and protein.

While we are on this subject, it should be noted that calories consumed while drinking are the first ones to be burned. Alcohol calories are burned first, then fat stores are a energy backup. You will find that there are things that don't work and do work when exercising. You need to know which exercises will help you meet your goals and what will work against you.

We have examined most of the major points on alcohol and bodybuilding, however, you have to consider the other affects of alcohol on the body. Prolonged use can lead to liver damage, diabetes and a host of other medically related problems. It will be increasingly difficult to build muscle if you suffer any one of these. At the end of the day, is it really worth the cost?

About the Author:

Powered by Blogger