A common question I often receive is in regards to drinking alcohol and training.
In short, there’s a lot of people out there that want to know if they can drink alcohol and still get results.
The quick and short answer = You can, but you won’t get the BEST results possible.
Now, let me explain a little bit more on this.
I know that a lot of people out there like to have a few drinks here and there as I like to drink socially every now and then.
I often get asked if I don’t drink at all and many times it’s automatically assumed that I don’t at all since I’m a strength coach and I train people.
This is somewhat true, but not 100%.
Just this last weekend I celebrated my bachelor party so I had a bit of a long Saturday night.
I had to pay the consequences for that all Sunday long 😉
I can’t sit here and say you can’t drink at all if you want the best results possible because I would then be a huge hypocrite.
Now, I’m no alcoholic by any means as I’ll have a few drinks here and there, but sometimes I’ll go a whole month without a single drink.
For me, drinking even a few will have me feeling like crap the next day and when I feel like crap, my training suffers because of it.
With the goals I have, this isn’t what I want.
For other people, I know it’s got to be the same.
If you’ve got BIG GOALS in regards to getting stronger, leaner, building more muscle, and increasing your overall performance, alcohol isn’t going to be your best friend in regards to helping you accelerate your gains.
But, I know this is the real world and people like to have a few drinks here and there.
People like to be social and having a few drinks is just a common part of it all.
So, rather then tell you that if you drink you’ll totally lose out, I have a few tips to help keep you in line.
Just note, if you truly want the BEST results, you’ll want to cut out alcohol 100%.
After all, alcohol is a toxin and it’s like poison to the body so when ever you drink, all of your muscle building and fat burning processes will stop in order to focus on getting the poison out of your body.
If fast results are what you’re after, drinking alcohol isn’t going to help speed up this process.
Also, just think about how important and how serious your goals truly are.
What are your true priorities?
Just know if you choose to booze, you’ll have to deal with the consequences.
Also, DO NOT complain when you don’t see the changes that you want to see happen quickly. If you want it badly enough, you’ll make the sacrifices and avoid Grandpa’s cough medicine 🙂
Now, since I’ve made that clear, let’s get into some quick tips that will help you out in the event if you do happen to have a few drinks here and there…
Booze Tip #1 – Limit your drinking to 1 night per week.
I know back in college it was common to drink 2 or 3 night s a week easy. Back then being young, it was nothing. Now, 2 nights would crush me.
It’s been said that it takes your body around 48 hours to fully recover from a night of drinking. During this 48 hour period, your body isn’t focusing on building muscle or burning fat so if you increase the amount of times you drink, just know that you’ll be cutting back on your overall progress.
If you’re gonna drink, I would strongly urge you to keep it to only one night a week. Not only will this limit the amount of abuse your body will take from drinking, it will help with your overall results. The less you have to worry about your body recovering from a night out on the town, the better.
Booze Tip #2 – Hydrate Like It’s Your Job
I try to use this tip every time I go out and have a few drinks.
I short, always make sure to have a drink of H20 in combination with your drinks of booze.
What I try to do if I’m at a party, wedding, or out on the town is to swap in and out of having alcohol and water.
For every drink I have (which is usually not that many) I’ll make sure to try and have a water to follow that drink up with.
Sometimes this doesn’t always happen, but if you can make it work, you’ll feel a major difference the next day.
You’ll help flush your system out a bit better as well as get a bit of a head start on getting yourself re-hydrated .
I can also tell a huge difference between if I do this vs. if I just stick to booze the whole night.
Booze Tip #3 – Fast The Day After A Night of Boozing.
Nothing will mess you up more then following up a night of boozing with a HUGE meal of crap.
I can tell you from experience. This is not good as it’s only adding to the destruction that’s going on within your body.
The best thing you can do is use intermittent fasting the next day. This gives your body a bit of a rest from having to digest a ton of food as well as try to re-hydrate itself.
What I’d do is fast the next day until late lunch or dinner. Basically just focus in on drinking a TON of water instead of eating any food.
Just like the previous tip I gave, I can always tell a HUGE difference between if I fast the next day after a night of drinking or if I decide to eat a ton of food. I recover a ton quicker and my energy is a ton better.
Now, if you want to continue to booze it up, go ahead, but just know you’ll stump your overall progress a bit.
Will you stop progressing all together? Probably not, but as I mentioned at the beginning, your results won’t be as good as they could be.
Bottom Line, if you’re gonna choose to booze, use the 3 tips I gave within this post. You’ll feel a ton better and minimize the amount of damage you cause when drinking.
Hope this helps all you booze hounds out there.
Live and Train Aggressive!