You may be doing everything right in your workout — taking a pre-, intra-, and post-workout supplement and eating to optimize your gains — but if you regularly imbibe on adult beverages it could be impacting your body more than you think.

It’s no secret that many workouts are social and community driven and when you sweat together and push through physical limits, your gym life and social life can be one and the same. After a long day of cycling, there is no better way to than to end the ride at brewery talking about the epic hill you all climbed. In yoga, you find balance and stability and brunch with mimosas after a serene Sunday class. Regardless of what activity you’re involved, there is a good chance that booze is involved.

Your fitness goals are vital to your health and wellness and at Oh!Mino we want to support you in your objectives. Optimize your workouts with our optimized essential amino acids. And, if you’re wondering how alcohol plays a role in your fitness, venture into the effervescence in today’s post!

The Role Alcohol Plays in Fitness

Alcohol is a central nervous system depressant, which is why many use it as a way to wind down from a stressful day at work or to relax and enjoy friends after a particularly brutal workout. As the amount of alcohol increases in your bloodstream, the less relaxed you are and the tipsier or evidently drunk you become.

What impacts how alcohol is absorbed in the bloodstream?

When you consume an alcoholic beverage, the ethanol ventures to your stomach and instantly you absorb around 20 to 25 percent in your bloodstream. From here, the alcohol is then absorbed in your small intestine and absorbed n your bloodstream once again. Finally, the alcohol is metabolized by the liver and then broken down.

A healthy liver can metabolize about one ounce or one shot of alcohol in a 90-minute span, but many factors determine how it is ultimately absorbed.

Body fat percentage - How much fat you have will determine either a faster or slower rate of absorption — typically the more fat you carry slows the rate of absorption.

The amount of alcohol consumed - Again, our bodies can only process one ounce of alcohol within 90-minutes — anything beyond this amount is absorbed in the bloodstream and hangs around until your liver is ready to process it, hence how you get drunk.

So, how does alcohol affect your athletic performance?

Protein Synthesis

When you regularly and consistently consume alcohol, it disrupts the manner in which your body absorbs protein. When your body can’t absorb protein, you can kiss your hard work goodbye and throw any potential gains away. To grow your muscles you have to have an optimal protein balance — when there is a lack of physical activity or low protein absorption, this inevitably means your muscle breakdown will exceed your muscle production. When your protein levels are unbalanced it can lead to a catabolic state where you begin to lose muscle tissue. Alcohol only negatively impacts your protein balance and over time can cause myopathy. Myopathy is a health condition that is caused by consistent alcohol consumption and results in your muscle fibers not functioning properly with a loss of movement or muscle weakness.  

The way alcohol affects protein synthesis is just one of the ways it can affect your fitness goals. In part two, we’ll review more of the impacts that alcohol has, so stay tuned!

For a workout supplement that works as hard as you do, use Oh!Mino today.