Alcohol and recovery

[Ben Neal]

Having a terrible time with recovery this week. Sore shoulder, sore knees, tweaked bicep. I normally take two or three days to recover properly after an intense tumbling workout on Sunday on top of my F1 and at least one stretch session.

This week has been quite boozy due to some social stuff and I am wondering about the effect on recovery and performance?

Anyone got any knowledge on this?

Thanks

Ben

[Bryan Wheelock]

Booze increases systemic inflammation which will impair recovery.

Excessive amounts will decrease your testosterone as well.

 

[Charlie Martin]

Any sort of excessive dehydration will slow down your recovery

[David Birchall]

Alcohol is a cellular poison that taxes the kidneys and liver.  IME heavy drinking requires recovery itself and during this time recovery from exercise will be neglected in favor of excreting the toxin from your body to keep you alive.  It takes approximately 7-10 days for alcohol to completely be removed from your body.  Even though during these days you would pass a breathalyser, the alcohol is still in your system.

It is also a potent industrial cleaner and it literally strips away cells causing muscular atrophy.  At the same time as this muscle loss, any food ingested when intoxicated will not be burned for fuel because until all the alcohol is out of you, your body will not burn anything else for energy but alcohol.  This results in fat gain combined with muscle loss affecting body composition directly and in addition to this effect, as Bryan noted, alcohol will decrease testosterone and this can and does indirectly cause adverse body composition changes.

Your central nervous system is comprised of, you guessed it, nerves.  You also have nerves all over your body and this is called the peripheral nervous system.  Alcohol strips the surrounding coating of all nerves in your body.  This coating, called the "myelin sheath" surrounds the nerve and allows it to function properly.  Gymnastics Strength Training relies extensively on nervous system efficiency and the electrical impulses from your brain telling your muscles to contract.  No myelin sheath on the nerves and this gets screwed up big time.  Excessive alcohol consumption over time can even cause permanent damage to the nerves in such a way that you lose feeling in your body, extremities first and then eventually movement will also be lost.  The myelin sheath is made of B-Vitamins so it would be prudent for ANYONE WHO DRINKS ALCOHOL to supplement with high strength B-Vitamins to stop this from happening.  Doctors prescribe them to you if you go and tell them you have been heavily drinking and you would like help to stop however they should be taken more so IMO by people who are still drinking: prevention is better than cure.

Despite the nonsense claims that alcohol in moderate doses is good for you, common sense shows that it cannot be: just as arsenic or cyanide are not good for you in moderate doses.

- I will share a great resource for limiting the detrimental effects on body composition and although there's no studies for performance, perhaps exercise performance as well by extension of the body composition effects: "http://www.leangains.com/2010/07/truth-about-alcohol-fat-loss-and-muscle.html"

- As far as speeding up recovery from alcohol, your best bet is hydration for the physical effects of the drug.  I suggest electrolytes along with water if you are drinking a lot of it.  I also suggest EFAs, a multivitamin and most prudently B-Vitamins, especially Thiamine (Vitamin B-1) in the strongest available dose you can get: OTC is best but "high strength" label brands may have to do.  Just be sure to check the labels and compare amounts as "high strength" doesn't mean jack unless its actually high strength in the bottle.  Marmite & 1g/lb of animal protein will also supply you with good amounts of B-Vits in addition to supplementation.  They are water soluble (and the dehydration from alcohol is actually part of what causes the myelin sheaths to strip away) so they need to be split up AM & PM and best taken with food.

- If alcohol is used as a "social lubricant" and you would like to be able to socialise without alcohol to perhaps moderate, I would suggest CBT.  I don't drink at all now and have a much better social life lol: one that I can remember.

- And finally, should you be interested in how far the rabbit hole goes, my own experience with this drug and resources that helped me:

"So what are you saying?  I shouldn't drink AT ALL?!  I can't do that"

People can do as they choose with regards to consuming alcohol, however if you open your mind and start to ask yourself: "why do I do this to myself?" As many do the next day when the euphoria has been replaced with a banging headache and nausea, the answers you will give will probably be stuff like: "Its social" "helps me relax" "I'm ok I can control it etc. etc." I won't go into it in great depth but these are the classic justifications that any addict uses.  It takes an open mind to realise this but all that alcohol is is wide spread, socially accepted, socially encouraged in fact, drug addiction.

 "I am not addicted to alcohol.  I only drink a few beers every now and then with friends" - this sounds like a normal thing to do... However if I was to say "I am not addicted to heroin.  I only shoot up a gram or two every now and then with friends" If I said this, you would clearly know I am deluded and that eventually I would be using daily: my usage would increase.  The first time you ever had a drink: the first time, how much did you have?  How much would you drink now?  Has your usage increased?  Think about it.

For some sensitive people like myself, their usage increases faster and while my first drink was a few beers with friends as a kid, I escalated to full blown alcoholism and even this was socially accepted: I was just a "boozy" student.  If you can get your head around what I'm saying here, you are doing better than most. My dad has recently lost the use of his legs due to peripheral neuropathy from alcohol consumption over years and years.  He was never considered a problem drinker despite a penchant for scotch and still, even sitting in a wheel chair right now, he still drinks daily with the denial/delusion that the doctors could not find a cause for his nerve damage.

I went to rehab three times and was told I was morally defective and I needed to believe in God to stop drinking.  This was nonsense and all I needed to do was see the problem for what it was, remove ideas that I was in some way losing out from not drinking & then decide to end the addiction.  I don't expect anyone to listen to what I've written here however if I could go back, I would tell myself this information and I would have done something sooner had I known.  Resources that helped me: "Rational Recovery by Jack Trimpey" & "Kick The Drink Easily by Jason Vale".

Hope that helps now and perhaps in the future should you fall down the rabbit hole a little further than you'd like.

 

[Sean Murphey]

Drinking moderately every now and then isn't going to do any extreme damage to your recovery or performance in the grand scheme of GST (which is years of training). Worst case scenario, you'll be tired for a day and have sub-par performance in the gym. Then everything will be back to normal.

 

[Eva Pelegrin]

David, remarkable post. Thank you for sharing and glad you were able to call a spade a spade. 

I had a similar coaching talk with one of my clients yesterday's evening. Substitute the word "alcohol" for "food addiction > sweets" and the same delusional justifications and compensatory mechanisms play out. The narrative in one's head is like a playlist in shuffled. The feelings of helplessness, unworthiness (subconscious or not), embarrassment, etc... are what feeds and keeps the addiction alive. For many, it's very scary to contemplate, much less create a more empowering narrative where they can be powerful and not the victim – even when professional help is available. 

"With great power comes great responsibility." - Voltaire

Unfortunately, knowing that something is "bad" for you is not enough to help you quit it. As you pointed out, it really boils down to choosing to end your addiction. And for that to happen, one has to stop the internal dialog bullsh*t and come to terms with their farce. As liberating as this can be, it is not easy to do. If it were that easy, many companies would be out of business and the world would be a better place. 

[David Birchall]

16 hours ago, Sean Murphey said:

Drinking moderately every now and then isn't going to do any extreme damage to your recovery or performance in the grand scheme of GST (which is years of training). Worst case scenario, you'll be tired for a day and have sub-par performance in the gym. Then everything will be back to normal.

 

True, just as purposely getting sick every now and then won't.  In fact commitment to training can be a great tool to slow one's level of consumption.

[Sean Murphey]

10 hours ago, David Birchall said:

True, just as purposely getting sick every now and then won't.  In fact commitment to training can be a great tool to slow one's level of consumption.

Yea i agree with commitment to training stopping consumption. 

I'm not advocating drinking (not a big fan), but comparing the occasional glass of wine or beer etc. to being physically ill is a huge stretch. 

I equate it to those that deny themselves cake and stuff. Imbibing occasionally is not going to negatively affect your training in the grand scheme of things. Just be responsible. 

[David Birchall]

On 8 May 2016 at 7:44 PM, Sean Murphey said:

Yea i agree with commitment to training stopping consumption. 

I'm not advocating drinking (not a big fan), but comparing the occasional glass of wine or beer etc. to being physically ill is a huge stretch. 

I equate it to those that deny themselves cake and stuff. Imbibing occasionally is not going to negatively affect your training in the grand scheme of things. Just be responsible. 

Sorry I wasn't trying to be flippant with my post above however I understand it may challenge face for people who choose to drink.  "just as getting sick every now and then won't" - this implies that people who choose to drink are choosing to get sick.  This may come off sounding like I'm saying drinking is always a stupid thing to do (it isn't like that) and people who drink are stupid - because why would anyone purposely get sick?

You are correct, an occasional glass of wine or beer is not comparable to being physically ill.  Just like any drug alcohol has positives ( euphoria, loss of inhibition... ) and negatives ( training impingement, life span ) for its user.  The negatives of literally drinking 1-2 drinks every now and then and never exceeding this are minimal and certainly it would be silly of me to compare this to being physically ill.

It's true though that the more one consumes, the greater the negatives.  Consume more and the next day you'll have a more pronounced hangover.  Just as I can be just a little bit ill, maybe just don't feel 100%, I can also just be a little bit hungover (hangovers are actually dehydration coupled with mild acute withdrawal symptoms which is why "hair of the dog" gets rid of a hangover).

You see I was not comparing an occasional glass of wine or beer with being physically ill: I was comparing This week has been quite boozy.  My take on what that meant is probably different from yours as its a very grey area when people describe consumption qualitatively. The trouble with a word like "moderation" is that it is entirely subjective: 

My Mum drinks a 1-2 bottles of wine a day, every day and she says that she "has the odd glass of wine every now and then."

Another person might drink 1 glass of wine once a week and they may also claim they "have the odd glass of wine every now and then."  ( I actually know no-one who does this lol.  Perhaps the people you know may and this might be why our perceptions of what people who describe themselves as occasional drinkers differs )

The thing is as well, my Mother proudly protests that she does not get hangovers ( why? because the secret to the moderation game is you can drink as much as you want and as long as you can still function and pretend you don't feel like death from drinking too much the night before, no one will question your intake of the drug )

It's all about amounts and people have free will.  This is why in my original post I provided information on how to offset the negative effects of alcohol consumption on training.  I have nothing against alcohol just as I have nothing against sweets, sugar, cake, cigarettes etc. What I do have a problem with though is that despite it being extremely addictive, governments push it to get people hooked at a young age and the true facts (such as the fact that 70% of all NHS inpatients are there due to alcohol) are never publicised while advertising alcohol as "cool" is widespread.

If people choose to drink knowing the full size of the iceberg instead of just the tip, that's better.  Tomorrow when I have a cup of coffee, I'll be choosing to negatively impact my sleep and be a little more anxious - its not stupid of me: I just know I want the benefit I get from it and I am prepared to deal with the negatives... but I don't pretend to myself that there's no negatives and I am fully prepared to deal with the risks of a rising level of consumption of that particular drug.

 

[Andrew Long]

I used to party a lot and drink a lot during those parties.  I ended up developing a strange reaction where if I drank too much alcohol (more than one or 2 standard drinks) the skin on my hands would dry out crack open and start to bleed.  needless to say this got worse and worse until i decided to just abstain from drinking alcohol all together.  best decision I have ever made.  I realised I can be just as silly and sociable without alcohol especially if everyone else is drunk.  this revelation has helped change my attitude to a lot of things and I now am far stronger mentally than I ever was before.  on top of that I never have to worry about not being able to do stuff on a weekend because im incapacitated due to a hang over.  Ill wake up after a party saturday night and go for a hike on sunday enjoying the view from a mountain summit while everyone else lays at home in bed hating themselves before they start the work week.

I have tried the occasional drink since that break (1 standard drink many months apart)  and honestly i instantly feel bad when I have any alcohol now so I have just given it up again.  I am sure i will try one drink in a few years time again to remind myself but who knows.  

I havent met anyone who doesnt use alcohol as a coping mechanism in one way or another, whether it be to cope with stress/ a hard day or to cope with social interactions that may make some people uncomfortable.  I dont think there is any case where it is necessary and most people would probably be better of just abstaining from it all together but I can still appreciate the appeal as I used to use it frequently when I was younger.

 I am sure there are some out there who simply enjoy the taste and nothing more although those I have met that have said that were still using it as a coping mechanism.  I enjoy the taste of cronuts but I dont feel the need to have them often let a lone at all.  plenty of other things i enjoy that dont poison me and might even be good for me.

anyway that is just my 2 cents.

P.S. not hating on alcohol, just sharing my own discovery

[Kevin Herring]

Ben, sounds like you exceeded your recovery limit for the week.   Similar to when someone works a little overtime at work.  It's not that much but it can add up.

I have to balance the weekly total of everything of which GBT makes up a part.  Excessive amounts of physical activity can upset the hormonal rhythms as can inadequate sleep, poor nutrition, and alcohol consumption.  Excessive can mean too intense or too long in duration or both.  I've reduced the amount of training over the past year because I wasn't recovering.  It could go up if I had a less physical job but I don't.  I don't know where you live but there is a change in the seasons around here and my sinuses are not happy.  Plus a death in the family, and so on.  In all everything adds up. 

Try increases your recovery techniques for a few days.  Extra sleep, add nutritional foods (B-vitamins, C, water, quality proteins, and so on), Epson salt baths, to name a few. 

So yes, extra boozy can play a part in your recovery.   

[Michael Backhouse]

@ David

I think most of your post is good, and you certainly make a compelling case. Your method outlined to get over a hangover is also solid in my opinion.

I just want to push back a little against stuff like this:

Quote

Despite the nonsense claims that alcohol in moderate doses is good for you, common sense shows that it cannot be: just as arsenic or cyanide are not good for you in moderate doses.

Poisonous in large doses =/= poisonous in moderate doses. The example at the top of my mind here is garlic. Garlic has numerous documented health benefits on accound of the hydrogen sulphide content, but if you have too much you can actually die (what a delicious way to go!).

On a different note, the reason why we do scientific studies is because "common sense" doesn't always work. In this instance, coronary heart disease risks are lowered by moderate daily alcohol consumption, and there is strong support for this in the literature. 

https://scholar.google.es/scholar?q=alcohol+meta&btnG=&hl=en&as_sdt=0%2C5&as_vis=1