Is it possible to drink and rock the killer body you’re working hard to get?
Or will drinking make your workout a complete waste of time?
By Leslie K. Hughes
Summer is around the corner and if you’re ramping up your workout routine to feel your best at the beach, then you’re likely looking to cut out temptations in your life that may lead you astray.
First and foremost (for most) is drinking. Alcohol gets a bad rap for taking your body down a deep, dark rabbit hole of unhealthiness and extra lbs. But let’s be real: cutting out drinking entirely can feel like a cruel, brutal, and absolutely impossible task. Who wants to be sober Sally on Sunday Funday and every other funday that exists? Hard pass.
This leads us to the big question: is drinking really as bad for your workout routine as everyone thinks?
We know this isn’t what you want to hear, but it’s not a simple “yes” or “no” answer. Rather the effects of alcohol on your workout depends on a few different things.
You Can Drink And Still Get Gains . . . As Long as You Follow These Rules
Rule #1. Watch what you drink
If you’re someone who loves drinking piña coladas and getting caught in the rain, then you better be ready to hide that piña colada body in a rain jacket, because sugary drinks like this are going to do some damage.
You can’t expect to eat candy bars for breakfast and still rock a killer body, so, in the same vein, you can’t expect to drink sugar-packed drinks all night and keep that figure you’ve been sculpting at the gym.
Instead, reach for purer drinks that aren’t mixed with sugar bombs like juices and simple syrup. Tequila + soda + fresh lime is my go-to cocktail that promises to keep my night fun with a dash of spice, but won’t reverse all the work I put in at Pilates.
Rule #2. Watch how much you drink
According to a study, you can get away with the occasional 1-3 drinks and not have it affect your workout and muscle building at all. The key word here is occasional. This doesn’t mean hitting up every happy hour during the week, and then sending it on Friday and Saturday.
This means, realistically, choosing one day a week to drink a reasonable amount to keep your beach bod workout regime on-track. The key word here is reasonable. This doesn’t mean pregaming with 10 White Claws before moving on to the liquor.
Rule #3. Choose wisely what to eat when drunk
While getting drunk isn’t ideal for your workout regime or your bikini body, it may happen once in a while, and you can recover from it (after a karmic hangover, of course). However, you don’t want to make a bad night of overindulging on drinks even worse by throwing in some classic drunk food.
Cue french fries, chicken nuggets, pizza, chips — all the tasty treats your sober self deprives you of. Once your drunk alter ego takes the reins, all hell breaks loose and within a matter of minutes, you’ve consumed enough calories for an entire football team.
There is maybe 1% of the population that makes healthy food decisions when drunk. Thus, if you’re getting drunk on the reg, and indulging in these drunk foods, you need to reevaluate your expectations of the damage control you can do in the gym.
If you’d rather live life to its fullest, imbibing and indulging whenever you want to, then great! We are allllll about that approach to life.
Just know the price you pay if you expect your workouts to reverse those indulgences. Because news flash: they won’t. No matter how many hours you put in at the gym, your life outside of working out has to scream “health” to get the results you’re after.
Rule #4. Time your drinks & your workouts correctly
Believe it or not, there is a science to timing your drink/workout combo. I’m guessing it’s no surprise to hear that pounding beers before jumping into some cardio will guarantee a one-way ticket on the struggle bus. Burnout hits much faster post-drinks thanks to your body’s decline in energy (glucose) to use in your cardio.
Your body also metabolizes alcohol before it metabolizes food, and, as it turns out, alcohol doesn’t make the best fuel for a workout.
When it comes to weightlifting, the rules are a bit different. While I’m not suggesting that you drink before strength training, drinking after is much worse. Post-lift drinking means a longer recovery time for your body, and any weightlifter knows recovery time is of great import.
So if you’re looking to hit the gym again soon, consider skipping out on the pregame workout.
Rule #5. Don’t drink to the hangover zone
If only the repercussions of drinking ended once we woke up the next morning. While I can’t do anything about the life choices you made, and I can’t unsend that late-night text to your ex, I can give you one more reason not to drink yourself into the Sunday Scaries: your workout.
A hangover comes with much more than a headache and regret. It comes with an electrolyte imbalance, hypoglycemia, stomach issues, and the inability to get a good night’s sleep. Add these things together and they do not equal the ideal conditions for a workout.
And guess what? According to molecular biologist Patrick Schmitt (as shared in a Business Insider article), there is no way to cure a hangover. Yes, you read that right. He claims that drinking water, sweating, exercising, etc. will NOT make your hangover disappear quicker. That’s because Schmitt thinks that alcohol does not dehydrate your body like everyone thinks. Thus, neither drinking water between taking shots nor pounding water the next day will have an effect on your hangover.
I’m not sure if I’m ready to drink the Kool Aid that Schmitt is selling, but it’s certainly something to think about. Regardless, you should always be sure to drink plenty of water for normal body function — just maybe don’t rely 100% on water to cure your hangover.
So if your typical Sunday routine is a hangover full of regrets and guilt for what you’ve done to your body, then you better change your expectations for your workout routine, and what that means for your summer body.
Staying aligned with your workout and your body goals doesn’t have to mean saying “sayonara” to fun. Instead it means having a more thoughtful approach to drinking. But I’ll leave it up to you to determine what your definition of “thoughtful” is.
