subject: How Alcohol Affects Your Performance As A Bodybuilder [print this page] If you want to succeed in bodybuilding discipline plays a very significant role. You need to be disciplined in such a way that you abstain from any factor which can hinder your bodybuilding progress such as alcohol use. It is quite a major challenge to avoid taking alcohol because nowadays you will come across it in any social event that you go to. However if you are a bodybuilder there are several reason why you need to avoid this social drink. It does not matter if you are just a social drinker; you need to abstain from taking alcohol completely. The reason being that alcohol greatly affects your training abilities.
The main question that a majority of bodybuilders would like to find out is the amount of calories that alcohol has. You will be shocked to find out that most alcoholic beverages contain as much as 7 calories/ gram or even higher. The other fact which puzzles most bodybuilders is the reason as to why alcohol is bad for a bodybuilder and yet it contains plenty of calories and a bodybuilder is supposed to take plenty of calories.
The reason why alcohol is not good despite the fact that it contains a lot of calories has to do with the fact that its calories are empty and don't have any nutrients. Instead of nutritional contents alcohol contains toxic substances which make you to feel nauseated until you end up vomiting. The reason why you vomit after taking a lot of alcohol is due to the increase in the body's toxicity levels. Too much alcohol has the effect of reducing your stock of vitamin B.
When you take alcohol you also end up depleting your stock of antioxidants which will make your body more susceptible to disease attacks. It also decreases your endurance during training and this affects your muscle growth. Alcohol also makes you place a lot of stress on your liver and kidney. Your immune system is also affected as a result of taking alcohol.
Alcohol intake also affects your brain and CNS very adversely. The anabolic capacity of your body is also affected. When you take alcohol your body hydration is also affected and you become extremely dehydrated. Your body fat metabolism is also affected as a result of taking alcohol and you end up storing a lot of fat.
The other reason why alcohol is not healthy is because its metabolism is very slow as well as its absorption into the body. The body is not able to rid alcohol out of the system fast. Alcohol has also the effect of affecting the coordination of your hands and eyes. If you drink 48 hours before your workout session your eye to hands coordination will be affected and this might make you get injuries when training. You might also injure your gym partner especially if your eye to hand coordination is poor and you are spotting your partner. When you take alcohol you also inhibit the body to produce plenty of testosterone which are needed for the development of the muscles.
