Shouldn’t workout if you’re going to drink alcohol that same night?

One drink, two drink, three drink, four, how many drinks till you hit the gym floor? You may not like the rhyming scheme, but hey, I got your attention. I don’t know about you but I am tired of hearing the myth that you can’t drink if you plan to lose weight or build muscle. Are you serious? I know everyone likes to go out and have a good time! Who doesn’t? Cherishing those Saturday nights where you head out to a cookout and you take down a few cold ones. Then, those few turn into 6,8,10, and now your stumbling to the front door. You wake up the next morning with that proverbial hangover. As you’re shaking out the cobwebs, you remember that you had s really good late day workout. You begin to shake your head in disgust wondering why you wasted a workout. All that blood, sweat, and tears was all in vain! If only it wasn’t true…

All I have to say is get your drink on my people! Go ahead and get a little drunk. I know I should not be saying this as a trainer, but don’t allow exercise to consume your life. It’s OK to drink when you’re trying to tone that body up. Even better, it’s OK to drink the same night you exercised. Isn’t that awesome!? When I first learned about that in school I was like “where’s the party at”? You see, for the longest time word on the street was “you won’t get results if you drink” or “If you drink after exercising it erases that exercise session”. Not true. In fact, you can get the same results as someone who doesn’t drink. Here’s how: Remember to keep the nutrition simple, calories in calories out. If you enjoy consuming alcoholic beverages, then you should budget those calories in your diet. Remember that these are empty calories, meaning that there is a minuscule amount of nutritional value. But hey, you can’t always have your cake and eat it too. By making that simple adjustment, you are achieving your fitness goals while not sacrificing your social life.

Now that you have the alcohol in your diet, what about drinking at night? Well, this isn’t a hard one either. As soon as the workout is completed, get some food in your system. The first 45 minutes after your workout is when the body is at peak efficiency for metabolizing nutrients. From that point on, try to keep your stomach somewhat full. This will enable the body to slow down the metabolizing of alcohol, decreasing muscle damage. Now, if you go balls to the wall and don’t consume food, it still will not cause significant muscle damage (i.e 10 reps@225 to 10reps at 195 after drinking alcohol). If you’re cutting weight, just do what I said earlier, budget the alcohol in your diet.

Look, this is what you should take away: you can still drink and see results. Bottom line! Remember, you need balance not only in your exercise regimen but in your life! Go out and have fun with friends and family and play as hard as you work. Kick some ass!

-Phil