Damn You Booze Part 2

So yesterday I started my new routine of heavy lifting. My last two weeks of circuit training went really well but I like to change it up a bit so I'm on to lifitng weights for muscle gain. I started yesterday because I want to get in three days of lifting this week before I go out of town on Friday (sad business, I don't want to talk about it). As luck would have it, yesterday was also the SF Beer Week event at Pete's. After reading up on booze and weight loss I started to wonder about booze and muscle building. SO I looked it up. http://www.askmen.com/sports/bodybuilding_200/218_fitness_tip.html

As you would imagine, drinking and working out are counter productive in the areas of both fat loss AND muscle building. When you drink, a substance is produced in the liver that is toxic to testosterone. Testosterone is essential for building muscle so you shouldn't expect to build a lot of muscle if you drink while lifting. That sounds funny but you know what I mean.
In addition, alcohol can affect your bodys production of growth hormone. Apparently growth hormone is mostly produced during the early hours of sleep and since alcohol disrupts normal sleep patterns, you're not going reap the same benefits on your muscles if you drink. This makes sense if you've blacked out and still felt exhausted in the morning. And afternoon. And evening.
Finally the most obvious issue with boozing while in a lifting phase, recovery. If you're trying to build muscle, your body has to spend energy recovering from the muscle tissue damage you've done during your workout. But when you get shmammered, your body has to spend energy repairing that damage too so your muscles are going to take a back seat.

In conclusion, fun boozing is bad. If you can keep it to one or two then you're safe.  But if you're like me:
 "IT'S SO GOOD! ONCE IT HITS YOUR LIPS IT'S SO GOOD!"



Stay tuned tomorrow when I get into HIIT or High Instensity Interval Training. Sara's really into it right now and I think it's going to be my plan for non lifting days. I felt pretty good when I tried it today.

Until next time


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