Sunday, November 30, 2008

Alcohol and Muscle Building, Don't Mix Them Please

By Ricardo d Argence

There are people who wonder if alcohol affects muscle building. The studies and research shows that if you drink alcohol, your workout will not be as effective, as well as that you will deplete your body of important vitamins.

Protein is a key ingredient in muscle building and as such should not be interfered with. Unfortunately, alcohol impairs protein synthesis. Protein synthesis is the process by which amino acids are joined together to create complete proteins, alcohol consumption has been shown to slow this process by 20%.

The level of testosterone in the body is another factor in muscle building. If you are a woman and you are looking to build muscle mass, you will notice that woman develop lees muscle mass than men. Because of the low levels of testosterone, woman have 15 to 20 times less than men do. What does that have to do with alcohol? Alcohol not only decreases testosterone, it also increases estrogen.

Consuming alcohol causes the kidneys to use large amounts of water in able to process the toxin. Yes, the body recognizes alcohol as a toxin. Do not let this happen you will quickly become dehydrated.

Nerves control muscles and nerves produce the stimuli to contract muscles from electrolyte minerals dissolved in water. Further more water lubricates the joints and protects them from injury during workouts.

Drinking alcohol robs your body of key vitamins. Alcohol depletes Vitamins B, C and A; in addition to calcium and phosphorous. If you consider the most important vitamins to develop healthy muscles are B and C, that is just one more reason that drinking alcohol while building muscle is such a big deal.

In order to build muscle, you must breakdown fat deposits while increasing muscle mass. Alcohol works against this effort. Alcohol works against this effort. Alcohol contains empty calories, that is a calorie with no nutritional benefit. It also has twice as many calories as carbohydrates and protein.

While we are on this subject, it should be noted that calories consumed while drinking are the first ones to be burned. Alcohol calories are burned first, then fat stores are a energy backup. You will find that there are things that don't work and do work when exercising. You need to know which exercises will help you meet your goals and what will work against you.

We have examined most of the major points on alcohol and bodybuilding, however, you have to consider the other affects of alcohol on the body. Prolonged use can lead to liver damage, diabetes and a host of other medically related problems. It will be increasingly difficult to build muscle if you suffer any one of these. At the end of the day, is it really worth the cost?

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