How alcohol affects your fitness levels
Herbert Okeny was eager to lose a potbelly that has become such a burden, making breathing difficult while climbing stairs. For some time now, he has been consistent with jogging in the morning but nothing has changed.
However, despite his diligence and tenacity, every evening, he meets up with friends at his favourite bar for a few beers before heading home.
For some, alcohol and fitness are two peas in a pod where they will come out of a steam bath or sauna and then drown a few bottles of liquor. For others, it is a beer party after a marathon in form of celebration.
However, experts have every reason to believe that the two cannot mix and never should. Here is why:Negatively affects performance.
Dr Ataro Stephen Ayella, a public health consultant, says when someone regularly drinks alcohol, it will act as a sedative, hence hampering functionality. That weakens hand and eye coordination, impairs one’s judgement, slowing down their reaction time.
“With slow reaction, one is likely to easily miss a step when working out. They may also not be aware of their environment, which will impair their optimal performance. That will not only affect how the person functions in their daily activities but also how they work towards their fitness goals. That is not forgetting the high possibility of sustaining injuries,” he says.
Hampers weight loss targets
Jonah Kirabo, a fitness trainer at Go Fit Centre, says during a workout, muscles build up and get trained, which in the long run leads to weigh loss. However, alcohol often contains empty calories that will fill you up without giving you any nutritional value.
“Therefore, when one takes alcohol right after exercising, they scale back on their weight loss goals because they are simply piling calories they hoped to lose. This also slows down muscle recovery and building while fat burning is not as expected,” he says.
Owing to its high concentration of processed sugars, consuming alcohol also means the body gets an overload of glycaemia (presence of glucose in blood) whose sudden increment causes bloating, making exercising…
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