SPEAKER_01 0:01

So, Alex, I was walking around San Francisco the other day and I saw this van that was advertising gym weed.

SPEAKER_00 0:08

Gym Weed.

SPEAKER_01 0:09

Gym Weed. And I wondered, is this what I think it is? I mean, here in San Francisco, you know, they have strains for just about everything. So is this a strain that would help you perform better at the gym?

SPEAKER_00 0:19

A strain of marijuana that increases your gym performance. Is that what it was?

SPEAKER_01 0:26

I I don't know. I mean, it could have just been a really healthy supplement. I didn't walk across the street to find out because I also learned in San Francisco you really don't want to walk up to strange vans, you know. But it was very professional, had a QR code and everything. So I guess I'll never know.

SPEAKER_00 0:41

Well, if it is, they've just gotten a free plug on this massive podcast.

SPEAKER_01 0:44

That's right, exactly.

SPEAKER_00 0:46

Update. We just Googled it. It's a it's a it's an energy drink with hemp extract.

SPEAKER_01 0:52

Oh, of course. Yeah, that's some brilliant marketing then.

SPEAKER_00 0:55

So it's not it's not actual marijuana for the gym. I had to look it up.

SPEAKER_01 1:00

Yeah, important. Facts. Facts are important. Facts matter.

SPEAKER_00 1:23

I'm Alex Johnson. And I'm Jen Chamberlain. And today we're going to talk about drinking and fitness. Does alcohol does alcohol impact your athletic performance? Can you have a few drinks with friends and still be healthy? We'll talk about all this and more. But first, Jen, are you doing dry January this year?

SPEAKER_01 1:42

Yes, I'm doing it. I'm committed. Um, while I hate New Year's resolutions, I'm kind of a fan of dry January, actually. I feel like it's a good opportunity once a year to examine my relationship with drinking and of course to give my liver a break, maybe.

SPEAKER_00 1:56

Yeah, and just for our listeners, if there are some who are not aware, dry January is exactly what it sounds like. Uh you go 31 days uh without drinking for the month of January.

SPEAKER_01 2:08

Right. Yeah, yeah. Good explainer. You know, I think actually it started um more in the UK and Europe and spread to the United States, but it's actually quite popular here. I know uh one person who doesn't like that, uh, my brother-in-law, who's a bartender, but um that aside, yeah, consider it, you know, a form of mindfulness practice. And, you know, on a serious note, alcohol is legal and it's quite integrated into our culture, but it is, after all, an addictive substance. So I think we always should be mindful of that. What about you, Alex?

SPEAKER_00 2:35

Yeah, I'm gonna do it again this year, too. Um, I think I made it 26 days last time, so I want to try to make it the full 31. Uh, and we'll talk more about this on the podcast today, but um I definitely there's a few things I will miss during dry January. Um, and again, not that I'm some heavy drinker, but I will miss IPA Pinot Noir and the occasional scotch. What about you, gin?

SPEAKER_01 3:00

Yeah, my list is very similar. I will also miss IPAs. I really enjoy a good IPA um Pinot Noir. And for me, it would be gin and tonic. I know it's very old school, but I love gin.

SPEAKER_00 3:11

So yeah, there you go. It's very it's made a comeback. Uh oh, has it? Again, yeah, it's super popular again in the UK. Not that gin wasn't popular in the UK, but I just learned this over the summer uh and having visited recently with my wife. That it's sort of made a resurgence, and it's similar to what we see here with distilleries. There's like gin distilleries everywhere. Oh crack gin. Yeah, okay. It's a it's a thing. So yeah, we'll we'll miss those drinks over the next month. Uh, but today we're gonna talk about drinking and fitness.

SPEAKER_01 3:41

Yeah, so let's talk a little bit about the science around drinking and fitness. And you know, we like to bring science to our podcast. So I think, Alex, I think you and I both independently came across this really interesting article from Runner's World with the provocative title, Does Reading Have a Drinking Problem? Yes, yes, we did. And the subtitle was even more ominous. It says, A growing body of research says that no amount of alcohol is good for our fitness and health. It's time to rethink our relationship with booze.

SPEAKER_00 4:10

And that's I've seen that sort of headline a lot more recently. So it is continuing to be re-examined.

SPEAKER_01 4:19

Yeah, absolutely. Kind of like the science around so many of the things we eat and drink. There have been waves of, oh, wine is good for you. Maybe it's not. So this seems to be um coming up quite a bit. So this particular article focuses on an ultra-runner named Corey Woltering who found that he took the same hard-driving attitude toward drinking that he did toward running. And Alex, this guy was doing like a thousand mile trail ultras.

SPEAKER_00 4:42

Wow. So like the top of ultra, basically.

SPEAKER_01 4:47

Yes, yes. And so he found himself drinking for pain relief, actually drinking a beer or two during the race, like in the last few miles of the race, you know, to get through that pain that he was experiencing. So the article goes on to quote Dr. David Weyrick, a public health education professor, who says that pain relief is one of the top three reasons alc athletes, sorry, report using alcohol. The other two being stress management and as a way to celebrate. So, Alc Alex, have you ever used alcohol for pain relief?

SPEAKER_00 5:15

No, and I I mean, I know some people do that. I have not, I mean, I've used it like a lot of people do on occasion, which is for stress management, right? Right, right. Which again, does this actually work? We'll talk about that. But you know, you've you've had those days where you you have a tough day and you come home and you s and you just think, oh, I'll just have a drink. And it's it's kind of this underlying thing in your psyche where you're using alcohol for stress management. I think a lot of people have done that.

SPEAKER_01 5:46

Yes, I think so, definitely. So this article also talks about how drinking has become interwoven with running culture, and I definitely see this a lot. I would say practically all of American culture drinking has, you know, kind of sort of gotten become a part of that. But um, you know, in running, there's things like brewery runs. You and I have done a brewery run. Um, there's the beer mile, where you, I guess you run a mile and drink a beer, or you drink a beer and run a mile. I'm not really sure. But um something to do with beer and running. But yeah, it's very, very common. But um they quote another expert, Dr. George Coobe, director of the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, that concludes that almost all the benefits Americans attribute to alcohol, that it's good for your heart, that it helps you sleep, that it eases pain are false. The truth is there's no safe amount of alcohol, not even one drink a day. Whew, that's pretty sobering stuff, if you'll pardon the pun.

SPEAKER_00 6:40

Yeah, literally sobering. Uh yeah. And I mean, I I I'm not an expert on this subject, but in everything that I read, you know, I think Dr. Coobe's probably right. Uh, this is something I often think about the next day after I've had a drink. The older I get, the more I notice, you know, this is a podcast for people over 40, right? Right. The the more I notice it affects my sleep and my vigor, my vigor. I don't know why I just said vigor, that's funny, but my vigor. Uh you know, I I turned 41 in June. And this year I would say I've noticed that more than any other year of my life. Oh, wow. Yeah. So if I if I have just one or two drinks, uh and again, I'm not a heavy drinker, so that would be the max I would have uh almost exclusively. I can think of one time recently where I had three beers and I felt like I'd, you know, that was that was living on the edge for me. Uh and uh yeah, I I really notice it more the older I get. Um my Garmin Watch has that stress meter on it, and of course it does sleep tracking, and we've talked about how those things aren't, you know, perfectly accurate by any stretch of the imagination. They kind of give you insight into your health trends, right? But I have noticed if I drink in the evening and then I sleep, my sleep pattern is not as good. Um, I can actually see on that stress meter where maybe my stress is up after I go to bed. So that leads me to believe maybe my heart rate's elevated a little bit, which alcohol can do that, right? So um research shows that alcohol has a negative impact on your sleep, even though it may have that initial effect of making you sleepy or going to sleep. So, like Dr. Coop said, that we ascribe to it, oh, it's good for going to sleep. No, it's really not. It's it's and I think that for me is probably why uh I feel um maybe more tired the next day when I have alcohol, is is the impact on sleep. And as you get older, you know, sleep, sleep is always important. But I think as you get older, you feel it a little more. Um, I've tried to find studies that make me feel better about alcohol, especially in terms of my heart uh and my blood pressure. So I I do have hereditary high blood pressure. I have to take a medication for it. Um, and my physical activity plays a really big part in my life in terms of like mitigating the risk of high blood pressure. Uh, this is something my dad had, you know, my entire life. So I observed him with this as well. Uh so this is something I think about. You know, I found a few studies out there where it's, you know, there could be a connection between red wine and heart health. It's not, it's not a perfect connection, right? They see some correlation in some cases, particularly Pinot Noir, which has this higher levels of re reverse, how do you say that? Reservatol? I think it's reservator, but reservative. Yeah. Um, I also found one from the University of Belfast recently that said it. So this was interesting. All of the headlines on this study focused on just the wine aspect of it.

SPEAKER_02 9:42

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 9:44

Which it's almost like they were using this to market their study. But if you actually go and look at what the study says, it says that a diet rich in flavonoids, which could include three glasses of wine per week, can positively impact your gut microbiome and lower your blood pressure. But again, that study is not just about wine. It's right. It could include three glasses of wine, red wine per week, but there's also other foods in there like berries and apples and tea, green tea, things of that nature. So the that study, the red wine linkage was really seemed like a good way to market the study, but it, you know, it's not leading you to the conclusion to go out and just start binge drinking red wine for your blood pressure, right? Right, right. Yeah. So I, you know, there's some positive links out there between alcohol and heart health, but when you look at the balance of what's being said now, I think it leads us in the direction of Dr. Coop's quote there.

SPEAKER_01 10:38

Yeah, I think you're right. I mean, I think studies have proven that it's a pretty big stretch to think of alcohol as somehow benefiting your health. And um I have to admit, Alex, in full disclosure, I drink more than you do. Um, I easily will drink two or three drinks when I go out with my mates, you know, hey, uh, over the course of an evening, not, you know, just chugging them or whatever. Right. Uh, but I have really noticed that the older I get, the more it affects me, particularly in the sleep area and just in terms of recovery in general. So yeah, one of the things that goes along with aging, maybe nudging us in a healthier direction. And yet, there are quite a few studies that find people who exercise a lot also tend to drink more, which is why I thought this was such a good topic for this program, right? So there was this other article I came across in Outside magazine that looked into this phenomenon and they concluded that while fitter people may drink more, they're less likely to be problem drinkers, which was really interesting. So the article cites an interesting study out of the Cooper Institute in Dallas, there where you live, um, Alex.

SPEAKER_00 11:40

The world famous Cooper Institute.

SPEAKER_01 11:42

The world famous Cooper Institute. It was titled Fit and Tipsy: the Interrelationship Between Cardiorespiratory Fitness and Alcohol Consumption and Dependence. That's a nice nice title. Yeah. Um Fit and Tipsy, interesting. But anyway, I looked at data from 38,000 healthy patients ranging in age from 20 to 86. That's that's a pretty big sample size. And it's notable because it's large, but also that age range factors out college athletes. And some of the studies they looked at before among college athletes, I mean, you know, people in the United States, at least, maybe ever maybe in other countries too, tend to drink a lot in college.

SPEAKER_00 12:18

So I think that's a worldwide drink.

SPEAKER_01 12:20

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 12:21

Well, I mean, I don't know. At least I would say US and Europe, I can't speak right on that.

SPEAKER_01 12:25

So in some of the other studies, that was really skewing the research as college athletes, but this takes takes that out of the picture. And it found that moderately and highly fit people were far more likely to be moderate or heavy drinkers than less fit people. For women, being highly fit more than doubled the odds of being a moderate or heavy drinker. And for men, it increased the odds by 63%.

SPEAKER_02 12:46

Wow.

SPEAKER_01 12:47

That's quite a correlation. I mean, with that big of a number of people, but it I guess the slight upside to it was when it came to alcohol dependence, only 13% of the subjects met the criteria for alcohol dependence. And among the heavy drinking men, though not the women, the fittest were the least likely to exhibit signs of dependence. So it's really interesting. So, what are the reasons for this link? Uh the article in Outside magazine looked at a couple of possibilities. One is the so-called licensing effect. It's a psychological thing where if you feel like you've done something quote unquote good or healthy, you reward yourself by doing something bad or unhealthy.

SPEAKER_00 13:25

I have been known to partake in the licensing effect.

SPEAKER_01 13:29

Oh, yeah, yeah. You had a great run today. So how do you reward yourself, right?

SPEAKER_00 13:33

A beer.

SPEAKER_01 13:34

Yeah. And the other idea, this one, the second one was actually more interesting to me. And it was the idea that both exercise and alcohol use are influenced by the same set of personality traits. So I'll quote here a 2014 study from the University of Houston researcher Lee Leisure, for example, linked both exercise and drinking behavior to higher levels of sensation seeking, a trait that in turn is influenced by how your brain's reward circuitry processes dopamine. So she found these different uh motivations that coupled exercise and alcohol, and they dubbed these uh work hard, play hard, work hard, play hard, celebration, body image, and guilt. So in the former two, work hard, play hard, and celebration, exercise leads to drinking. And in the other two, exercise drinking leads to exercise. So you feel sort of guilty and you feel uh unfit, and so you exercise to combat that. So that last idea made a lot of sense to me. I mean, I could definitely identify with the work hard, play hard mentality.

SPEAKER_02 14:33

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 14:34

And it would also fit with the ultra runner that was quoted in the Runner's World article. You know, I try not to fall into this licensing trap, but I do tend to be 110% into whatever I do, whether it's running or a night out with my friends. Oh yeah. So we've established this link between exercise and drinking. And I want to talk a little bit more about how it really affects your performance. You already mentioned sleep a little bit, definitely that too. Um, when I've done dry January in the past, I haven't seen a lot of the great benefits everybody talks about, like losing weight. Um, but I do sleep much, much better.

SPEAKER_00 15:10

Yeah, I'll be this is something I'm interested to look at this year. I don't think I previously had a fitness tracker when I did dry January. So I think it was, I think it was two years ago. So I'm really actually super curious to see how does this impact my sleep. And again, I probably have a drink maybe three nights a week. So uh a drink or two. So I'm I'm really, really curious to see what that difference is without alcohol. And then is there any, as I like I mentioned this year especially, I felt it more. So is there any difference over the course of a month not drinking and how I feel overall over that longer time frame compared to how I felt previously?

SPEAKER_01 15:53

Exactly. So we talked about sleep quite a bit. So let's look at some other ways that alcohol might impact your performance.

SPEAKER_00 15:59

Okay, yeah. And we found surprisingly little academic research on the impact of alcohol on athletic performance. Uh there's a study from 2010 titled Alcohol, Athletic Performance and Recovery, and it's out of Deacon University in Australia, and it includes this brilliant line: Athletes, like the rest of the population, consume alcohol. That's great. Do do do do do do do do do do do breaking news. People are consuming alcohol. Yeah, that that's a good one. It goes on to conclude that, quote, given the numerous and complex mechanisms by which ethanol, which is found in alcohol, impacts uh on psychological systems, physiological systems, excuse me, it can be strongly hypothesized that elevated blood alcohol concentrations at the time of exercise will impair performance. Strongly hypothesized. However, remarkably, there are relatively few clinical trials that address this question. So the scientists are not out at these beer runs where people are pounding. Apparently not beer in between their miles, which is by the way, what they do, Jin. They run a mile, pound a beer, and then run another mile. Oh, okay. I think that's how that works.

SPEAKER_01 17:12

Um I don't think my stomach could handle that. But um yeah, just a quick comment on this. Some of the of what I saw in the research was that it because it's kind of counterintuitive that athletes would drink, is why there hasn't been as much study on this area.

SPEAKER_00 17:25

Yeah, that makes that makes sense. Uh there's also this article by sports dietitian Claire Seekanick, writing for the National Strength and Conditioning Association. And she noted that drinking alcohol before exercise can lead to, quote, compromised motor skills, decreased coordination, delayed reactions, diminished judgment, and impaired balance, and increased the athlete's risk for injury.

SPEAKER_01 17:51

Yeah, I think drinking before workout is just generally about it, especially if you were cycling, I think.

SPEAKER_00 17:57

Yeah, anything that requires balance. I will say I've noticed a drastic improvement in my golf game with just one beer. Just one beer. But after the one beer, it goes downhill.

SPEAKER_01 18:08

So same effect for me in bowling.

SPEAKER_00 18:11

Yeah, it's really bowling and golf. I think it just relaxes you just enough so that you're not like stressing. But yeah, if you drink anymore, which many people do when they play golf, uh it's not good. Same with bowling. So following up on the on the comments here about alcohol and exercise, see Kinnick goes on to say that alcohol after exercise, which is far more common, can also interfere with many aspects of the recovery process. So this is the part that's important. I mean, it's pretty intuitive that you know, drinking before exercise is bad, like we said. So but in terms of inter interfering with recovery, uh beverages containing greater than or equal to 4% alcohol can increase urine output, ultimately delaying recovery from a dehydr dehydrated state. And um, most alcoholic beverages are over four percent alcohol unless you're in like the state of Utah, right? So Right, exactly.

SPEAKER_01 19:04

That's an effect I've definitely noticed too. Dehydration, I think, is a big part of the crummy feeling that alcohol can make you feel afterwards.

SPEAKER_00 19:12

Yeah, I had this the other day where um we did a trail run and um you know, we drank some, we had a bladder with us during the trail run and drank from that, but then we went directly to the grocery store and didn't really have you know much hydration in the car on the way to the store. Shopped for an hour, came home, it was New Year's Eve, then had a bit of champagne, and then the next day I was like, oh, I'm a little dizzy this morning. I realized I was dehydrated. Dehydrated. I hadn't drank enough that uh enough water or sports beverage that previous evening. Exactly. Other other effects on recovery. Um, some people have have plugged it as a post-workout recovery beverage, but according to Scanic, because it contains carbohydrates and electrolytes, or excuse me, in actuality, even though it contains carbohydrates and electrolytes, the typical beer doesn't contain nearly enough of those things for proper recovery from a long workout with a large sweat loss. So you may be thinking like drinking your beer after your run or your your bike ride, which is very common, is a good post-workout recovery. It's it's not living up to drinks that are designed for that. Unfortunately. Yeah. I mean, it's okay. I mean, I to me that would be a good time to have one, especially if it's in like the middle of the day, but that can't be your only post-workout recovery. Exactly. Um, alcohol can limit the production of hormones associated with muscular growth. It limits the inflammatory response, which is important for recovery from injury. High doses of alcohol after resistance exercise, quote, increase cortisol levels and decrease the testosterone to cortisol ratio, which can interfere with the adaptive process of long-term resistance training. And then finally, quote, additionally, alcohol decreases testosterone secretion. Uh-oh. Therefore, excessive intake during the recovery period should be avoided for athletes striving for muscular hypertrophy or those with hormonal imbalances. And then hangovers, right, Jen? Oh, yeah. Yeah. She she says the effects of a hangover on anaerobic performance remain unclear, but overall it is probable that athletes training or competing without a hangover will enjoy a competitive edge over their hungover opponents.

SPEAKER_01 21:26

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 21:26

I love that quote. I didn't do agree with you, Claire.

SPEAKER_01 21:29

Yeah, I think that's a pretty uh healthy assumption. Um, I, you know, I have to admit I have run with hangover before, actually more than once. Most notably one morning, you and I, Alex, met up for a run in Dallas at White Rock Lake, and I was very hungover from a night before. And boy, that was unpleasant.

SPEAKER_00 21:48

I remember that. And it's what, nine, ten miles around that lake.

SPEAKER_01 21:52

Yeah, we I don't think we quite made it the whole loop, or at least I didn't. And um, yeah, that was pretty miserable. So, yeah, so what are we to make about that? Alcohol can clearly diminish your performance. But, you know, for many athletes, as the research has shown, exercise and drinking seem to go hand in hand. Um, like I said, you know, I still enjoy a couple of beverages, even after one. I think, you know, trying to make sure that that's not the only thing you drink, but it can be a nice reward after a hard workout. So what do we make of all this, Alex? What's your takeaway?

SPEAKER_00 22:22

Uh, well, it's pretty unfortunate. I mean, I th I think we probably need to drink less, or I mean, you can make the argument that we shouldn't drink at all. I mean, that's that's basically what the research is telling you. That's what you know, right? People who are knowledgeable in this space are telling you. The thing is about that, I don't know how realistic that is for everyone. Uh I mean, alcohol is interwoven into our culture, as you mentioned before. I've always been really impressed with people who have that ability to abstain from alcohol. Um, it's it's it's not just tied in with exercise like we've talked about today, but with work culture. Like people conduct business over drinks, people go out to happy hour after a hard day at work. It's connected to our family life. People drink together at the holidays uh or get togethers. Um it's connect, you know, your friends. You've mentioned you go out with your friends, you have a few drinks. Even in you know, religion, like you have wine during communion in certain religions, right? So it seems hard to avoid alcohol for most people. It takes a really, I think, impressive mindset um to abstain from it.

SPEAKER_01 23:34

I do too. I'm I'm also consistently impressed with people who just, you know, adopt an alcohol-free lifestyle for whatever reason, health or or otherwise. But I I think it's for me, you know, after dry January, it comes down to just considering all things in moderation. Um, one of the things I try to keep in mind, I think it's really important not to rationalize, not to tell ourselves that alcohol is somehow healthy, or just to think that because we exercise, it'll cancel out its negative effects. But, you know, with your eyes wide open and keeping that in mind, I still enjoy drinking in moderation, just like I enjoy an unhealthy snack or an impossible burger with fries, also not at all good for me. Um, so yeah, I'll probably continue in that mindset after dry January ends.

SPEAKER_00 24:17

And unless you just feel amazing during dry January and you decide I'm making a massive change.

SPEAKER_01 24:21

It could happen. It could happen. I won't roll it out.

SPEAKER_00 24:24

Yeah. I mean, one of our fitness fundamentals at practically fit is that fitness should be diet-friendly. So you should be able to eat and drink the things you enjoy as long as your diet is reasonably healthy and you continue your exercise program. So to me, um, this kind of falls into that category. Um, but who knows? Maybe, maybe this year is the year I go through dry January and I say, oh, you know what? I'm done. I find it unlikely giving my um affection for IPA and Pinot Noir and occasional whiskey.

SPEAKER_01 24:57

Yeah, I I think that's you know our path, but we'd love to hear from you. Tell us your stories and you know, how do you look at alcohol and fitness? What do things have worked for you, uh, what haven't? And we'd love to hear about that in the comments.

SPEAKER_00 25:10

Yeah, and if anybody's trying out dry January, feel free to tell us about that as well. Send us an email at alex at practically.fit, or you can comment on the podcast at practically.fit on our substack. So thank you for listening again. That's it for this week. Uh, after this podcast, we're taking a week off. We've done a lot of uh practically fit work through the holidays. You know, we had time off. It was really nice. So uh we're gonna take a break for a week and we'll be back with a new pat podcast on January 18th, focused on the importance of mobility and stretching as part of your recovery routine. Oh, so important. Yeah, yeah. I'm excited to talk about that subject. And again, as always, go over to practically. We would love it if you'd leave us a review of the podcast on iTunes. It would help us out a lot. And again, if you have any questions, shoot me an email, Alex at practically dot fit. And until next time, remember. Fitness is for everybody.