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- Does Alcohol Interfere With Muscle Growth? 🍺
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Here are 5 studies showing how alcohol affects muscle growth. And, I’ll even teach you HOW to still have a good time while optimizing muscle growth.
We know that testosterone is good for muscle growth.
And therefore, we know that alcohol is bad for your muscle growth. Alcohol blocks the cells in your balls that produce testosterone (Leydig).
One study even found that long-term alcohol consumption caused the testicles to shrink *shutters
Alcohol even turns testosterone into estrogen.
Light drinking for some odd reason increases testosterone (1–3 drinks).
But 4–8 drinks can decrease your test from 18–40%.
It seems to be really based on how much you drink. As over 9 drinks wreck a person’s test levels. Like, a lot.
The effects of this seem to be very short-lived. In all the above studies, the subjects’ test levels were back to normal the next day. Well, except for the 9 drink study. Those people still had lower test the next day.
What about the ladies though?
Women win majorly on this subject. Because women don’t generate testosterone in the same way men do, they don’t see the negative impact on muscle growth from alcohol itself. There are other considerations though. Alchohol will still damage your overall health. And the sugar in the more fruity drinks isn’t good for you either.
Should guys not drink at all if they wanna get jacked?
You can drink if muscle growth is your only concern. If your long term health is something you’re taking seriously (which you should for obvious reasons), then I’d recommend you don’t drink at all. Or as rarely as possible.
For muscle, I’d suggest (based on the above research) you make a decision on how much you’re going to drink.
If you know you’re going out at night, and you’ll have 1-3 drinks, then you should be fine to workout that day and the next. 4-8 drinks, you should probably take that day off from the gym. 9 plus drinks, take the day off from the gym and the following day as well. Your test levels post-workout will be damaged and will therefore harm your ability to grow from that workout.
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