Alcohol can cause sleep issues
the cardiovascular system can increase a person’s risk of a heart attack or stroke.
While you may fall asleep quickly after drinking, it’s also common to wake up in the middle of the night. After drinking, the production of adenosine (a sleepinducing chemical in the brain) is increased, allowing you to fall asleep quickly. But it subsides as quickly as it came, making you more likely to wake up before you’re truly rested. Alcohol also blocks the most restorative sleep cycle, REM sleep, so you are likely to wake up feeling unfocused and groggy. All that alcohol also causes you to take more trips to the bathroom, disrupting your sleep even further.
Alcohol can slow down your post-run recovery
One of the biggest issues with alcohol consumption in runners is the fact that it slows down recovery. Alcohol puts a large strain on your liver, which is the same vital organ that helps the body recover from exercise. One of the liver’s jobs is to monitor blood flow. Because increased blood flow can occur after you’ve had too much to drink, your liver focuses on trying to regulate that, rather than the body’s recovery from exercise. Therefore, it takes much longer (up to twice as long) to replenish your liver and muscle glycogen stores if you have consumed alcohol the day before a run.
The key is to not overdo it.
Finally, alcohol may impair your recovery from an acute injury or muscle soreness.
Alcohol can increase your heart rate
Your heart rate increases when you drink alcohol, as does your blood pressure. This can be particularly problematic for those with an underlying issue who then go out for a long or tough run. This extra stress on
In order to recover from an injury or a sore muscle we often ice the area to reduce blood flow and constrict blood vessels to speed healing. Unfortunately, alcohol
7
