Can sport and alcohol go together?

Picture this: you leave work, a bit tired from your day, and have a glass or two without anything to eat. Your head starts to spin, your legs get heavy and you start talking more. You may even start waxing philosophical! Or, that's what you think anyway. But what's actually happening when you drink alcohol? Have a few too many drinks, and the alcohol will make you uninhibited and euphoric - at least in the short term - due to the production of dopamine, which is often known as the "feel-good hormone". While the short-term effects of alcohol may be pleasant, what follows is generally less so, as you're likely aware of: you may experience a loss of balance and coordination, nausea etc. Know that feeling where everything seems to be spinning when you lie down? How many times have you said, "OK, that's it, I'm never drinking again, ever...”? 

Let's look at things in chronological order to see if sport and alcohol are ever a good mix. First, let's consider doing a sports activity after having had a drink or two… Yoann Morvan, a doctor of sports medicine, was game for answering our questions. He doesn't see much benefit to doing sport after putting one or more cold ones away. “Alcohol causes problems with coordination, along with poor balance and effort management”, says Yoann. “After drinking, you aren't able to manage your body in the space around you, and your movements are slower and less precise. The dehydrating effect of alcohol will make you tired faster, and you'll have less strength in your muscles. Your performance will be much less intense. Studies have shown that with just one glass of alcohol, an athlete's performance diminishes.”
Alcohol also has an anxiety-reducing effect, which some might view as a positive thing ahead of a competition. “When you have a drink, it's true that it relaxes you”, says Yoann. “But reducing stress when you're doing sport isn't necessarily a good thing - it plays an important role in performance and stimulates the body. Stress releases hormones that prepare you for certain situations. Drinking interferes with this natural mechanism. When you lower your stress, you also lose some of your reflexes and physical abilities. During a match, for example, you'll have a slower reaction time and won't be able to understand what's happening as quickly or anticipate other players' actions. Your understanding of the environment will be altered, plus your chance of injury goes up: when you're less able to manage your environment and your body, you may move wrong, miscalculate your movements or even just fall.” 

There's one last possibility that we haven't yet looked at that could give us some wiggle room: the famous post-exercise recovery beer, often mentioned to celebrate an accomplishment (usually with a group)… Is this a winning combination? Alas, no, my fellow sports enthusiasts. Once again, Yoann breaks down those old clichés and recommends finding a healthier post-sport option! “When you do sport, your muscles are subject to microtears. As you get fitter, they heal, become more resistant and react better to physical effort. But for that to happen, you need to give yourself some recovery time to rest and rehydrate. Drinking alcohol after sport is not really a great idea, because as we mentioned before, alcohol will dehydrate you and limit your ability to recover, especially with regard to glycogen production, at exactly the moment when you need it most.” And as you probably realise, beer is indeed an alcoholic beverage. Brewer's yeast, which is high in protein and full of vitamins, may be healthy, but beer alone will not help you recover. “Beer, like other alcohols, has a diuretic effect and will cause you to lose water and trace elements. Drinking alcohol after doing sport reduces the benefit of your effort and disrupts muscle recovery.”