True or False: The Occasional Weekend Alcohol Binge Does not Hamper Skeletal Muscle Hypertrophy, Will Not Decrease Testosterone and Cannot Impair Your Strength & Recovery

Brain & muscle get along astonishingly well. Booze & muscle don't.

A glass of wine from time to time. That's not a proper rhyme and probably less beneficial for your health than the rave press-released about "French Paradoxes" and the potent health effects of the negligible amounts of resveratrol in red wine would suggest, but it's certainly not as bad as a regular weekend binge - a habit with health consequences that go far beyond the well-known damaging effects on the liver. It has also been associated with reductions in brain volume (Liesdahl. 2013) and acute reductions in grey matter blood supply (Serrador. 2013).

Regular alcohol consumption will also increases the risk of stroke (Rantakömi. 2014), messes with cardiovascular health (Ryu. 2014) and disturbs your sleep (Canham. 2014).

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I could probably extend this list by another 10 items, but I intend to focus on only one. The effects of alcohol consumption and hormonal alterations related to muscle hypertrophy, as they have recently been reviewed by Antnio Bianco in the peer-reviewed journal Nutrition & Metabolism (Bianco. 2014). 
As Bianci et al. point out, alcohol consumption in Western countries is on the rise and that in spite of the fact that most people know about the negative effects of regular ethanol intake on organ tissue.

What most people don't take into account are the many far-reaching changes that occur way before the first liver cells die. Hormonal changes like the catabolic increase in adrenal gland secretion of steroid hormones with profound effects on glucose, bone and muscle metabolism. No wonder

"[a]cute alcohol consumption also impacts on neural function, cardiovascular function, thermoregulatory function and can cause skeletal muscle myopathyes such as the alcoholic myopathy" (Bianco. 2014)

Yep, muscular diseases, myopathies, are in fact a very common consequence of alcohol consumption and the fact that they occur in response to impairments of skeletal muscle hypertrophy makes them relevant even for those of us whose alcohol consumption is a dozen of Tequilas away from qualifying as an alcoholic.

Even the occasional weekend binge can ruin the results you've been working for in the gym

Figure 1: The threshold intake for acute hormonal effects, here increases in cortisol, appears to be >1.5g ethanol per kg body weight (Bianco. 2014)

It's true, the hormonal downstream effects of ethanol are significant enough to impair the training induced increase in protein synthesis. As it turns out the "big" and "fast" type II fibers, you're trying to build, when you're hitting the weights are particularly susceptible to the negative effects of ethanol (Preedy. 1994; Vary 2008) - a decrease in basal protein synthesis by 15% to 20% even 24 hr after a weekend binge is nothing out of the ordinary (Hong-Brown. 2001). 

Against that background it's no wonder that the average alcoholic has sticks, where other have legs and arms. The amount of muscle you are carrying around is after all determined by the difference between protein synthesis and degradation.

Both, synthesis and degradation are obviously affected by the presence of alcohol, which increases the expression of the "muscle growth break" myostatin and inhibits the ability of IGF-I or insulin

• to stimulate protein synthesis (-30-60%) for 72h
• to slow proteolysis and thus counter the natural breakdown of muscle

When consumed in doses of 1.5g/kg ethanol will also mess with the regular rhythmic production of testosterone and reduce its serum levels by 23% for approximately 24h (Välimäki. 1990). In that the currently available evidence indicates that testosterone acts as a testicular toxin, where it can reduce testosterone synthesis rates with no negative influence on the hypothalamus signals to the testes.

Booze can have short-lived testo- sterone boosting effects | learn more

Alcohol has virilizing effects in women: It may sound paradox, but inasmuch as it suppresses the testicular testosterone production ethanol can also increase the production of androgens in the adrenal glands - for men the contribution of adrenal androgens is irrelevant, for women, on the other hand, the alcohol-induced (over-)production of androgens paves the way to menstrual irregularity, PCOS, fertility issues, breast cancer and other health problems that are associated with high androgen and / or unbalanced androgen:estrogen levels in females.

In this context it may also be worth mentioning that the effects depend on the baseline hormonal status. In an acute study, administration of a single dose of ethanol (0.7 g/kg), for example, had no significant effect on plasma estrone and estradiol levels in healthy postmenopausal women who were not receiving estrogen replacement therapy (ERT; Ginsburg et al., 1996). In those women who were receiving oral ERT, however, ethanol significantly (P<.01) increased estradiol levels by 300% from baseline values after 50 min of alcohol ingestion.

In conjunction with the increased aromatization (=conversion to estrogens) of androgens and decreased clearance of estrogens in men consuming high(er) amounts of ethanol, the reduction in androgen levels can induce a low androgen + high estrogen state that can be similarly problematic for men and women.

"Alcohol? Unhealthy? Bullshit!" - Educated ignorance at US colleges

Against that background it's actually quite disturbing that only 10% of the randomly selected students in a nationally representative sample of 4-yr colleges in the United States say that avoid alcohol due to the potential ill health effects. The fact that even among collegiate athletes only 12.1% are convinced abstainers is - in my humble opinion - nothing but hilarious (Nelson. 2001). You disagree? Well, I guess you find "alcohol could make me fat" (30%) or "costs too much" (30%) both of which were mentioned by 30% of the athletes and 23% and 27% of the non-athletes more convincing, ha?

Alcohol exacerbates the training induced reductions in muscular force production (Barnes. 2010a)

Enough of the ranting - Let's take stock, now: Alcohol impairs protein synthesis, specifically in the fast-twitch "easy-growing" type II fibers. Alcohol nullifies the anabolic and anti-catabolic effects of insulin and IGF-1 on skeletal muscle. Alcohol increases myostatin and puts a break on muscle growth. Alcohol intoxicates the testes, reduces testosterone production in men and messes with the estrogen to androgen ratio in men and women. And, last but not least, alcohol impairs post-workout glycogen re-synthesis (Burke. 2003) and augments the loss of force associated strenuous eccentric exercise (Barnes. 2010a,b).

You can hardly need more reasons to be convinced that this true of false article is dealing with a "false" hypothesis. Alcohol will hamper skeletal muscle hypertropyh, it will decrease your testosterone levels and it will impair your strength and recovery. So, do you really want more good reasons to stay away from booze in general and "above-threshold" doses of 1.5g/kg, in particular?

Reference:

• Barnes, M.J.; Mundel, T. "Stannard, S.R. Acute alcohol consumption aggravates the decline in muscle performance following strenuous eccentric exercise." J. Sci. Med. Sport. 13 (2010a):189-193. 
• Barnes, M.J.; Mündel, T; Stannard, S.R. "Post-exercise alcohol ingestion exacerbates eccentric-exercise induced losses in performance." Eur. J. Appl. Physiol. 108 (2010):1009-1014. 
• Bianco, Antonino, et al. "Alcohol consumption and hormonal alterations related to muscle hypertrophy: a review." Nutrition & Metabolism 11.1 (2014): 26.
• Burke, L.M.; Collier, G.R.; Broad, E.M.; Davis, P.G.; Martin, D.T.; Sanigorski, A.J.; Hargreaves, M. "Effect of alcohol intake on muscle glycogen storage after prolonged exercise." J. Appl. Physiol. 95 (2003): 983-990.
• Canham, Sarah L., et al. "Binge drinking and insomnia in middle‐aged and older adults: the Health and Retirement Study." International journal of geriatric psychiatry (2014).
• Ginsburg, Elizabeth S., et al. "Effects of alcohol ingestion on estrogens in postmenopausal women." JaMa 276.21 (1996): 1747-1751.
• Hong-Brown LQ, Frost RA, Lang CH: Alcohol impairs protein synthesis and degradation in cultured skeletal muscle cells. Alcohol Clin Exp Res 25 (2001):1373–1382. 
• Lisdahl, Krista M., et al. "Recent binge drinking predicts smaller cerebellar volumes in adolescents." Psychiatry Research: Neuroimaging 211.1 (2013): 17-23.
• Nelson, Toben F., and Henry Wechsler. "Alcohol and college athletes." Medicine and Science in Sports and Exercise 33.1 (2001): 43-47.
• Preedy VR, Salisbury JR, Peters TJ. "Alcoholic muscle disease: features and mechanisms." J Pathol 173 (1994):309–315.
• Rantakömi, S. H., et al. "The frequency of alcohol consumption is associated with the stroke mortality." Acta neurologica Scandinavica (2014).
• Ryu, Mikyung, et al. "Modifying Effects of Resting Heart Rate on the Association of Binge Drinking with All-cause and Cardiovascular Mortality in Older Korean Men: the Kangwha Cohort Study." Journal of Epidemiology (2014).
• Serrador, Jorge M., Jenna Tosto, and Shieak Tzeng. "Effects of binge drinking on brain blood flow." The FASEB Journal 27 (2013): 1186-12.
• Välimäki, Matti, et al. "The pulsatile secretion of gonadotropins and growth hormone, and the biological activity of luteinizing hormone in men acutely intoxicated with ethanol." Alcoholism: Clinical and Experimental Research 14.6 (1990): 928-931.
• Vary TC, Lang CH. "Assessing effects of alcohol consumption on protein synthesis in
  striated muscles." Methods Mol Biol 447 (2008): 343–355. 

Adelfo Cerame - Road to The Wheelchair Nationals '12: Bring Your Cucumbers to Vegas! Or, How Intermittent Fasting Can Make a Road-Trip Bodybuilding Compatible

Image 1: When a bodybuilder heads to Vegas, its either for the Arnold or because he knows the difference between passion and obsession.

I don't know what to say, but somehow I think I am kind of jealous. My friend Adelfo is heading to Vegas and I am sitting here in the rainy cold, reading about how he is preparing not for the contest, but for three wild days in Las Vegas! I mean if it were for the Arnold's... but no, it is just for fun! And you know what? That is exactly what it takes to be successful - making bodybuilding your passion, not your obsession. How that works? Well, I guess I will hand over to Adelfo give you his rundown of the fundamentals, like choosing hard liquor over beer and making sure to be in a drunken stupor not before the bar, but before your feeding window closes ;-)

Viva Las Vegas! There is no life beyond, but a life with bodybuilding!

Las Vegas! That's the place to be... well, it will be for me over the next three days - belated birthday celebrations ;-) And yes, I remember that I have a show coming up in just a few weeks. Do you, by the way remember, that I told you these days were coming right at the beginning of my prep? You know that I am pretty meticulous, when it comes to planning things ahead and this belated birthday present is part of the plan, so to say. So, yes: I am nine weeks out, and going to be out f@cking around in Las Vegas for 3 days. Why? Simply because I can get away with it. Remember what the rapper Suga Free once said? "If you stay ready, then you ain't gotta get ready!"... exactly that, "staying ready", is what I have been doing since October 1st and this is why I am now able to enjoy life without the slightest touch of OCD.

Recipe of the week: My Leafless Crunchy Salad

I don’t know about you all, but I hate lettuce! It’s not filling at all! And it takes a whole bag just to fill you up! I prefer crunchy cucumbers, squash, zucchinis and fruit in my salad!

Ingredients:

• sliced cucumbers, zucchinis and squash
• a couple sticks of sliced celery
  (slice into small pieces)
• 2 cups of sliced strawberries
• 1-2 sliced kiwis
• ½ cup of blueberries
• ½ cup of cherry tomatoes
• 2-3 tbs. of sliced almonds
• 1 packet of truvia (stevia)
• red wine vinegar
• sea salt & pepper 

Macros: 30-40g of carbs (all from the fruits)/ 5g fat

Tip: Sprinkle sea salt, pepper, truvia, and red wine vinegar to liking. I don’t count macros in veggies, so load up on as much cucumbers, zucchini and celery as you want.

I am - and I hope this does not sound too narcissistic - at a point where I am really confident with my work ethic and the current level of my physique. So confident, in fact, that I can actually enjoy the upcoming days in Vegas without feeling guilty. And let's be honest, even if I made an effort to really f*** things up - how much permanent damage can you possibly do within 3 days?

A modified routine can keep you on track even when you are "behind the enemy lines"

Image 2: A recipe from Martin Berkhan’s LeanGains website - Vanilla Vodka, lime or lemon wedges, cinnamon & brown sugar… light in calories & carbs, and straight to the point after a couple shots!
. 

Will I try to mess things up? I guess, you should know me too well by now to buy that off me, aren't you? Obviously I will still be sticking to my routine: My fast and feeding protocols, my commitment to eat whole nutrient dense foods, and I will still train. To make that work, I will have to apply a few tweaks to my usual routine. First and foremost, I will have to reschedule the feeding and fasting windows, so that they allow me to stay up late and consume the one or other alcoholic beverage... and yes, practically, this means that I will be drinking alcohol only during my feeding hour. With regard to the type of beverages I will be selecting, it should be obvious that beer, with its tons of carbs and useless calories is a complete no-go.

I'll stick to the real man's choice: hard liquor ;-) 

 For a lightweight like me this has another advantage. My tolerance for alcohol is so low nowadays that all I would need is 5-6 shots… maybe 10, and I’m feeling a good mellow buzz for the night.

Traveling is no excuse to let yourself go!

Bodybuilder or traveling salesman, being on the road is not excuse to let yourself go. It may take a little planning and probably ain't as convenient as going to McDonald's but even a bodybuilder can maintain his regular nutritional regimen while traveling or being on vacationing. For me this means that

• Boiled chicken breast
• Cucumbers
• Fruits
• Whey protein
• Creatine monohydrate
• Quest bars (I’ll buy some at my gym after I train this Thursday morning before I hit the road)

are part of the luggage I am going to bring with me to Vegas. Five items... plus the simple rule to make sure to order animal meats and veggies, when I go out to dinner - that is all it takes!

Traveling-Tip: Whenever you are out on a short vacation like mine, make sure one of the days is a re-feed day ;-) I, for my part, am already looking forward to the all-you-can-eat buffets I am going to hit on Sunday...

Diet to live, don't live to diet!

I just realized that the thrill of anticipation has carried me away, somewhat, but I guess you got my main message, anyway. Whatever diet you are on, if it is not flexible enough to incorporate a short vacation weeks before you step on stage, it probably ain't worth sticking to, anyway. I mean, if you start living to diet, things begin to get out of hand... it's all about balance and setting the correct priorities at the right times.

Right now I am, by the way, at 1600 kcal per day, I decided not to take it down to 1400 kcal yet. I will re-evaluate this decision on the 1st of February, but as of now I've been enjoying the perks of increasing my calories, adding starchy carbs back into my PWO meals and having re-feed days every Sunday. And though I was initially afraid of water- or even fat gains, up to now it seems as if there have been nothing but benefits from the increase in calories, the re-inclusion of starchy carbs in my post-workout meals and the frequent re-feeds: My muscles feel fuller, my vascularity has improved, and to me it looks as if I was still getting leaner!? What do you think?

Image 3: December 24, 2011, diet was strictly protein + fat @1400kcal for the two weeks prior (left); January 13, 2012 back at 1600kcal and with 100g of carbs added back into my post-workout meals (right).

I’m still kind of baffled how my vascularity has improved. I guess it’s the organic russet potatoes, I’ve been eating after my workouts along with the SlinShot "nutrient repartitioner" by PurusLabs. I guess, you could also argue, though that the fuller muscles just shine a bit more, now that I am at an overall lower body fat level. But with all the nutritional, and training methods that I’ve been playing around with for the past couple of months it is difficult, ... no, it is impossible to pinpoint the one factor that is responsible for the success and that, as surprising as it may seem, actually is "the one" factor that will eventually make you succeed: Finding the right mix of dietary and training techniques that works for you, person A at timepoint T1. For me that was no-to-low carb at T1, but now that I have achieved a body fat level, where it becomes increasingly harder for my body to run on fat for fuel exclusively, an adequate intake of carbohydrates post-workout that will suffice to replenish my glycogen stores appeared to be exactly what was necessary to avoid stagnation or regress.

Three days in Vegas and still 8 weeks to go!

Image 4: The re-addition of starchy carbs into my Slinshot supplemented post-workout meals made a hell of difference in terms of vascularity.

After my Vegas weekend, I will be hitting my 8-week mark. On Monday, to be precise. And from there on, it is no more planned distractions, no more holidays and no more birthdays to celebrate! It’s just going to be eight solid weeks of proper dieting and intense training. More than enough time to make all the necessary adjustments to get ridiculously shredded without burning myself out. For now, however, I am going to enjoy the little mini vacation... my well-deserved break before I will be bound to the gym and the kitchen for eight full weeks, in the course of which I will try really hard to push to my personal limits with both my training and my nutritional regimen... so I guess we will see if, in those weeks to come, I will still be able to say that "this has been one of the easiest preps by far"... but for now, I will pack my clothes and food for the trip and hope that I am going to see you here, next Thursday, eager to hear, or I should say, read how the road-trip effected  my physique :-)

Ultimate Post-Workout Testosterone Booze: Hard Liquor Increases Late PWO Testosterone Levels by Almost 100%

"No pain no gain?" No, that ain't the blood dropping from you wound hands.Those are the remnants of your next goto PWO drink. A Bloody Mary!

While I have been covering all sorts of testosterone-related stuff within the past couple of weeks, one thing has still been missing: The classic herb from the darkest jungle that'll increase the testosterone levels of one out of the two testers the respective company claims to have beta-tested their product on by whatever incredible percentage. Ok, I must admit, I don't have such an herb at hand at the moment, but what about Bloody Mary? No, not for the tomato juice, although that would be an awesome addition (learn more about "TomatoRade(R)") to the alcohol!

Alcohol? You're kiddin' me... right!?

At least at first glance it certainly looks as if you could hardly find better news for all the partying muscle heads out there, than the soon-to-be-published paper by Jakob L. Vingren, David W. Hill, Harsh Buddhadev, and Anthony Duplanty from the Department of Kinesiology, Health Promotion and Recreation at the University of North Texas (Vingren. 2013). After all, the four Texans discovered that the ingestion of booze instead (and probably also along with) your protein shake after your workout will prolong and amplify the "anabolic state" you're in once you leave the gym fo a couple of hours. Bullshit? No, it's not April the first, yet.

The participants were 8 healthy previouly resistant trained men (21-34 years; 87.7kg, 177 cm, 15.1 % body fat) who performed 6 sets of 10 repetitions of Smith machine squats starting at 80% of 1RM and 2 min of rest between sets (assisted forced reps, when necessary) after an appropriate warm-up:

Figure 1: Relative changes in free and total testosterone, SHBG, the testosterone to cortisol ratio and estradiol levels; data expressed relative to values at rest (Vingren. 2013)

You see? No changes in SHBG, cortisol and only a statistically non-significant increase in estradiol, but a persistent elevation of free and total testosterone. How that works? Well, you just pick a drink of your choice (the scientists obviously simply dilluted ethanol in water so that the mixture would have 19%) and drink as much of it as would be necessary to cover your "post workout ethanol requirements" of 1.09g/kg of lean body mass.

Want to know more about the net gains / fat loss testosterone produces? Or are you interested in the negative consequences of really low testosterone levels? Click here to learn more.

Did you know that a very recent study from the University of Chile shows that testosterone works its muscle building magic via the very same PI3K/Akt and mTOR pathways you are targeting with your hitherto non-alcoholic post-workout nutrition (Basualto-Alacon. 2013)? Since testosterone does yet also act on the androgen receptor, it can't be excluded that the effects are (a) additive / synergistic or (b) a certain degree of T-induced androgen receptor activation is necessary for the PI3K/Akt pathway to work. If you want to learn more about post workout browse through previous article on the matter, here.

A guy with a lean body mass of 65kg, for example would need ~71g of pure alcohol. That's about 668ml of regular red wine or drink enough Bloody Mary's to his TBA (testosterone boozing allowance) of ~165ml of vodka (100% proof). If we further assume he gets his Bloody Mary mixed according the standards of the International Bartenders Association, he would have to make room for 4x Bloody Marys in his gymbag ;-)

Sound easy right? But does it help at all?

You probably did not start boozing already, right? Otherwise you would not pose smart questions like the one in the above subheading. Obviously, the researchers asked themselves a very similar question: Can this poison really be ergogenic? Unfortunately, their answer does not really go beyond serving us the same old paradigm of the "anabolic milieu", the validity of which is more than questionable (suggested read: "Does the "PWO Elevation of Testosterone Influence Muscle Growth?"):

Strength, cardio or both for the optimal T:C ratio? (learn the answer)

"Although the T:C [ratio between testosterone and cortisol] is a crude measure, it response shows that the elevated in testosterone in the latter stages of recovery following ethanol ingestion is not associated with a corresponding elevation in cortisol, a hormone with catabolic and anti-anabolic physiological effects. The results for the T:C ratio suggest that a more  anabolic milieu exists during the latter stages of recovery from resistance exercise following ethanol ingestion." (Vingren. 2013)

In the researchers defense, it does yet have to be said that they do not simply ignore the fact that the significance of workout induced changes in the "anabolic milieu" in terms of immediate skeletal muscle growth may have been overrated.

Now, while we do not have any studies on the "the effect of post-exercise ethanol ingestion on protein accretion" (Vingren, 2013), we do have studies showing that the ingestion of alcohol in general appears to hamper the recovery from resistance training (Barnes 2010; Barnes 2012) and increases the suppressive effect of exhausting endurance exercise on testosterone production (Heikkonen. 1996). The logical conclusion, Vingren et al. draw is thus that it "remains unclear" how the ethanol induced maintenance of high free and total testosterone levels in the hours after a workout would affect the muscular adaptation processes and their downstream effects on muscle size and strength in response to resistance exercise.

---

Bottom line: Personally I don't believe that 1.5 pints of red wine make the ideal post workout drink, not just because they are lacking protein, but rather in view of the previous research from Barnes and Heikkonen which may not disprove the possibility that 1.06g of ethanol after a workout could potentially exert "anabolic" effects that will eventually manifest in greater gains in muscle size or strength, but should suffice to rate an already highly questionable hypothesis "very unlikely".

Click on the image above to read my previous article series called "Chest Fat, Bitch Tits, Chesticles, Gynecomastia, Lipomastia and Co.: Infinite Ways to Name it, 45 Ways to Prevent It". Plus: Is your gyno in fact just too much body fat? (read more)

We should also take into account that the mechanism by which this increase or, to be precise, the absence of a decrease in total testosterone and the 2nd spike in free testosterone come about, may very well decide whether it's a good or bad thing. When I think of alcohol I usually think of the liver and, when I think of the liver, alcohol and testosterone, I think of the accumulation of estrogen in heavy drinkers with a alcoholic fatty liver, which renders them prone to develop gynecomastia. Why? Simply because their liver cannot get rid of the end-products of the hormonal cascade. So, if the higher testosterone levels are simply the result of a temporarily hampered hormone metabolism in the liver, it stands to reason that the results are unlikely to increase your strength and muscle growth, right?

Overall the study at hand is thus nice for some intellectual masturbation, but should not serve as an excuse for regular alcohol consumption. Physical culture and booze were, are and will always remain incommensurable.

References:

• Barnes MJ, Mundel T, Stannard SR. Acute alcohol consumption aggravates the decline in muscle performance following strenuous eccentric exercise. J Sci Med Sport. 2010; 13(1):189-93.
• Barnes MJ, Mundel T, Stannard SR. The effects of acute alcohol consumption and eccentric muscle damage on neuromuscular function. Appl Physiol Nutr Metab. 2012; 37(1):63-71.
• Basualto-Alarcón C, Jorquera G, Altamirano F, Jaimovich E, Estrada M. Testosterone Signals through mTOR and Androgen Receptor to Induce Muscle Hypertrophy. Med Sci Sports Exerc. 2013 Mar 6.
• Heikkonen E, Ylikahri R, Roine R, Välimäki M, Härkönen M, Salaspuro M. The combined effect of alcohol and physical exercise on serum testosterone, luteinizing hormone, and cortisol in males. Alcohol Clin Exp Res. 1996 Jun;20(4):711-6.
• Vingren JL, Hill DW, Buddhadev H, Duplanty A. Post-Resistance Exercise Ethanol Ingestion and Acute Testosterone Bioavailability. Med Sci Sports Exerc. 2013 Mar 6.