What a Few Drinks Actually Does to Your Training
A member asked me last week why her Saturday sessions have been so flat all summer. We went through sleep, food, the heat, her programme. Then she mentioned the two or three glasses of wine most evenings since the holidays started.
The biggest effect is on sleep, and it's the opposite of what it feels like. Alcohol gets you to sleep faster, and it's why people use it. But it suppresses the deep and REM sleep in the first half of the night and fragments the second half, so you wake at four, or you wake at seven having been unconscious for eight hours and feel like you've had five. Sleep is where the adaptation happens. Train hard, sleep badly, and you've done the work without collecting the payment.
The second effect is on muscle repair. Alcohol after training blunts the process that turns a hard session into new muscle. Not catastrophically, and not forever — but if you lift on Thursday and drink on Thursday, Thursday's session is worth less than it should have been.
Third, and most practically: it costs you the next morning. Not just a hangover. Even a couple of drinks reliably takes the edge off your engine, your coordination and your willingness to be at the gym at half five.
So, the numbers. UK guidance is no more than 14 units a week for both men and women, spread over three or more days, with several drink-free days. For scale, a large 250ml glass of wine is about 3 units, a pint of standard-strength beer about 2.3, a bottle of wine about 10. Most people are considerably over 14 and would say they drink moderately, because a large glass at home is closer to two pub measures.
What I'd do:
Don't drink the night before a session you care about. That single rule fixes most of it, and it's easier to keep than a general intention to cut down.
Put three drink-free nights in the week, and name them. Same principle as booking a class — a decision made once beats a decision made every evening.
Pour a measure rather than a glassful, and put a glass of water beside it. Most of the overshoot is portion, not occasions.
I'm not telling anyone to stop. I like a drink. But if you're training three times a week, eating well, and wondering why nothing's shifting, this is the variable most people haven't touched — and it's the one that moves fastest when you do.
Three weeks until term. Try a fortnight of three dry nights and see what your Saturday session feels like.
If the thought of walking into a gym makes you wince, this is exactly who we built the place for. Book a free, no-obligation 15-minute chat with Jeremy or Beth at crossfitchiltern.com — no hard sell, and most of us hadn't trained in years when we started. We'll build a plan around your life, not a generic template.
