Q: I’m in college right now and am wondering if drinking will impact my ability to build muscle??

Ahh, the college life. With college comes drinking – it may feel like a rite of passage. For most people in this time of their life, drinking does play a role in the socialization process and something that they tend to do quite regularly.

But if you’re someone who’s focused on your goal to build more muscle mass, you may have slightly conflicted feelings about whether you want to hit up the newest bar in town come Friday night with your friends.

What’s the impact on alcohol and building muscle?

The answer to this question is that alcohol will definitely influence muscle building, but the extent depends on how much you drink.

Each time alcohol enters your system, your body is essentially going to make getting it out a priority. It views it as a toxin and is going to do everything in its power to remove it from the body – before any other processes are completed.

This means that protein synthesis, which is the process of building up lean muscle mass, will come to an immediate halt, meaning you don’t build any further muscle.

So if you do a good workout Friday morning but then go drinking Friday night, you won’t be building up any more muscle that evening, or into Saturday if you’re still nursing a hangover and getting it out of your system.  If you have one drink, then likely this won’t take too long to clear, so the impact won’t be all that great, but you must ask yourself honestly, are you only having one drink?

The truth is clear. If you want to maximize muscle building, you need to minimize alcohol drinking. While the odd drink now and then won’t harm you too much, if you’re partying weekend after weekend, seeing great muscle building results may not be in your future.