what does alcohol actually do to muscle gains? does it actually hinder it directly or just turn you into a lazy bastard?
Here is a small quote from john berardi’s “The big T” part2 article that was recently posted in T-Mag… "In my opinion, alcohol is the single best legal Testosterone suppressor known to mankind. And you don’t need a biochemistry experiment to realize that. Just look at the physique of any alcoholic for the evidence. And not only do chronic alcoholics suffer from low T as a result of sippin’ a cold one. Numerous studies have shown that even one night on the town can cause T levels to plummet.
In one particular study, men consumed the equivalent of giving 200 ml of alcohol to a 176-lb man. While intoxicated, T levels were 25% lower on average than before consumption. In addition, the time course of T decrease correlated exactly with blood alcohol so when blood alcohol was the highest, blood T was the lowest.(17) With even lower doses, T levels remained suppressed for 10-16 hours, even after blood alcohol returned to normal.(23,24)
As a side note, one question I’m often asked by men concerns why they get so aroused when drinking. Well gents, in addition to the decrease of inhibitions, the body is fighting to maintain Testosterone homeostasis. As a result, high amounts of LH are released in order to bring T levels back to normal. As mentioned earlier, LH is correlated more with arousal than T, so that’s why you get horny, you dogs. The problem, though, is that high LH secretion is ineffective at increasing T during an alcoholic stupor. Alcohol, you see, prevents T production at the Leydig cell level and not at the pituitary level. So you’re arousal is up, but T stays down."
Hope this helps!
damn, no more drinkin for me.