Smoking & Alcohol

I am curious to know how alcohol and tobacco affect muscle growth or t levels. I like to down a Bud Light and have a cigarette after my daily workouts. I have been working out seriously for 5 years and just started taking this crap. I know the crap is bad for you, but life is short. Am I cutting my muscle building potential by taking these two substances? Am I the only guy who smokes, drinks,and works out? Thanks for any info.

No way, dude. You’re not the only one. I drink a 12 pack every other night, and I smoke about 2 packs of cigarettes a day. I have made quite a bit of progress in my training over the last four months despite my bad habits. However, I’m sure I’d be doing a lot better if I didn’t drink and smoke so much.

In the last two months, i’ve cut back on my smoking. for the last year, i hardly ever drank( because of probation and my girlfriend getting pregnant). before that, i used to work out five days a week, drink VERY heavily two or three days a week, smoke a pack to two packs a day, and do various drugs on weekends, going thursday to sunday with no sleep. and still made gains. i gained 51 lbs in one year, partying like this most of the time with NO steroids. But there were long periods of no gains at all between growth spurts. i only took creatine and a lot of ghb. i’m sure i would have done better without all the partying, but like you said, " life is too damn short!"

I’ve smoked 5 ciggies a day for a year and drank numerous bottles of ale (mainly at weekends). I’ve still made excellent progress mainly due to following the Poliquin training principles and getting lots of good fats. A clean diet with bad training got me nowhere. Life is too damn short but I try not to shorten it too much through bad habits.

Hey guys…Check out part 2 of the Big T on friday. I cover these issues (among others) that affect T levels. You may be surprised. And for a quick glimpse…Alcohol is the VERY BEST ACUTE T suppressor known to mankind. Just a few drinks can decrease T by 50% for up to 16 hours! AGHHH!