How Much Alcohol Can Cyclists Drink Without Impacting Recovery?

Cycling is a sociable sport where a few alcoholic drinks are often on the cards after a big ride…

Therefore, the golden question is: how can cyclists have a few beers after a few hours in the saddle without it impacting their recovery and subsequent performance on the bike?

Before answering this, what about pre and during ride recommendations?

Although the Après ride is quite appealing, for your own health, safety and performance, it’s not worth the risk. The delay in reaction time, impairments in balance and coordination are enough to significantly increase the risk of an accident, In return, potentially harming yourself and others.

…And before you say it, no, beer is not a good source of carbs. So, alcohol pre and during a ride is a big no-go from us.
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That being said, when all the hard work is done, how much can be consumed before it negatively impacts recovery?

To help make an informed decision on how much to consume (if any) following a ride, here’s the cliff notes by Barnes (2014):⁣⁣
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1) Alcohol is expressed relative to your bodyweight. i.e. 1g/kg (80g for an 80kg athlete). We’ll be using this interchangeably with units, but in terms of the sports science literature, we typically speak in grams per kilogram of bodyweight.⁣
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2) In the UK, one unit is 8g of pure alcohol (10mL). You can calculate how much alcohol is in your drink based on its strength and size by using the following equations:

The total number of units in your drink:

•  Strength (alcohol by volume or ABV) x volume of drink (in mL) ÷ 1,000  

To calculate the number of units in a pint of 4% ABV beer:

• 4 (ABV%) x 568 (ml) ÷ 1,000 = 2.3 units

Knowing one unit is 8g of alcohol, we can calculate the number of grams in your drink. In this example, 4% ABV beer:

• 3 units x 8g = 18.4g of alcohol. 

3) Alcohol intake post exercise has the ability to impair glycogen replenishment, rehydration and muscle repair/injury.

4) In many sporting events, alcohol is often consumed immediately after with celebrations…meaning that the protein, carb and fluid required to accelerate recovery often gets missed. Alcohols impact on recovery and subsequent performance occurs in a dose dependent response. I.e. small amounts may be okay, larger amounts, not so much. For example, research shows that consuming 1g/kg of alcohol following eccentric exercise amplifies the expected losses in force production when compared to a lower dose of 0.5g/kg. I.e. eccentric exercise causes large amounts of muscle damage, high amounts of alcohol exacerbates this.
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5) The diuretic response of alcohol is somewhat dependent on hydration status, where less alcohol-related diuresis is seen when athletes are well hydrated. Furthermore, alcohol doses below 0.5g/kg don’t appear to impair hydration status when adequate fluid is consumed. If optimal rehydration isn’t a priority – more can be consumed (~1g/kg), but please be aware that recovery extends beyond rehydration.⁣⁣
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6) Interestingly, higher doses of alcohol (1.5g/kg) doesn’t impair glycogen replenishment when adequate carbohydrates are consumed post exercise. There are two caveats to this: Firstly, calorie intake will skyrocket and negatively impact body composition if consuming high amounts of carbohydrates with high amounts of alcohol. Secondly, if alcohol calories displace carbohydrate calories in attempt to ‘budget’ intake for body composition purposes, then glycogen replenishment will be impaired. Not necessarily due to alcohol, more so due to an inadequate consumption of carbohydrate.
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7) With regards to soft tissue injury and immune function, alcohol impairs the initial inflammatory response and alters immune function – meaning that if you sustained an injury,  recovery will be slower…oh, and you’re more susceptible to becoming ill. Alcohol also has a vasodilatory effect, meaning that increased blood flow to the injured site can further increase swelling and reduce rates of recovery.⁣⁣
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8) Alcohol increases catabolic hormones and decreases anabolic hormones in higher dosages of 0.8-1.5g/kg which may have large implications on wound healing and muscle repair. So it’s not overly wise to ‘numb the pain’ with alcohol - Please don’t do this. Speaking of hormones, alcohol can increase cortisol, oestrogen, dopamine and insulin whilst decreasing serotonin, melatonin, luteinizing hormone and human growth hormone.
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9) Alcohol impacts muscle protein synthesis. Even when optimal nutrition strategies are put in place post training, 1.5g/kg negatively impacts recovery and adaptation from exercise. Ultimately, a primary focus of training is to create an adaptive response to get fitter, faster and stronger…alcohol in higher amounts dampens your training response, and therefore, your expected gains will arrive more slowly.

10) Alcohol negatively impacts sleep, and consequently worsens both physical/mental health and performance. Sleep deprivation also suppresses immunity, and therefore you’re more likely to become ill. Furthermore, poor sleep can impact next-day eating habits, and therefore lowering nutrient status. Therefore, alcohol not only has the ability to impact recovery directly, but indirectly due to poorer eating habits that follow a heavy night of drinking.

⁣Ultimately, alcohol is a poison, but research by Barnes (2014) suggests that 0.5g/kg (~40g for an 80kg cyclist) is unlikely to impact recovery when adequate protein, carbs and fluids are consumed immediately post riding,

Please note that alcohol affects people differently: nutrition status, habitual use, gender and age can impact how an individual responds to a specific dose.

Using the formulae above, this means that the 80kg rider can have ~2 pints of 4% ABV beer before recovery becomes impaired, assuming that appropriate nutrition strategies have been implemented.

Please read HERE for highly effective strategies to accelerate recovery.

Knowing this, if you have back to back days on the bike, and need to perform on day two as well as you did on day one, the dose makes the poison.  I.e. get your recovery nutrition sorted first so alcohol has a lesser impact when consumed in low-moderate amounts.

If you’re racing, then alcohol is off-limits until after the event. I hope this is a given.

When timely recovery isn’t an issue, and there’s little need to optimise recovery, recommendations can increase slightly. However, higher amounts of 1g/kg should be avoided if you have sustained an injury during the ride.

Please be aware that alcohol has the ability to negatively impact more than just recovery. The UK Chief Medical Officers' (CMOs) low risk drinking guidelines recommend it’s safest for both men and women to drink no more than 14 units a week, spread over three or more days with several drink-free days, and no bingeing.

Intakes greater than 8 units of alcohol in a single session for males, or more than 6 units in a single session for females is defined as binge drinking.

Therefore, 1g/kg for an 80kg male is considered borderline binge drinking: 80g alcohol = 8 units (3.4 beers of 4% ABV).

Drinkaware.co.uk state that the risk of short-term harm from accidents and injuries increase two to five times as a result of drinking between 5 and 7 units of alcohol in a single session. Therefore, you still have other issues surrounding physiological and psychological harm to yourself and others.

I hope todays post has given you the information to make an informed decision. Although alcohol can be consumed with minimal detriment to recovery from exercise, we’re purely looking at the role of alcohol through a very narrow lens, as the impact of alcohol on a larger scale is considerably greater.

Therefore, if you do require more information on the effects of alcohol and require additional advice, please visit drinkaware.co.uk.

I hope this helps!

- Coach Chris