With summer in full flow, you might be wondering how you can balance your social life and your gym life to continue getting results whilst being able to enjoy drinks with friends and family in the sunshine.
Inevitably for some of us, this will lead to waking up on a workout day with the tell-tale signs of a hangover; dehydration, a fuzzy head and acid-filled stomach.
In this article, we’ll explore what happens when you drink and what this means for training the next day to answer the question ‘can you train with a hangover?’
What Happens When You Drink Alcohol?
When you drink alcohol, whether it’s a pint or a shot, it works it’s way through the stomach and intestine and is absorbed into your bloodstream.
When you drink faster than your body can process it, your blood alcohol level increases and you become drunk. At the same time that you’re getting drunk your body is racing to metabolise and remove the alcohol from your system.
It is broken down by the liver, into a substance called acetate which is considered a toxin by the body. It is then expelled through your urine and your breath in small amounts.
On average it takes your body about an hour to remove one standard unit of alcohol, which is why it’s much quicker to get drunk than it is to sober up.
This often means you wake up with a hangover, wondering whether working out is a good idea or not.
Before we answer these questions let’s take a look at exactly what a hangover is.
What Is A Hangover?
A hangover is the name given the collective symptoms you feel after a night of drinking and include dehydration, headaches, fatigue, irritability, dizziness, weakness and more.
The more you drink the worse these effects are.
When it comes to working out you need to be very mindful of how these symptoms can impact your performance.
Whilst hangovers tend to ease off within 24 hours, it varies from person to person based on what they drank and how much they drank.
Still, wondering whether you should workout or not? Here is what you need to keep in mind.
Should You Workout with A Hangover?
When it comes to working out with a hangover, you’re generally better off steering clear of the gym and this is for several reasons.
You see, the aftereffects of a night’s drinking mess with your body in several ways which combine to reduce performance and increase the risk of injury.
Let’s take a look:
1: Dehydration
Alcohol is a diuretic, which means it makes you pee more frequently. This leads to dehydration and is the reason you wake up with a headache and dry mouth. Training in this state only makes it worse and can lead to the worsening of your headache as well as muscle cramps and in some severe cases dizziness and fainting amongst other things.
2: Coordination
Being hungover and experiencing all the side effects associated with it, results in you being less coordinated than normal which opens you up to injury. Even something as simple as going for a jog when hungover can end in misery if you’re not careful.
3: Stress
Being hungover puts a lot of stress on your body as it tries to recover. It takes time to rehydrate, restore energy levels and generally get back to an even keel after a night of drinking. By training when hungover you increase the stress and make it harder for your body to recover.
4: Fatigue
Whilst drinking can make you feel sleepy it inhibits high-quality sleep and can cause you to wake up regularly through the night. This leaves you feeling tired and sleepy the next day. Training when tired reduces strength and concentration which increases your risk of injury.
Summing Up
It’s generally a bad idea to work out when you have a hangover.
Your body is already trying to undo the effects of a heavy night drinking followed by a bad night’s sleep and needs all the help it can get to rehydrate and recover.
By skipping your workout, you avoid adding additional stress which means you can focus on getting back to normal. Then when you’ve recovered you can workout without worrying about getting injured or not performing to your best.
Knowing this means it makes sense to not schedule workouts for the day after a night of drinking.
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