The phrase “work hard, play hard” on the weekends has been confirmed as true. According to a study, “people drink more alcohol on days when they work out more.” The study had 150 between the ages 18-89 to use a smart phone application to track how often they drank alcohol and how often they exercised over three periods of 21 days.
A study in 2009 concluded that people who are more active he results came in the same for the more active people and the less active people. Despite those results, this study discovered that the less active people drank more alcohol when they exercised and so did the more active people.
The author of the study, David Conroy, argues that the results of his study could be due to the loss of willpower from working hard at the gym so “they’re less able to say ‘no’ to a cocktail” or that people are having a drink as a reward for a great workout. However, Dr. David Grier’s statement makes more sense to me. Increase drinking does not cause an increases in exercise or vice versa, they are simply both influenced by an extra factor, the ways in which people spend their free time.
Dr. David Geier, “an orthopedic surgeon and sports medicine expert in Charleston”, warns us to not assume that more exercise leads to drinking more. The results could simply have resulted because people tend to be more active and drink more alcohol when they have free time, like on the weekends.
Source: Holohan, Meghan. “Reward for Sweating? We Drink More Alcohol When We Exercise.” TODAY Health. NBC, 23 Sept. 2014. Web. 01 Oct. 2014.
I find this especially interesting because before now I have never really thought about any type of correlation between exercising and alcohol consumption. But, like a few people have said already in their replies I don’t think that this is necessarily a causation but rather a correlation. The thing about people who are active going out and rewarding themselves for exercising with alcohol does seem like it’s not too far out of the ball park, but there could also be a million other reasons why this happens. I know that when I get into the routine of working out I overall have more energy than before ans so that could be a reason as to why people who exercise are more willing to stay out and drink: because they have more energy.
I definitely agree with the idea that there is definitely correlation and not causation. Personally I think its a giant cycle that keeps feeding off itself. People living social and active lives often go out and drink. To keep up with their active lives such as sports or just being in shape, they go back to the gym to work out to make up for the negative effects the drinking has taken on their bodies. Then, after getting back on track, they reward their fit selves by drinking again and having a good time. And it just repeats. Looking into it to see if this is a lifestyle one can keep up with on a daily basis, I found out that there is no way. Every day of drinking sets you back much farther in your training than you will ever be able to keep up with and here is the link explaining the science behind it.
http://www.bodybuilding.com/fun/swordchucks3.htm
As both someone who lifts 6 times a week and is also a college student, I have a big time interest in this blog. This could certainly go both way. On one hand, you can say lazy people drink more and active people are more aware of what they put into their body. On the other hand, you could inversely argue that lazy people won’t drink as much and active people can “afford” a couple drinks. However, I don’t think there’s any real way of testing this. What I’m really interested in, however, is how does drinking affect an athlete? Obviously constant alcohol consumption is terrible for you, but what about once a week? I know a lot of bodybuilders like to use ‘cheat days’ to stray away from their diets and eat whatever the heck they want. Would binge drinking fall into the same category? Let’s say one drinks 10 Natural Lights (classy, I know) in a weekend. That’s 950 calories, 7 grams of protein, and 32 grams of carbs right there. In the grand scheme of things, that really isn’t that bad. In fact, if you workout Monday-Friday and use the weekends to recover, it could actually supplement your training. Now I’m not saying to slam a couple brews this weekend in the name of fitness (or maybe I am), but it would certainly make for a very interesting experiment. One group could train for a year and consume no alcohol, and the other group will do the same but drink 1-2 times a week. Using a double blind placebo format, this could potentially yield some interesting results.
I agree and think that this is just a correlation but not causation. When you exercise you need to keep hydrated, and drinking alcohol does the exact opposite, it dehydrates you. So I can’t imagine that exercising makes you want to drink something that does not rehydrate. I think that the correlation comes from the people who are going out and exercising live active and social lives, which means that they are going out on the weekends, which leads to drinking. Just like you said. Another possible reason why there is a correlation between the two is that alcohol has calories and can cause weight gain. weight gain usually sends people to the gym to work off the extra pounds. Here is an article I found that talks about how alcohol can effect your exercise.
https://www.drinkaware.co.uk/check-the-facts/health-effects-of-alcohol/healthy-lifestyle/alcohol-and-exercise/