Reduce Alcohol Consumption To Improve Athletic Performance

This guest post was written by Sonya Looney — a World Champion American professional racing cyclist who competes in ultra-endurance, stage racing, 24-hour, and 100-mile mountain bike racing. Looney is a health and performance coach and a motivational speaker. She graduated from University of Colorado Boulder with a Master’s Degree in Electrical engineering. She also hosts the podcast The Sonya Looney Show.

When it comes to athletic pursuits, what you consume directly impacts how well you can perform. Performance isn’t just about how hard you can push your body, but performance also is greatly impacted by how well you recover.

As a World Champion Endurance Mountain Biker where my events can last 8 hours to 7 days, I’m always thinking about how to optimize my training and performance. Regardless if you are training regularly for a sport or if you are trying to stay healthy doing cardio, you want to make your training time count!  

Training and exercise work by creating micro tears in muscle fibers and using energy in the form of carbohydrates (especially in endurance or cardio activities).

Recovering from your effort is what makes you fitter and stronger. What is one of the most important aspects of recovery? I’ll let you in on a secret — it's not fancy gadgets; it’s how well you sleep.

Some of us have heard about sleep hygiene. A few elements include avoiding screens before bed, sleeping in a cool dark bedroom, having a wind-down routine, avoiding caffeine and alcohol consumption before bed, and going to bed and waking up at a consistent time.

Many people think drinking a night cap will help them fall asleep, but alcohol actually prevents us from entering the restorative stages of sleep. The restorative phases of sleep, specifically slow-wave sleep, are what help you recover from your workouts and show up ready to perform again the next day.  

Human Growth Hormone is key to recovery and is released during restorative phases of sleep. Alcohol instigates a 50% drop in Human Growth Hormone!   Alcohol also fragments your sleep meaning that you wake up multiple times per night, and most of the time the wakings are not conscious so you don’t even realize it.

There is also research showing that consumption of alcohol doesn’t only negatively affect your sleep the night you drink it, but it can also impact your recovery and athletic performance for days following just one or two drinks.  

Recovery is often measured by looking at a few daily measurements of cardiac activity: your morning resting heart rate and your Heart Rate Variability (HRV). An elevated morning heart rate can indicate a need for more recovery. HRV is the measurement of variation in time in between heart beats. Generally, we want a high number/a lot of variation for HRV signaling we are recovered. A low number can signal that we need more recovery.  

Data collection from many of the wearable sleep tracking devices have shown that consumption of alcohol results in an elevated morning heart rate and a reduced heart rate variability (HRV) for several days. That means the drink or two you had on Monday could still affect your performance on Wednesday.

Thankfully, Gruvi’s non-alcoholic options are a wonderful alternative to those wishing to enjoy the taste, ritual, and social experience of a beverage without having to compromise athletic performance. Take it from me as a World Champion Mountain Biker!

For more articles and information on performance, nutrition, and mindset, check out Sonya Looney’s Podcast and her newsletter.