Myth Or Fact: Beer Is A Good After-Exercise Drink

Bella Breakdown

Everybody knows that drinking Gatorade, a protein shake, or even chocolate milk after a workout is good for you. After your body exercises, it needs sugars, fats, and protein to help restore energy and continue to build those muscles. For this reason, the aforementioned drinks make perfect sense. But beer?

The verdict is in, and beer is NOT good for you post workout. Although beer does have some healthy, restorative qualities like sugar, carbs, nutrients, and a little bit of electrolytes, it has one main ingredient that basically overpowers all of the good stuff: alcohol.

Alcohol in beer acts as a counterweight to the nutrients, carbs, and electrolytes by leaving the drinker dehydrated and muscle depleted. Alcohol has been proven to dehydrate, when what your body really needs after a workout is a hydration station (IV me, please!) What’s more, recent studies have even shown that alcohol can stunt muscle growth, meaning that you are reversing all of that hard work you just put in!

If after your next workout your friend wants to go to a brewery, suggest grabbing a shake instead or be sure to hydrate immensely between sips.