Most serious body builders will reach for a protein drink before anything else. There is a very good reason for this. Protein is critical to effective muscle building and protein synthesis should not be interfered with. Alcohol will definitely impair protein synthesis.

The process that joins amino acids together to form complete proteins is called protein synthesis. When a person drinks alcohol the process is slowed by 20%.

Another factor in muscle building is the level of testosterone in the body. Ave you ever noticed that women do not build the same amount of muscle mass as men? This is because of low levels of testosterone; women have 15-20 times less testosterone than men do.

But what does testosterone have to do with alcohol consumption? Alcohol is known to decrease the testosterone levels while increasing the estrogen levels.

Hydration. When you drink alcohol, the kidneys must use massive amounts of water to process the toxin. Yes, the body recognizes alcohol as a toxin. When this happens, the body can quickly become dehydrated.

Muscles are controlled my nerves and the nerves produce the stimuli to contract muscles from electrolyte minerals dissolved in water. Additionally, water will lubricate the joints and protect them from injury while working out.

Drinking alcohol robs your body of key vitamins. Vitamins like B, C and A, plus calcium and phosphorous are all depleted through the use of alcohol. When you consider that the most important vitamins to healthy muscle development are vitamins B and C, you can see this is just one more reason that drinking alcohol while muscle building is such a big deal.

When trying to build muscle, you need to deplete the stores of fat and increase the muscle mass. Alcohol works directly against this effort. Nutritionists will tell you that alcohol contains empty calories. Empty calories have no nutritional benefit at all. Alcohol also contains twice as many carbohydrates and calories as protein does.

While we are on the subject of calorie it is important to note that the calories taken in while drinking are the first ones burnt. This means that all other fat stores will remain and not be used for energy until alcohol calories are all burned. Not a good combination for a person wanting to build muscle mass and lose fat.

We have examined most of the major points on alcohol and bodybuilding; however, you have to consider the other affects of alcohol on the body. Prolonged use can lead to liver damage, diabetes and a host of other medically related problems. It will be increasingly difficult to build muscle if you suffer any one of these. At the end of the day, is it really worth the cost?

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