Research

Hormonal

Post-exercise ingestion of alcohol (1.5 g/kg body mass) significantly impairs maximal rates of myofibrillar protein synthesis (MPS) in skeletal muscle, reducing synthesis by 24% even when co-ingested with optimal protein (25g whey), and by 37% when co-ingested with carbohydrate.

If you consume alcohol after exercise, your muscle-building potential is significantly reduced, even if you eat protein. Alcohol blunts the signaling (mTOR) required for muscle repair. To maximize gains, avoid alcohol post-workout, or accept that your recovery will be suboptimal regardless of protein intake.

GoodRefutesHIGH confidence
However, compared to PRO, there was a hierarchical reduction in MPS with ALC-PRO (24%, P,0.05) and with ALC-CHO (37%, P,0.05).
Evelyn B. Parr et al. · PLoS ONE · 2014

Why this rating

Randomized cross-over design with rigorous measurement of MPS via stable isotope tracer method, though sample size is small (n=8).

Source

Alcohol Ingestion Impairs Maximal Post-Exercise Rates of Myofibrillar Protein Synthesis following a Single Bout of Concurrent Training

Evelyn B. Parr et al. · PLoS ONE · 2014

DOI 10.1371/journal.pone.0088384

crossover · n=8Cited 121×
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DOI resolved against Crossref · corpus check 2026-06-10

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