Recovery
Work your muscles and they’ll start to fall apart. Your body rebuilds them, makes them stronger and gets them ready to face the next workout. Protein, carbs, vitamins, and specifically antioxidants help put things back together. The latest research has found that beer has almost as many antioxidants as red wine, which is saying something. So how do beer and fitness go together at the recovery stage? A dark beer a few hours after a workout can deliver a good dose of antioxidants. Still, you’ll probably want to reach for water and a healthy snack -- like fruit and yogurt -- immediately following your routine at the gym. Hydration Think that the alcohol in beer will dry you out? Think again. Researchers at the Granada University in Spain have found that beer can provide better hydration than water in some instances, like after a workout. Professor Manuel Garzon, the head of this study on beer and fitness, asked students to sweat it out in 104°F weather. Then he gave half of the students water and the other half beer. He found that the students who had a pint were slightly more hydrated. So does this mean that you should slam a cold one after a run? Probably not. While beer is 93% water and appears to hydrate you better than H2O alone, it’s not the best thing after exercise. Drink water and have a piece of fruit instead. However, don’t pass up a pint the night before a big workout for fear of dehydration -- seems that some beer won’t dry you out as much as you thought. lager lessons Benjamin Franklin once said, “Beer is proof that God loves us and wants us to be happy.” Whether you’re religious or not, you can probably agree that beer is proof of some sort of positive force in the universe. It makes you feel great and helps heal a broken body (and, sometimes, a broken soul). Drink beer in moderation -- too much of a good thing, even beer, can be very bad. Alcoholism can lead to liver problems, kidney disease, heart disease, and a shattered social life. However, it turns out that beer is good, even if you’re a fitness nut.
