This week, we’re looking at every rugby players favourite recovery beverage…the drink.
Now, it’s no secret that a rugby player likes a beer or two straight after a game, on the bus journey home and at the bar after.
But, how many tins can a player sink before recovery hits the fan? Well, in true #D2EW style, science is here to help us out.
A quick FYI, alcohol intake is expressed in grams per kilogram that you weight (g/kg/bw). I.e. 1g/kg/bw for a 90kg player is 90g of alcohol.
According to drinkaware.co.uk, 8g of pure alcohol is 1 unit, where 1 unit equates to:
• 220mL of 4.5% cider.
• 75mL of wine.
• 25mL of 40% whisky.
• 250mL of 4% beer.
• 250mL bottle of 4% alcopop.
The studies:
Study 1 (Murphy et al, 2013): Following a rugby league game, 9 lads consumed 1g/kg/bw in the form of vodka orange. 16 hours post playing, they had a large decrease in counter movement jump, reaction time and higher cortisol levels. However, no real difference was seen in testosterone levels and creaine kinase (a marker for muscle damage).
Study 2 (Barnes et al, 2012): 10 senior rugby union players consumed the same amount of alcohol (1g/kg/bw) which also impaired counter movement jump. However, they didn’t experience any negatives in agility, 15m sprint and scrummaging performance.
So, you’re probably doing the math in your head…if I weigh 90kg, I can have 90g of alcohol, and that’s 11.25 units, which is around 5 pints of 4% beer. That’s not a bad tradeoff, 5 beers and some shitty reaction time the morning after. Since you’re not playing, the only negative will be your reaction time when playing fortnite.
But here’s the thing, if you’re having 5 pints, you end up having a lot more…i.e. henceforth the sesh.
Study 3 (Prentice et al, 2014): This time, 30 lads were given permission to carry out ‘normal drinking bahaviour’ after a game. Needless to say they went pretty big where many of them consumed ~20 standard drinks, not the ‘steady’ five drinks in the previous two studies. And guess what happened? Not much – both 13 hours (still drunk post sesh) and 37 hours (post hangover) after the game, markers of muscle damage and performance were pretty much unchanged. Apart from a large loss of sleep, drinking seems fine…Or does it?
These studies don’t tell us the full picture;
1) Muscle Growth (MPS) is blunted at a dose of 1.5g/kg/bw post training (Parr et al, 2014), however was fine at 0.5g/kg/bw.
2) Fat Loss – you’re drinking a shit load of calories that will cause you to pack on unwanted body fat.
3) Immuno suppression after chronic drinking (Pasala and Messaoudi, 2015).
4) Injury Rehabilitation becomes impaired (Jung et al, 2011).
5) Impaired glycogen replenishment at a dose of 1.5g/kg/bw (Burke et al, 2003).
6) Impaired rehydration at a dose of 0.5g/kg/bw (Hobson et al, 2010).
So, putting on my sensible hat, I can recommend that you don’t drink more than 0.5g/kg/bw of booze after training or games as this will essentially cover most recovery scenarios.
Final note, just because you could, doesn’t mean you should.
In this case, plan your bigger nights out during periods of quiet training and definitely not around games. That would be a fucking disaster.
Nah mean?