A few weeks ago the new season of the documentary “El dÃa menos pensada†was presented, in which the Movistar team shows a summary of the year from within.
In one of the episodes, Alejandro Valverde, world champion and one of the best cyclists in history, commented that he had always drank 2 beers a day and that on very few occasions he had deprived himself of this indulgence, since he did not feel that It will hurt you or it will lower your performance.
These words echoed in the heads of many fans, being able to come to believe that in their case it will be the same. First of all, Valverde is gifted for this sport and his body has a brutal capacity to move watts, assimilate workloads and recover between efforts. Apart from this, the approximately 35,000 kilometers that he does a year help to a large extent to “burn” that whim.
Beer, as we all know, contains alcohol, a toxic substance with various negative effects on health and our performance. First of all, beer, everything and being a refreshing drink, does not help us at all to hydrate ourselves after an effort due to its diuretic effect.
On the other hand, alcohol negatively affects muscle recovery after sports practice, since it increases protein degradation. This can also increase the risk of injury.
Finally, alcohol is a very caloric drink. Each gram of alcohol gives us 7 empty calories, which are stored directly in the form of fat, apart from generating anxiety and increased appetite.
Obviously, we can drink a beer from time to time and that will not cause us to decrease our performance, everything in its fair measure can be included in our diet. A post-workout beer with our friends is a perfect plan to have a good time and enjoy cycling!
