The holidays, alcohol and your training
Ian van der Werf
06 November 2026December is the month of drinks. What alcohol does to your muscle recovery and sleep, and how to combine parties and training without bans.
December is the month of drinks. Work wraps up the year, friends want to raise a glass and around Christmas there is a bottle on the table more often than in March. No need to feel guilty about that. It does help to know what those glasses do to the training you have just put in.
Training and drinking fit perfectly well into one life. They just fit less well into the same evening. The difference lies in the amount and the timing, and you have more control over both than you might think.
What alcohol does after training
After a session your body builds new muscle protein. That is the recovery that makes you stronger. Australian research showed what happens when you drink heavily on top of that. Participants drank around twelve standard drinks after a hard session. Muscle protein synthesis was then 24% lower than without alcohol, even though they had the same amount of protein. Without protein the difference was 37%1.
Two caveats. This was a large amount, not a glass of wine with dinner. And it was one evening, not a year. Still, the message is useful: the evening after a hard session is not the best moment for a big night out. If you want to know more about what protein does for your recovery, read how much protein do you need.
Your sleep recovers less
Perhaps the biggest effect is on your night. Finnish research among more than 4,000 people measured the body's recovery during the first hours of sleep using heart rate variability. After a small amount of alcohol that recovery dropped by about 9 percentage points, after a moderate amount by 24 and after a lot of alcohol by 39 percentage points2.
So you can fall asleep easily after a few drinks and still wake up less rested. You notice it the next day in your energy, your appetite and your training. We described how sleep and recovery fit together in sleep and recovery.
It comes down to dose and timing
The good news is in those numbers. The gap between a little and a lot is large. One or two glasses in an evening has a much smaller effect than five or six. And a drink on a rest day weighs less than the same drink after your hardest session of the week.
That is why we do not work with bans at de Werf. We look at your week together: where the sessions are, where the parties are, and how to keep them out of each other's way. That is also what nutrition and lifestyle is about: choices that fit the life you actually lead.
How to combine the party with your rhythm
A few practical agreements for December:
- Do not plan your hardest session on the day of a party. Move it a day earlier or later, and train lightly or not at all on the day itself.
- Eat first, and eat protein. A proper meal before or during the drinks helps your recovery and slows down how much you drink.
- Alternate with water or an alcohol-free option. Most parties have them these days.
- Keep your training appointment the next day. Even if it becomes a lighter session. That is exactly what stops one evening turning into a week.
If you have just come out of a diet, December is extra tricky. We wrote about that in after the diet.
A real example from our practice
"Alain, a business owner and keen athlete, had three business dinners a week in December. He did not want to be the only one drinking sparkling water. We put his strength sessions on the mornings after a quiet evening and kept the day after a dinner to a light session on the bike. 'I didn't even drink that much less,' he said in January, 'but I felt a lot fitter.'"
A sociable December, a strong January
Want to get through the party season without losing your rhythm? Book a no-obligation intake and together we will make a plan that fits your diary.
Read also:
Our coaching in nutrition and lifestyle and physical training.
Sources:
1 Parr et al. (2014), Alcohol ingestion impairs maximal post-exercise rates of myofibrillar protein synthesis, PLOS ONE
2 Pietilä et al. (2018), Acute effect of alcohol intake on cardiovascular autonomic regulation during the first hours of sleep, JMIR Mental Health
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Frequently asked questions about alcohol and training
Short answers about drinks, recovery and training around the holidays.
Yes, and it is often a good idea, as long as you keep the session light. A calm workout or a walk helps you hold on to your rhythm. Save your hardest session for a day when you have slept well.
The more you drink, the bigger the effect. In research, recovery during sleep dropped by about 9 percentage points after a small amount and by 39 after a lot of alcohol. One or two glasses weigh far less than five or six.
Yes, the evening after a hard session is the least favourable moment. Your body is busy building muscle then, and a lot of alcohol slows that down. On a rest day the same drink weighs less on your training.
Yes, a proper meal with protein before or during the drinks helps your recovery and slows how fast you drink. It does not cancel out the effect of a lot of alcohol, but it makes an evening with a few glasses much less demanding.
A sociable December, a strong January
Book a no-obligation intake and together we will make a plan that fits your diary.
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