Gatorade? More Like Gator-Ale

In the summer, the yearly discussion (which for the Barons means lots of yelling and guttural yaups) comes up around which beer is the best after mowing the lawn, or at a BBQ, or at the race, or whatever hot and sweaty bullshit we have to deal with outside in a swampy Indiana summer.  It always comes down to quaffability, overall feeling of well being, and then taste.

How does this apply to November?

Now the devout body shapers start ramping up their cardio to fight the winter bulk, or the little man syndrome weight lifter planning to embrace his winter bear fat and try and inflate like an anemic balloon.  For the rare few for whom body maintenance AND beer loving come together, a study came out earlier this year from a Spanish University which showed that compared to water, your better choice for a post workout quencher should be beer.

That's right.  SCIENCE.  The Church of Fact said, "Whenst thou hast thy sweaty balls, drinketh the malted grain."

Before you start hauling a six pack to your gym and the trainers have an intervention for you, lets look a little more specifically how beer (and its alcohol content) affects your body post workout.

First, the study from Granada University said that the carbonation of the beer helps quench the thirst and its carb content helps replace the lost calories from the work the body just put in, since in a 30 minute workout, your body can produce enough heat to brew three cups of coffee.  The results said that beer was "slightly better than water" so take that for what it is: you don't have to feel bad for cracking open a beer after a run, but it's not a single cure all.

Secondly, people always talk about the "beer belly" and that beer is bad for fat loss, which is only kind of true.  Beer has such a low carb count it's a 0 on the glycemic index, so the only detriment to fat loss is if you haven't taken its calories into your planned allotment.  Crush two Guinness and you have the caloric content of a Big Mac, so be prepared when the porters, stouts and malty beers start dominating your frigid summer.

Lastly, if you are like me and are currently bulking up on muscle, alcohol is a bummer.  It significantly slows down protein synthesis and muscle growth, so if you're weightlifting, be more aware of the timing of your brews.

As to what kind of beer to drink, it's simple.  Your favorite frat basement tasting light beer, or if you can't sacrifice your palate or aren't a product of their broke ass roots like me and always have a fridge full of cheap beer, go for a high taste session-able IPA, or other hoppy incarnation, just stay away from those malty treats.

Also, please don't put beer in Gatorade bottles.  People will think you are on too much Meth.  Or that you are drinking your own pee like Tom Crean.