Can Athletes Drink Alcohol and Maintain an Effective Training Plan?
Paul Odlin • May 21, 2023
Alcohol has a measurable impact on HRV, heart rate, respiration and sleep stages. In turn, these negative implications directly influence the factors most often associated with training recovery.

Let’s go beyond that immediate notion of why we believe alcohol may not be part of an effective training plan and look at what alcohol is, what are the risks, observations made whilst being “dry,” correlations, age-related alcohol considerations and finally, whether or not it can be part of an effective training program. Let’s dive in.