Ever wondered what the effects of a big night can have on you and your body? It is no secret that alcohol can make you feel a bit crappy the next day. But is it just one day and how bad is it really?
The photo below is from my WHOOP band, a data tracking device which records my sleep, activity and intensity of those activities for the day and measures my heart rate and heart rate variability which then gives me a recovery score for the day. A recovery score of 100% should mean I am feeling pretty good, while closer to zero would mean I am fatigued and feeling sluggish.
HRV - is the variance in time between the beats of your heart. So, if your heart rate is 60 beats per minute, it’s not actually beating once every second. Within that minute there may be 0.9 seconds between two beats, and 1.10 seconds between two others. The greater this variability is, the more “ready” your nervous system and body is to execute at a high level. These vary from person to person.
RHR - is a measure of your average heart beats per minute (bpm) while your body is in a state of complete rest (while you are sleeping). It is a very useful metric for monitoring your fitness level and overall health. Generally speaking, a lower resting heart rate is a good sign.
The photo below is my whoop data from June 5 - June 11.
For a bit of context, I had taken a lighter week in training and had a few green days leading up to the Friday shown here. I have NEVER seen my recovery score in red (below 33%), even after super tough training days with 2-4 workouts.
I had a few drinks (I saw 'a few' lightly) on the Friday night. Here are my Whoop recovery scores the following days:
Sat: 32%
Sun: 38%
Mon: 53%
Tues: 70%+ and finally back into the green zone
Here is what I took out of the data above:
Drinking can affect your body as much or worse than some of your bigger training days
Drinking can take 2-3 days to recover from
What this means for you? If you are someone who loves your weekends but also wants to workout or keep in shape but can't find the motivation or energy to do so it could be your Friday/ Saturday nights holding you back. If you do this every weekend it would be really easy to throw in the towel when it comes to exercising because your body is already fatigued!
While I'm not saying to stop enjoying your weekend, getting blind on a weekend is probably going to affect you for the first half of that week and if you have exercise or weight loss goals that you can't stick to, this could be a big reason to why you feel demotivated.
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