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An Acute Alcoholic Beer Dose Impaired Exercise Performance: A Double-Blind, Placebo-Controlled Crossover Trial
Felipe De Russi de Lima1, Vitor de Salles Painelli1,2, Raul Canestri1
1Exercise Psychophysiology Research Group, School of Arts, Sciences and Humanities, University of São Paulo, São Paulo, SP, Brazil.
Purpose:
We investigated whether a small dose of alcoholic beer ingested before a running exercise bout impaired performance and changed psychophysiological responses to exercise.
Methods:
After three sessions of familiarizations, 16 healthy and physically active men (25.8 ± 5.1 years, 175.0 ± 5.4 cm, and 76 ± 6.5 kg) performed a 30-min running time trial in a double-blind and placebo-controlled crossover design, after ingesting either beer (alcohol 4.8% v/v; 0.3 g/kg) or nonalcoholic beer (placebo). Performance, cardiopulmonary (oxygen consumption, ventilation, respiratory exchange ratio, and heart rate), and perceptual (perceived exertion, affect, and motivation) variables were assessed throughout the trial and averaged every 5 min during exercise. Running economy was assessed during steady-state running at 8 km/hr. The data were analyzed through t tests and repeated-measures mixed models (p < .05).
Results:
The ingestion of beer significantly decreased the average speed by 4.7% (p = .04; d = 0.21) and total distance covered by 4.3% (p = .007; d = 0.26) when compared with placebo. The ingestion of beer also impaired the running economy by 1.1% (p = .01; d = 0.39) and increased respiratory exchange ratio throughout the exercise bout (p = .004, d = 1.07). No beer-by-time interaction effects were detected in cardiopulmonary outcomes (p > .05).
Conclusions:
A small dose of alcoholic beer reduced the exercise capacity of healthy individuals, likely due to an impairment in running economy.
