Effects of alcohol consumption on exercise performance and recovery

Alcohol is a licit drug widely consumed by the population and due to its consequences, its high adherence and abusive use in the sports environment has become worrying. Although the harmful physiological effects are known, the literature is still scarce as to the repercussions of alcohol consumption on the body of athletes. Therefore, it was aimed to analyze the impact of episodic use of alcoholic beverage on the performance and recovery of physical exercise. This is a literature review that used the electronic databases Scientific Electronic Library Online and National Library of Medicine, from key words in Portuguese and English. In total, 27 publications correspond to the period from 1984 to 2018. Effects were found on the immunological, cardiovascular, metabolic, nutritional, hormonal, psychomotor, protein synthesis and sleep quality functions. However, these vary according to the dose and type of alcohol, acute or chronic use, elimination rate, endogenous and exogenous factors and the type of exercise performed. Therefore, it is recommended that athletes follow the guidelines and do not use alcohol in order to avoid the negative impacts it may have on recovery and sports performance.