Alcohol Use in Sport: Effects on Performance, Recovery, and Health Outcomes in Recreational and Competitive Athletes — A Narrative Review
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.12775/QS.2026.71.74485Keywords
alcohol, ethanol, athletic performance, sport recovery, muscle protein synthesis, competitive athletes, recreational athletes, healthAbstract
Background. Alcohol consumption is disproportionately prevalent among athletes, particularly in team sports, where post-competition drinking coincides with the critical recovery window. A comparative analysis of alcohol's effects in recreational versus competitive athletes remains absent from the literature.
Aim. To evaluate the effects of alcohol on sport performance, post-exercise recovery, and long-term health, with a comparative analysis across athletic levels.
Material and methods. A narrative review of 24 peer-reviewed articles identified via PubMed and Scopus (primary range: 2020–2025; seminal works included).
Results. Athletes exhibit higher rates of hazardous episodic drinking than non-athletic peers. Acutely, alcohol impairs neuromuscular coordination, endurance, and post-exercise muscle protein synthesis (mTORC1 suppression; reductions up to 37%). Sleep architecture is dose-dependently disrupted; even low doses (≤0.50 g/kg) delay REM onset by 18 minutes. Immune-mediated muscle repair is blunted through cytokine dysregulation. Chronically, alcohol disrupts the hypothalamic-pituitary-gonadal axis and is associated with dose-dependent cardiovascular mortality risk. Competitive athletes are disproportionately vulnerable due to higher training loads and narrower performance margins.
Conclusions. Alcohol exerts multisystemic negative effects on athletic performance and recovery. Sport-specific harm reduction strategies are preferable to generic abstinence messaging.
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Copyright (c) 2026 Michał Zięty, Karolina Banyś , Aleksandra Flis, Maria Jóźwicka, Julia Łuczak, Piotr Makowski, Jan Tomasik, Wiktor Wojtyniak, Dominik Woźniak
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