Can You Drink Alcohol After a Massage? (What You Must Consider)

Relaxing with a soothing massage after a long work week is well deserved, but getting a massage and drinking alcohol, however tempting it may be is not such a good idea.

In fact, many professional massage therapists do not recommend drinking alcohol after a massage, and for a good reason!

Well you can drink alcohol after a massage, if you want to waste all the efforts your massage therapist has put in for the past hour or so, and the money you just spent.

The biggest reason why you should refrain from consuming alcohol after a massage is that it negates all the benefits you would have received from the massage, conversely making you feel more dehydrated, and introducing toxins into your body instead of releasing them.

What Does Alcohol do to Your Body?

To understand how alcohol affects you after a massage, you first need to grasp how alcohol affects your body in general.

Kidneys do not Function Properly

Your liver is responsible for breaking down and metabolizing toxins, but when you consume alcohol, it enters into your bloodstream through your stomach, and reaches every other organ and system in your body.

A massage repairs your muscles, and enhances healing and growth, but when you drink alcohol after a massage, your body spends more energy detoxifying itself instead of on the beneficial processes.

Affects Sleep

Not to be a party pooper, but that is just the beginning—alcohol also disrupts your sleep-wake cycle, given that it thins the blood.

Getting a massage triggers serotonin—a neurotransmitter that induces calm feelings, and stabilizes your mood, feelings of well-being, and happiness.

Furthermore, a massage relieves tension and stress in your muscles which if not relieved can cause you to feel tight and rigid, making it difficult to sleep.

Drinking alcohol, in general, will help you fall asleep, but when you do so after a massage affects your overall sleep quality.

So, while you are supposed to experience a good night’s sleep after a massage, you get a shorter overall sleep time, and disrupted speak, resulting in next-day sleepiness and fatigue.

Affects Metabolism

Your body considers alcohol as a toxin, hence processes it as quickly as possible, which interferes with your metabolism, and with the other beneficial processes that happen after getting a massage such as protein synthesis to help your muscles recover and grow.

Consuming alcohol after a massage session can negatively impact your body’s ability to recover itself, and burn fat.

Given that a massage can help reduce weight, drinking alcohol after a massage stores fat in your body around your abdomen rather than processing it.

Promotes Dehydration

A massage can cause dehydration, owing to the manipulation of the muscles, depleting them of water.

Drinking water is highly recommended after a massage, as doing so rehydrates your muscles, and helps you replenish the water you lost during the massage.

Drinking alcohol also causes dehydration, and affects the recovery rate of your muscles.

Final Thoughts

Drinking alcohol after a relaxing massage is a poor decision, and one that can defeat the purpose of the massage.

Alcohol also lowers your awareness, so you end up making bad decisions such as eating a heavy meal after a massage.

Another big concern is the concentrations of alcohol you consume after a massage, because getting sauced will not speed up the recovery rate, and will affect the release of toxins from your body.

If you are going to drink alcohol after a massage, wait a couple of hours, and keep the booze to a minimum. You can have a light meal after drinking alcohol, because a heavy meal can make you feel bloated and sluggish, rather than reenergized! 

An avid yoga practitioner, massage enthusiast, and wellness advocate since 2008. From then on, she has helped countless people alleviate muscle pains, tension and stress, to ultimately achieve wellness and balance in life.