This Beer Wants to be Your Workout Buddy
19-year-old You is like, “Yeeeeahhh, workout beeerrr!” But the 2014 version of you is like, “Um, no, I do not want that, miss.” For both the skeptic and the workout beer believer in you, keep reading.
Lean Machine is a new kind of drank that’s hoping to change what you sip while watching the game or after playing it. Instead of grabbing a Gatorade, the Canadian company wants you to reach for a Recovery Ale, meant to quench your burn with a special formula of nutrients and just a little post-benching buzz.
The beer is gluten-free, caffeine-free and contains vitamins, 7 grams of protein and ingredients to support muscle recovery and electrolyte replenishment. Sounds like regular sports drink stuff to us. At 77 calories and 2.5 grams of carbs, it’s a low-sugar (and actually, fairly low-alcohol at only 0.5 percent alcohol by volume) brew too.
If you think about it, we have made the candy bar an acceptable workout snack, is booze that much different? Actually yes, studies have shown that a beer after a workout can be better for you than water. It hydrates and replaces lost calories just as good if not better. So there.
The boozy fitness plan isn’t a completely novel concept either. While the thought of drinking before a run is rightfully vomit-inducing, enjoying a brew after a few miles is a long shared tradition with running clubs coast-to-coast. Luc Carl, a lover of long distance running (oh, and also Lady Gaga’s ex), created “The Drunk Diet,” a workout plan and book that would surely welcome Lean Machine after the finish line. Once in New York, I did one of his runs which spanned eight miles and went over the Brooklyn, Manhattan and Williamsburg Bridges and ended at (where else?) Luc’s bar in the Lower East Side. I did have a beer after and I live to type this out.
I would give Recovery Ale a shot post-gym before I’d be down to pick up a sugar-filled, fake fruit drink. What about you? Have you ever gone for beer over water after a workout? Would you try “Recovery Ale”?