How I Stopped Drinking…
…or at least slowed it down.
Anyone who knows me, knows I can be a bit of an “oiler.” Multiple seminar afterparty crowds can certainly attest to this. I like my booze, my family has the alcoholic gene, and it’s typically all or nothing with me. When it comes to imbibing, I’m usually on a mission to clear everything out and get pretty f-ed up at the earliest opportunity.
One example of this came at last year’s Central Virginia Sports Performance seminar at the University of Richmond, when Yosef Johnson thought he could shut me up by giving me two cases of some kind of locally brewed Michigan beer — which did not make it home.
The problem is, I’m getting older. Last week was my birthday, and I can’t recover like I used to. Not even close. Even if I have two or three drinks with dinner, I feel that shit the next day. All you guys in your 20′s and early 30′s will know what I mean in a few years. If it happened to me, it’s going to happen to all of you, and it sucks. When I was 21, I could drink until 4 in the morning, then get up and go to practice the next morning and barely feel it. Now? No f-ing way. Not only can I not go out and get drunk the night before, but I can’t even have just a few drinks and not be all sluggish the next day. And if I really go all out, I’m screwed for the next two or three days.
Now, this doesn’t fit into my plan, because I promised myself at the beginning of the year that I was going to “make one more run at it” before I really am too old to perform. That entails not letting anything f–k around with my workouts, ever. So, 2-3 times a week, I’m training at 5:30 in the morning. I can’t drink the night before and do that. Hell, I can’t eat wrong the night before and do that, because we all love squatting with acid reflux, right?
Same thing applies to weekends. I’ve shifted my main workouts over the weekends now, because I can train in a gym full of good training partners and because all I really give a shit about anymore is training. I figured I might as well do it on days where I really have nothing else to do.
I had to make a decision with all that, though. I have a social life. I have friends. I live in a place where there’s a lot of shit to do. I like to drink. I also like getting stronger, and I like the feeling I get when I bust my ass in training. I especially like the feeling of earning my spot back in the pecking order. I can’t do that anymore if I drink, period. And if something’s going to compromise my training, that’s going to make me feel a lot worse than being the designated driver one night, or going to sleep at 10 so I can get 9 hours of sleep before I train.
Basically, I came to a point in my life where I had to start over, and this shit was all I had left. Like most of us, training has been the one constant thing in my life for pretty much my entire life. As Dave told me a while back, training is MINE. It doesn’t belong to anyone else — and especially not to the guy pouring Budweisers into my glass until 4 in the morning.
So far, it’s been working. I pretty much just resolved to not move workouts around, not even for a minute, and everything revolves around that. About two months ago, I gave up drinking altogether, because the days when I’d be going out for drinks don’t line up right with my training days, and training takes precedence over everything.
It’s also possible to go out and NOT drink and get in a fight, but I’m not up to that yet. Maybe by my next birthday.
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The Angry Coach is the strength coach, and also a positional coach, for a successful high school football program. Since 2001, an impressive number of his players have gone on to play college football, including several at the Division I and I-AA levels and two who have played professionally in the NFL. The Angry Coach has also worked with athletes at the college and professional levels in a variety of disciplines, including football, track and field, baseball, basketball, lacrosse, rowing and mixed martial arts (MMA). For professional reasons, the Angry Coach will not be using his real identity.
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Coach, I just went through this same dilemma. I’m mexican, german, and native american, so basically I was born to drink a casino. But inching closer to 40 and wanting to really start pushing some heavy weights just doesn’t work for me to meet my training goals… and I’m saving a helluva lot of money not buying my beloved singe malt… But not drinking is just one thing I have been able to CONQUER in order to better my training.
Great article. I am a recovering alcoholic and am just now entering the field of weightlifting and hoping to get my Strength & Conditioning Cert. and become a coach for young kids, and this is a great kind of reminder to people to get their priorities in line.
I did not overnight turn into some kind of temperance minister and decide no one else can drink because I can’t, but it’s good to see someone else put their perspective on it and have a similar outlook as me: “You have all the fun you want, but this isn’t for me anymore.”
Best wishes on your journey. I was an alcoholic for 9 years. Have been sober 49 months now. The key to kicking it was replacement therapy and personal accountability. My replacement happened to be exercise. You’ll do great, Coach!
To an athlete we train, I recently suggested: extraordinary goals require extraordinary focus … drinking and the accompanying lethargy certainly don’t contribute to the goal at hand.
Good points; thank you for sharing.
EJE
Good read. I like the quote from Fight Club that seams to pertain to your article very well. “Let that which does not matter, truly slide”. Or something like that.
Thank you for not posting another article about alcohol that tries to make the reader feel like they committed some mortal sin by drinking. I’m very similar to you, but I’m still in my mid 20′s. I’ve been noticing more and more that my recovery after drinking is getting much worse, to the point that if I go out drinking I know I’m not training the next day. I’m nursing some injuries so I cant train with the intensity I’d like so my drinking has gone up a bit in the last month. It’s all about setting goals and keeping them when the time comes.
The time-honored tradition of trading one addiction for another.
I love beer. A lot. But I’ve cut back on it for the same reasons you listed. Beer is awesome but it affects my training so it gets pushed down the list.
Great article – I’m 40 now and I feel that sh*t as well! I live in New Orleans and it is part of our culture but, I have to regulate my self because I am into improving myself not creating extra stress.
Great article. As I came up on 30 I feel the same way. And most of the time I don’t feel it’s worth it. Why should I give up my mornings and even whole days being hungover because I decided drinking until I couldn’t remember shit was the way to go.
Now, I’d rather lay in bed on a Saturday morning because my legs are fucking sore from the awesome squat workout the night before not because of the case of PBR I drank.
The exact reason I gave up drinking. The older I got the more it interfered with my training. As you said training is all I do or care about anymore. At 58 years old my old body cannot take the drinking. I have to do everything right so I can still train hard.
I made the life choice to stop drinking about 13 years ago.
Basically, I was tired of being a fat slob who worked, drank, and slept.
Although, it helped that I replaced going out at night with sleeping and then going to the gym in the morning.
Now I can’t go back to drinking because my wife grew up with two alcoholic parents and it would ruin our marriage if I started back up. But, it helps a lot that I stopped before I met her.