According to research published in the American Journal of Health Promotion, people who drink — whether it’s heavily or moderately — are all generally more active than nondrinkers. If you plan on running off those 10 beers you pounded down the night before with your softball team, keep in mind that your body will not function at its normal performance level. Here are a few key performance-zapping effects of exercising after a night of boozing:

Dehydration

It’s common knowledge that alcohol is a diuretic. If you don’t replace your fluids and work up a sweat, you are putting yourself at risk for dehydration. Alcohol also depletes your body of the minerals and vitamins that are essential for your health. Without those key nutrients — thiamin, vitamin B12, folic acid and zinc — you slow down your body’s healing time. Not good if you suffered an injury prior to drinking time.

Slows reaction time

Don’t expect your performance to be at its peak level the day after drinking. Your hand-eye coordination and balance will be off, and this can lead to injury (and embarrassment if you’re playing a team sport!).

Decrease in strength and power

Hitting the bottle can have a damaging effect on your grip strength, jump height and 200- and 400-meter run performance, and can result in faster fatigue during high-intensity exercise, the American College of Sports Medicine reported.

Energy zapper

When you drink, your body converts alcohol into fatty acids. This leads to a drop in adenosine triphosphate, or ATP, your muscle’s energy source. Bummer.

Staying from alcohol the night before exercise or sporting event is the best way to prevent injury and damage to your body. The ACSM recommends skipping anything beyond “low amount social drinking” for 48 hours prior to the event.

Need some more reasons to steer clear of the hooch the night before you exercise? Read “Drinking myths debunked.”

According to Psychology Today, exercise works in the brain much like opiates. A high-intensity workout triggers the release of neurotransmitters known as endocannabinoids that ease pain, cause pleasure and create a desire for more exercise in people. While it can take you to your “happy place,” you may experience withdrawal symptoms when you delay or stop exercising. (Researchers theorize this is how exercise becomes addictive.) Symptoms can include shaking, depression and fatigue. While it’s fine (and healthy!) to give your body a break, making it a habit will not do you any favors. And it definitely should not evoke strong physical symptoms like shaking.

Get back into it

OK, so you took a few steps back in your workout routine. No biggie, you just have to brush it off and get back into it. Not feeling motivated? Sometimes you need to “Just Do It.” That means forcing yourself to get out the door. A new study by researchers at the University of Colorado Boulder shows that even when you are forced to exercise — you know, when your friend begs you to come along on her run — it may help reduce anxiety and depression just the same as when you actually want to exercise.

Here are more ways to help you get your groove back:

• Find yourself a workout buddy to keep you focused. You’ll also benefit from the accountability. Click here for ways to find the perfect workout companion.

• Take it easy. Walking is a low-impact aerobic exercise that can help you drop pounds while you’re building back up your endurance. Walk outside for an hour a day to boost your mood and your heart rate. Here are some tips to make the most out of your walk.

• Mix up your routine. Just because everyone around you loves running and Yoga doesn’t mean you have to like it. Spice up your workout by trying a new class in your neighborhood or DVD.

• Read Hellawella’s inspirational posters guaranteed to get you out of your rut.

She recommends adding the following three moves to your day — you’ll notice a difference in less than a week.

Kneeling side kicks

This move blasts everything from the side butt and saddlebag area to the inner thighs.

Kneel on one knee with top hand behind head and hip directly over the knee.

Squeeze your butt and push your hips forward like you’re pressed between two panes of glass in one flat piece.

Lift the top leg up to hip height, and lower it 10 times. Kick it forward and back 10 times. Make five big circles one direction and reverse. Switch legs.

Shoulder bridge

The bridge hits the “bikini butt” — that crucial spot where your butt meets your thigh and the entire back of the leg.

Lie on your back, knees bent, feet hip distance apart, long arms. Lift your hips up to make a bridge and squeeze your buns to reach your tailbone toward the back of your knees.

Keep your hips even and lifted, don’t let either hip drop as you slide one leg out straight, reaching as long as you can.

Kick your leg up and reach it out to knee level 10 times. On the last kick, reach the leg all the way to the floor and slide it back home.

Side leg circles

The Pilates side kicks series balances all of the small muscles that hold the hip in place. Aesthetically, this means all of the muscles get strong while fully stretched out, resulting in the appearance of longer, leaner legs.

Lie on one side with both legs in front of your body at a 45-degree angle, hips stacked. Lift your top leg up and put your hand on your outer thigh. Squeeze that saddlebag area and slowly tap your toe in front and back of your bottom foot 10 times.

Lean your top hip forward and lift your top leg slightly up and behind you. Make 10 small circles, brushing your heels together like you’re striking a match. Reverse.

Stack your hips again and make 10 big, slow circles one direction. Reverse and repeat with the other leg.

Created by a husband-and-wife team, professional photographer Jack Coble and Pilates expert Alisa Wyatt, Pilatesology preserves and shares classical Pilates by offering a dynamic library of streaming class videos of pure Pilates, true to the way Joseph Pilates himself taught. It is an online resource where anyone, at any level, can have an in-home Pilates workout for $19 per month, and instructors can find a wealth of information to understand the authentic teaching of Pilates.

Don’t feel bad. Whether you’re a nurse lifting patients or an iron worker climbing up and down steel beams, manual labor is exhausting, but humans were built to be active for long hours not sitting at a desk all day. Studies show that people with limited physical activity have higher percentages of low cardiovascular fitness. (The higher the degree of cardiovascular fitness leads to a better chance of reducing risk factors for coronary artery and cardiovascular diseases and diabetes). Score one for the blue collars!

Just because you’re getting your daily fill of physical activity at work doesn’t mean you’re in the clear. A regular exercise regimen of cardio and strength training will protect your body from the wear and tear of the daily grind. That’s because exercise serves as a prevention tool. The American College of Sports Medicine says that tasks involving prolonged and repetitive pushing and pulling, holding, carrying and lifting can lead to cumulative trauma disorders, such as lower back pain, sprains, strains, carpal tunnel syndrome and neck pain. If workers are fit, productivity increases because there are no job limitations due to inadequate muscle strength, power, endurance or aerobic capacity. Everyone wins!

Ask your employer if they have a workplace wellness program in place. According to a 2003 study by the National Athletic Trainers Association, out of 32 companies surveyed, all that had invested in athletic trainers reported a decline in healthcare costs. Some employers are listening. The New York Times reported that the post office and companies like FedEx hire athletic trainers to develop exercise routines for employees, give them pointers on what to eat and pinpoint ergonomic risks. (For example, athletic trainers with degrees in biomechanics and kinesiology watch delivery people lift boxes to correct their form.)

So how do you work out when you have a physically demanding job? Here are a few tips to keep in mind:

• Take advantage of weekends by doing some moderate weightlifting — kettlebells are great for functional training! — and cardio like running or Spinning if you want to give your feet a break.

• Stretch every day to develop flexibility. This will ward off injuries. After all, you don’t want to pull a muscle.

• Lifting heavy things at work? Do a few extra reps as you go along to sculpt your guns on the job.

• Be conscious of your form. For example, if you are lifting heavy objects, remember to lift with your legs, not with your back. Lift close to your body with feet shoulder-width apart, engage your core muscles and breathe.

According to the American Journal of Preventative Medicine, those who clock at least three hours a day in an office chair were more likely to be overweight or have an increased BMI. Other studies found that increasing physical exercise and implementing healthier lifestyle habits can bolster longevity and reduce your waistline.

Below are some pointers on how to embrace fitness this spring, even during a hectic day at the office.

• Squeeze in 10 to 15 minutes of activity whenever you can. Do leg lifts at your chair, hand deliver a memo instead of using email, or try some squats while you wait for a fax confirmation. Every little bit helps.

• Try these chair pushups during a break.

• Take a brisk walk at lunchtime, even if it’s a few loops around the building.

• Learn how to tone your stomach while sitting in your office chair.

• Take the stairs instead of the elevator.

• Park a few blocks away from the office, and walk to work (you’ll feel so energized you may eschew that cup of coffee).

• Pack your own healthy lunch that emphasizes fruits, vegetables, lean protein and whole grains.

If you’re embarrassed to bust out some squats by the water cooler, or can’t leave your desk, this fitness equipment will keep your muscles moving without missing a beat:

iPad Treadmill Holder: Complete online tasks with a smartphone or tablet while you burn calories on the treadmill.

Under Desk Mini Elliptical: If you prefer an elliptical over a treadmill, complete a full cardio workout without leaving your chair.

Exercise Ball Chairs: Build a stronger core, promote flexibility and improve coordination by replacing your chair with an exercise ball.

Runner’s high has been eluding scientists since the ’70s. There wasn’t a breakthrough in the phenomenon until 2008, when (according to the New York Times) researchers in Germany, using advances in neuroscience, reported that running does elicit a flood of endorphins in the brain. The endorphins are associated with mood changes, and the more endorphins a runner’s body pumps out, the greater the effect.

Going further down the rabbit hole
A new study in the Journal of Experimental Biology shows that a high-intensity workout triggers the release of neurotransmitters known as endocannabinoids that ease pain, cause pleasure, and create a desire for more exercise in people and dogs.

“This suggests that natural selection used the endocanabinoid system to motivate endurance exercise in humans and other animals that walk and run over long distances,” explains David Raichlen from the University of Arizona, in a release.

Runner’s high was instilled in us through evolution. Mammals had to travel great distances for food and water and to escape predators. The more pleasurable the aerobic experience, the more chance of survival.

“These results suggest that natural selection may have been motivating higher rather than low-intensity activities in groups of mammals that evolved to engage in these types of aerobic activities.”

Spaced out
In addition to the feeling of euphoria, many athletes have reportedly experienced time dilation – which Psychology Today defines as “the feeling that time is slowing down to a miniscule pace — which often accompanies that ‘in-the-zone’ feeling.”

Want to see if you are transcending time space on your next run? Check out Einstein’s Pedometer. It’s a free app for your iPhone or iPad based on Einstein’s theory of relativity that when you move faster, time slows. Einstein’s Pedometer is supposed to track relativistic time dilation while you run. The app uses your phone’s GPS to track your speed and distance, and then plugs the data into the Lorentz Transformation equations (yea, we had to look that up, too), which are then used to determine the total amount of time dilation that occurs during your run. Cosmic, man!

The following tips will help you enjoy being active in the great outdoors.

• Take all allergy and asthma medications as prescribed. If you haven’t been to an allergist yet, go! You will be tested to determine what allergens you are allergic to, if any. Here’s what to expect at your first visit. Your doctor can then treat your symptoms and recommend activities to do and to avoid. The American College of Allergy, Asthma & Immunology is currently scheduling free asthma and nasal allergy screenings in communities across the country.

• Track the pollen level in your area. Pollen.com provides a four-day pollen allergy forecast; just type in your ZIP code.

• Avoid areas that contain high levels of allergens and irritants (e.g., fields, trees and busy roads).

• Breathe through the nose as much as possible when exercising, says the American College of Sports Medicine. The nasal passages act as natural filters and humidifiers to maintain air at proper temperatures, as well as filter out allergens, pollutants and irritants.
• Perform a prolonged aerobic warmup and cool-down (15 minutes each) if you have asthma; this can reduce the chances or severity of exercise-induced asthma.
• Know that some activities — such as running, cycling, and basketball — are more likely to cause exercise-induced asthma; resistance training, baseball and swimming are less likely.

• If you just came back from a workout, there’s a good chance that there is pollen on your skin and hair. To protect other people in your household from your pollen-infested workout clothes, remove them as soon as you get home and jump in the shower.

Environmental cues

American College of Allergy, Asthma & Immunology says that climate factors  can also influence how bad allergy symptoms might be in a particular region. Look for these environmental warning signs that severe allergy symptoms will soon follow:

• Tree, grass and ragweed pollens thrive on cool nights and warm days.
• Molds like heat and humidity.
• Pollen levels tend to peak in the morning hours.
• Rain washes pollen away, but their counts skyrocket after a rain.
• On a day with no wind, airborne allergens are grounded.
• When the day is windy and warm, pollen counts surge.

John Adams was on a then-trendy treatment: a milk diet. Adams was told to avoid meats, spices and spirits in favor of bread, milk, vegetables and water. His health improved, but he developed severe heartburn, which he treated with large portions of tea.

John Quincy Adams loved to exercise and was a  great swimmer. Often, he would rise early in the morning, walk from the White House to the Potomac River, strip down to his birthday suit and go for a swim.

For exercise when he was president, James Buchanan walked every day for an hour on Pennsylvania Avenue, “affably greeting his acquaintances.”

George Bush has participated in sports and fitness activities most of his life. He began playing tennis at age 5 and was on the baseball team in college. He began regular jogging at age 51, while head of the CIA. You’re never too old to try something new!

George W. Bush ran an average of three miles, four times a week, and routinely cross-trained with swimming, free weights and an elliptical trainer. He reportedly ran a mile in seven to eight minutes.

After leaving office, Bill Clinton went on the South Beach diet, lost weight but then needed a bypass operation. Doh!

Calvin Coolidge slept 11 hours a day. He went to bed at 10 p.m., got up between 7 a.m. and 9 a.m., and always took an afternoon nap lasting two to four hours. Some say it was caused by depression.

Gerald Ford was a former all-star college football player who turned down offers to play professionally. As president, he  skied, swam and played golf and tennis, and did them all well.

Herbert Hoover hated to exercise. The only recreation during his presidency was a morning hybrid game of tennis and volleyball using a medicine ball and an 8-foot-high net, six days a week. Surprisingly, he missed only one session during his term in office. Good for him for following doctor’s orders!

In a letter, Thomas Jefferson wrote about the importance of exercise — walking and shooting most of all — but said “games played with the ball and others of that nature are too violent for the body.” Jefferson always found time to exercise, even while studying. “Health must not be sacrificed to learning,” he wrote.

Barack Obama’s exercise routine includes working out for 45 minutes, six days a week, including cardiac-strengthening routines and weight-lifting. He makes sure he plays a game of basketball before every election.

Ronald Reagan worked out “about 5 p.m. or so each afternoon, or when the work was done,” for an hour or more in a White House bedroom that had been converted into a gym with exercise equipment.

Franklin Roosevelt suffered from anorexia and weight loss. In June 1944, he was 188 pounds. By November that same year, he dropped to 165. His doctor gave him eggnog supplements, but it didn’t help. He lost more weight. The cause of weight loss is thought to be from heart disease and malignancy.

William Taft struggled with his weight all his adult life. He was 243 pounds when he graduated college. By age 48, he weighed 320 pounds. His doctor helped him lose 70 pounds over a year and a half, but two years later, he was back up to 300 pounds. When he left the White House he was up to 340 pounds. The summer before he passed away, he was 244 pounds. He suffered from sleep apnea, most likely caused by his obesity.

For more presidential factoids, check out the beverages some of our presidents indulged in.

Taught by master trainer Love — yes, that really is her name — throughout the month of February, this no-holds-barred bootcamp will build your stamina, strengthen your core, and set your muscles on fire with high-intensity interval training, partner relays, blindfolded plyometrics and moves with bands and blindfolds (a la “50 Shades of Grey”) that will turn up the heat.

Each Tough Love class is broken down into four sexy chapters:

Trust relay: Working with a partner, these circuits are designed to get your heart rate up and get your competitive edge going.

Balance & blindfolds: Blindfolded plyometrics play with your senses, strengthen your core and make your muscles work overtime.

Strength & core: Build strength and stamina that lasts all night long with high-intensity interval exercises that build core muscles and get your heart rate pumping.

Bands & bondage: This last chapter really pushes the boundaries and requires you to be bound around the ankles with a resistance band.

“Tough love: Bars, Bands & Blindfolds Bootcamp” is a FREE class for both members and nonmembers and will be offered Thursdays at 5:15 p.m., throughout the month of February at NYSC’s 59th Street and Park Avenue location. Bring a friend, boyfriend/girlfriend, or come single and ready to mingle.

Mid-section meltdown

Criss Cross: Targets the obliques

With your hands supporting the weight of your head, rotate your ribcage to the right with both shoulder blades off the mat. Lift higher as you move through center and to the other side. Legs move in and out, straight from the hips, and the movement is slow and controlled, lifting higher and twisting more every time. Complete 20 total twists.

Neck Pull: Targets lower abs

Sitting with your legs extended, slightly apart and strongly grounded to the floor; lift your torso to straighten the spine, sitting as tall as possible. Reach your upper body away from your legs, keeping the legs still and the back straight for as long as possible. When your back cannot stay straight, scoop your belly in and lower the upper body carefully to the mat with control. Lift your head, keeping the weight of the skull supported by your hands and curl up and over the legs, crown of the head reaching to the knees. Stack back up to the start position from the bottom to the top of the spine. Repeat 10 times.

Tighten that tush

Barre Boston Booty Lift: Targets tush, glutes and hamstrings

Stand upright and balance on one leg, holding onto a chair or barre for support. Place a ball or towel behind the bent knee and pull your heel as close as possible toward your tush. Without arching the lower back or leaning forward, stretch the front of the thigh down and point the bent knee to the floor. Draw the pubic bone up toward the belly button to activate the lower part of the rectus abdominals and to flatten any “pooches” in the lower belly. Your knees should be level. Squeeze your bottom and lengthen more through the front of your leg to take tiny pulses back. Repeat 20 times.

Posture makes perfect

Single Leg Kick: Pulls the shoulders back to open heart and hips

Start by lying on your belly. Bring your elbows under your shoulders and pull the shoulder blades in closer to your spine to open your chest. Pull the belly, front of hips and ribcage off the floor, and press your pubic bone into the floor to find a deep stretch through the front of the body. Keep this opening and squeeze the bottom, stretch the right leg super long and bend your knee, engaging the hamstring without disturbing the upper body. Pull your heel as close to the bottom as possible without shifting and switch sides, alternating 20 pulls of the heel to the bottom.

Tricep Dips: Opens the chest and works the upper back and back of arms

Have a seat with your legs squeezing together and your feet flat on the floor. Hands are behind the hips, fingers facing forward. Lift your bottom off the floor and pull your lower belly muscles in. Pull your shoulders back and down, engaging the rhomboids — muscles in your mid-to-upper back — and lats, and lower your bottom to just barely touch the floor, keeping the shoulders and torso in place and just bending at the elbows. Repeat 20 times to start and then add another 20 to target the back of the arms.