My question is: how does sleep affect your training schedule? Will you improve faster with more sleep? Or is it better to let your natural circadian rhythm take over and sleep when you can? If diet is so important, sleep should be too, correct?"
Hello!
Wow. Let me just say how excited I am to finally get into sleep on this blog. I'm actually planning a nice article about my thoughts on it, so stay tuned! That goes for all of my regular readers as well (by the way, thank you so much for your support).
People are often told that sleep is important. But I think that people don't really realize just HOW important sleep is. I'm not really going to take too much time finding scholarly works on the subject, but after reading articles on various sites, forums, and my own experience, I have come to the conclusion that sleep may be the most underrated "supplement" of all time.
Source: sleepnbeauty.com
Sleep is important for many reasons. This is true from a bodybuilding standpoint, but also from a health and well-being standpoint as well.
Sleep is important to bodybuilding because the body uses the time you sleep to excrete hormones conducive to muscle growth and repair, which is invaluable to anyone trying to bodybuild. Sleep also plays a role in immune function, memory, metabolism, learning, and many other bodily functions vital to a healthier you (source: healthysleep.med.harvard.edu). Sleep in my opinion is the world's greatest energy supplement / drink / stimulant, etc. The more sleep you receive, the more focused, alert, and energized you will feel in accomplishing all of the goals you have each day (like having a great workout). Furthermore, those who consisently make a point in trying to get a lot of sleep will often times feel less stressed out during the day and tend to be happier and more upbeat.
It's for all of these reasons that I believe this guy you've been dating should look into investing in sleep. On the road to attaining the most optimal version of himself as a fighter who needs to have a pristine body, sleep should be held with the utmost importance. His diet and training sounds like they're pretty on point, but keep in mind that with body transformation it's all about how well you're eating towards your desired body type, how hard you train towards your desired body type, and how much rest you get. Each of these are equally important, and failing to adequately invest in one of them can make the investment you made in the other two totally pointless. I was looking at bodybuilding forums one time and came across an equation that I really enjoyed:
Great Diet + Great Workout + Poor Rest = Terrible Workout
I believe that equation to be very true. The muscle mass / benefit / ability you gain from your training and diet are all put together when you sleep. Think of it as your body's time to start piecing together all it has been given throughout the day. Think of sleep as the crew responsible for cleaning up the streets of New York after New Year's, or a crew responsible for rebuilding a city after it has been destroyed by war. It takes time, and not giving any of these crews enough time will leave the city (your body) in suboptimal condition for which to take on the next day. The results are mediocre gains, and mediocre energy that leads to mediocre workouts where you are unable to give the amount of energy you should to every workout. Since your body uses the time you sleep to heal, sleep is a key aid in injury prevention.
Source: vegansgoraw.com
If the guy you are dating refuses to believe that sleep is beneficial to him, I would advise highlighting not only the points made in this blog post, but also doing some more in-depth research on the topic from some of the many resources available on the topic, or even trying to spend a week trying to get 7-8 hours of restful sleep every day and see how much better he feels. As someone who considers themselves to be an athlete, doing whatever it takes to attain the most optimal version of his body should be priority number one. This means that attention should be paid towards getting as much rest as possible.
He puts his body through a lot, and it's always there to perform the way it needs to and match his intensity. He should be as loyal and kind to his body as well, and get the rest his body wants and deserves. I guarantee you that he will see a drastic improvement in his ability, health, and mental ability in doing so.
There's a saying that goes "sleep is for the weak". I propose that we go ahead and change this saying to: "Don't sleep for a weaker you".
Thank you so much for your question! Be on the lookout for more posts related to sleep!
-Jtrain
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I read this and got really depressed....
ReplyDeleteI have sleep apnea. REM cycle sleep is a rarity... Makes sense why I never seems as strong or as quick as people that I know I should have beat...
/cry