Working to achieve peak fitness is an effort that never ends. As soon as you reach your goals, there is always going to be the question of either maintaining them, or setting new ones to hit. In among all of that, there are the marginal improvements you can make when it comes to getting the most out of your potential. For example: while we all know about the importance of diet and exercise when it comes to reaching your peak, how much attention do you pay to the – arguably equally important – issue of sleep?
Sleep isn’t just a way to recuperate energy at the end of a long day; the quality and the quantity of rest you get at this crucial time has major implications for your health, both physically and mentally. Also, when it comes to your improvements in the gym, you’d be surprised just how influential a decent night’s sleep can be in the mix.
If You’re Not Sleeping, You’re Not Gaining Muscle
The physical process of building muscle is, in its simplest form, actually kind of brutal. To achieve this goal, you are literally breaking down the muscle (micro tears), then letting it heal, forming stronger fibrous bonds. This healing does not happen immediately, but actually takes place overnight, particularly while you are sleeping. In other words, if you’re not sleeping, you won’t get the most of your muscle building workout. You’ll also find that the next time you hit the gym, you won’t be able to do quite as much as before.
Sleep and exercise exist in a tandem, in which each benefits the other and gives the best results for both. Not only that, when you get a good night’s sleep, your body will produce the optimum amount of growth hormone, which is essential in delivering the benefits you want.
Quality of Sleep Matters as Much as Quantity
You’ll surely know how it feels to wake up in the morning, having bedded down at a perfectly reasonable hour but then been assaulted by insomnia, snatching an hour of sleep here and a few minutes there in between tossing and turning and occasionally looking helplessly at the ceiling. Nothing feels quite right in the light of day after a night like that – you’ll be grouchy, your energy won’t be there, and even a gym session will not shake that weird feeling.
There are no sure-fire cures for insomnia, but there are a few things you can do to make it less likely. Leave your phone alone for at least an hour before bed; for that matter eliminate all TV and other screen time. In addition, meditation, has been shown to have a positive affect on insomnia. There are other things that you can do as well, but those are a few highly beneficial ones.
Exercise Can Help You Sleep: So That’s Good
While a good night’s sleep is beneficial for getting the most from your workout, there is a bit of good news to be had here. The reverse is also true – if you have a regular exercise routine, it should benefit the quality and quantity of sleep you are getting. As long as your diet regime is well-judged (so lots of clean proteins and as little caffeine as possible), your workout should burn plenty of excess energy, leaving you feeling pleasantly spent at the end of a day and ready for a night of uninterrupted sleep.
It’s great if your workout makes you feel pumped and full of fire, but that hyped-up feeling should be left in the gym. If you’re still experiencing the side effects of adrenaline while you’re getting ready to hit the hay, then there is a problem. A regime of light stretches at the end of every routine should allow you to get some equilibrium before you get in the shower.
Sleep is of vital importance to any fitness regime, and to all aspects of your physical and mental health. If you find that you are struggling for that essential restful sleep when you go to bed at night, then take every effort to find a way of improving things; including speaking to a doctor if it becomes chronic. Sleeping well is a foundational building block to everything else in life, and is the most important thing in any wellness routine. By following the above advice and working as hard as you can to establish that routine, you’ll see the best results both in the gym and beyond.
Use the Jefit App to Track Your Workouts
Try Jefit app, named best app for 2020 and 2021 by PC Magazine, Men’s Health, The Manual and the Greatist. The app comes equipped with a customizable workout planner and training log. In addition, the app has ability to track data, offer audio cues, and has a feature to share workouts with friends. Take advantage of Jefit’s exercise database for your strength workouts. Visit our members-only Facebook group. Connect with like-minded people, share tips, and advice to help get closer to reaching your fitness goals. Try one of the new interval-based workouts and add it to your weekly training schedule. Stay strong with Jefit as you live your fitness lifestyle.
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