Rest

Rest

By Robert Orr,

You have fitness and health goals. You are dedicated to achieving these goals. You work hard when you are on the court, in the gym, on the field or in the field. You eat properly and ensure you supplement your nutritional deficiencies. Excellent but why are you making slow gains or no gains at all toward your goal? One major contributor to your results is rest. Take a look at a two typical daily routine for many people I work with:

If this is not exactly your daily schedule, it is ok. The important fact to note with both of these schedules is the lack of sleep.  I know you are thinking, I get all the sleep I need or I only need six hours. Your mind may think this but the rest of your body is begging you for consistent full nights of sleep.

The human body requires more than eight hours of sleep per night. When we receive less than this amount, our bodies fall in to sleep debt. Sleep debt is just like a debt at a bank. The only way to get out of debt is to pay. In the case of sleep debt, you need to sleep more.

How important is sleep?  

According to the National Institutes of Health, sleep deprivation leads to performance deficits included reduced ability to pay attention and react to a stimulus, such as when driving, or monitoring at airports. Other deficits involved impairment of the ability to think quickly and not make mistakes, and a reduced ability to multi-task — to hold thoughts in the brain in some order while doing something else. These impairments are brought on more quickly when you use alcohol, tobacco and caffeine.

What happens when you sleep?

When you are sleeping, your body is repairing all of the damage you have done to it during the day. The most important part of body repair is the production of growth hormone (GH).  It can slow unneeded functions down to a snails pace and work extra hard to fix the over worked and broken tissues. Training individuals, especially those engaging in high intensity workouts, can have up to three times the amount of deep sleep, representing 25-35% of the nights sleep. Since growth hormone is facilitated by the neurophysiology of deep sleep it is important that training individuals do not compromise the first third of their nights sleep by delaying their normal bedtime.(2002)

Tips for regular sleep patterns:

To get proper rest, you need to set some ground rules.

Always go to bed and get up at the same time every day.

Avoid naps. Especially after 3PM.

Don’t go to bed unless you feel tired.

Get a ritual that helps you relax before bed time. (2002)

There is another part of rest that needs to be addressed. The amount of recovery time between workouts is just as important as the workout itself. One rule of thumb is to listen to your body. If you feel tired, sore and lethargic because you have worked out intensely for the past four days, perhaps you need a day off to recover. If you are unsure what your body is telling you, it is difficult to know when to take a recovery day and when to keep pushing. Here are some tips that make this decision easier.

Workout Scheduling Tips:

Vary the intensity of them with less rest between the sets. On Day 1 of the week, keep it light. Day 2, medium and Day 3 heavy intensity. I say heavy on day 3 because if it is Friday, you will have 2 days to recover. Also, we are often stronger in the middle to end of the workout week than the beginning after days off.

Take a day off after your workout if you are tired. Two days at the most.

On off days, continue to do some joint mobility or stretching. You will feel better!

Drink water. I know you have heard this before. You should be drinking a about gallon of water every day. There are millions of reasons why this is important. 

Kinsman, T. (2002). Sleep Science Center. http://healthfitness.com.au/articles/sleep/sleep_health_fitness.htm

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