Photo by Victor Freitas on Unsplash
Are one rep maxes, or protein powders the keys to a better workout personalized fitness programs? I used to think these were the only ways to push myself to the limit and achieve stamina and muscle gains. They can help but it turns out a good night’s sleep after you pick the best mattress might be the missing piece of the puzzle.
It’s all about workout recovery. When I started getting better quality sleep, I noticed I could lift heavier weights, do more reps, and run longer. I also experienced mental benefits like better focus and concentration. I’d like to share why more shut-eye means better workouts.
Fitness and Sleep: What’s the Relationship
Conventional wisdom says that lack of sleep has a negative effect on fitness levels. However, it’s important to know how these two activities are affected and how fitness and exercise are specifically linked.
The Importance of Workout Recovery
One of the big mistakes people often make is thinking that only what you do in the gym is important. However, let’s say you do a tough 1-hour workout that involves extra reps by lifting to failure, for example. The workout program won’t mean much if it fails to focus on what you do during the other 23 hours.
This involves different issues. They include eating healthy food, minimizing stress, and even finding the perfect mattress for a good night’s sleep. The issue of how much sleep is a debatable topic, but many health experts recommend more than average, such as 9 to 10 hours, for example.
Workout Recovery
After a tough physical workout, the recovery process is needed for building lean muscle mass, boosting endurance, and other benefits. For example, the body loses lots of water, carbs, and electrolytes like sodium during athletic activity, so it’s important to replenish your levels afterwards.
In order to get the full benefits of exercise, it’s important for the body to recover properly. That includes catching Zs for the regular 8 hours, although a little more is icing on the cake.
Workout recovery is about more than just resting. Sleep helps to body to repair tiny tears in muscle tissues, build lean muscle mass, and save energy.
It also helps to produce growth hormones. While they help children and teens develop physically, they help adult bodies to repair and recover after a tough workout.
How Sleep Improves Workouts
Workout Performance: Good Sleep Versus No Sleep
It’s probably not headline news that getting less than 7 to 9 hours of sleep per night will negatively affect your workouts. However, to see the big effects, it’s important to look at the extreme: sleepless nights.
ASCM Study
The American College of Sports Medicine (ACSM) conducted a study related to the connection between workouts and sleep. The test subjects were able to do passive activities on no sleep like listening to music, reading e-books, or watching movies.
On the other hand, they had problems doing active activities. After getting no sleep, the study’s participants reported they needed more energy to do the same tasks without sleep versus a full night’s sleep. They also got tired faster. This process is related to activities like walking, biking, and weightlifting.
Glycogen and Workouts
People experience being low-energy after sleep deprivation because they have less muscle-stored energy known as “glycogen.” When you have low levels, you feel tired.
The ASCM study showed that no-sleep workouts sped up the process. The test subjects started getting fatigued before their stored glycogen was used up.
How much sleep is enough after exercise?
So while zero hours of sleep isn’t the best option, it’s important to take up how much sleep is needed. It’s worth noting that fitness experts don’t all agree about how much sleep is enough.
Getting Enough Shut-eye
The amount of sleep athletes, weightlifters, and bodybuilders need differs based on which expert you ask. As noted, many experts recommend getting 1 or 2 extra hours of sleep.
On the other hand, some elite athletes sleep up to half the da, according to Sleep Dr. They also tend to take power naps during the day to boost endurance levels.
How Much Sleep Is Enough?
It really depends on various factors. For example, someone who’s just starting workouts will likely get tired a lot faster versus a marathon runner. Then there are other factors like diet that also impact how much post-workout sleep you need.
You can take some basic steps to improve sleep quality after a workout or practice:
- Boost sleep time leading up to big competitions
- Make sleep a top priority in the training schedule.
- Follow a sleep schedule, so you go to sleep/wake up at the same time.
How Exercise Improves Sleep
While getting a good night’s sleep can improve athletic performance, the converse is also true. In other words, doing workouts and playing sports can also improve your sleep in several ways:
Improving Physical Fitness
Doing physical activity can improve a person’s cardiovascular health. Besides boosting stamina, it also helps to make the body’s oxygen use more efficient. This, in turn, helps a person get a good night’s sleep.
Various studies show the cardio-sleep connection. For example, a 2013 study that included nearly 3,500 adults measured their oxygen intake while doing treadmill exercise. The participants with better cardiovascular health were less likely to experience insomnia.
Maintain a Healthy Weight
Body weight might seem to have nothing to do with sleep. Besides avoiding health issues linked to obesity like type-2 diabetes and heart disease, it might also help to prevent sleep disorders, including sleep apnea. This is a potentially dangerous condition that causes people to stop breathing while snoozing.
Boost Deep Sleep
People usually cycle through5 sleep phases each night. Each one provides different benefits and brain activity. Studies also show that physical exercise can increase slow-wave or “deep” sleep. Such sleep is important for factors like body metabolism and brain health.
Biorhythm Regulation
Aerobic exercise in particular boosts levels of the “feel-good” hormone serotonin. This can improve the regulation of the internal clock or circadian rhythms. The reason is this hormone tells various brain regions when a person should go to sleep and wake up.
Conclusion
Physical exercise can provide a wide range of health benefits, including stronger muscles, better endurance, and even better sleep quality. You can also improve workout performance if you pick the best mattress based on factors like comfort and support.
The reason is getting a good night’s sleep after a tough workout can help your body repair tissues, recover faster, and improve athletic performance. It’s part of the ABCs of catching Zs!
Author Bio:
Brett is a writer at ID-MAG. An enthusiast and expert when it comes to sleep products, Brett dedicates a lot of his time reading, researching, and reviewing about both traditional and emerging sleep brands that manufacture varied types of sleep products – from eco-mattresses, smart pillows to cooling sleep systems, Brett has probably reviewed them all. Brett also finds sleep especially important since he juggles a small business which he runs from home, makes sure he spends time with his daughter and he also writes during his spare time – you can definitely see that he needs a great forty winks all night, every night so he’ll make sure that you get great sleep, too!