Sleep and bodybuilding concepts are inseparable. In fact, sleep is one of the key factors in bodybuilding. Over 90% of growth hormone is released at night. The 24-48 hour period (including sleep) after a hard workout is very important. It is now that repair and construction of new muscle fibers occurs.
Sleep in bodybuilding, as in all life, is the main time for amino acid metabolism, protein synthesis and hormone release. It is very important to understand the phenomenon of sleep - how hormones behave and how exercise affects them. But it's even more important to figure out what you can do to improve your sleep and speed up your recovery process. You know that weight training builds lean muscle mass, increases strength, and helps you lose excess fat. U normal person muscle growth occurs only when protein synthesis exceeds proteolysis, that is, its breakdown. IN muscle cells There must be a positive nitrogen balance in order for them to be in an anabolic state.
Weight training speeds up muscle production, but without proper nutrition and taking the necessary nutritional supplements, which are sports nutrition, it can plunge your body into a catabolic state. The presence of amino acids is very important factor for protein synthesis. With the maximum amount of amino acids, protein synthesis is maximum. Since amino acids are used to repair and rebuild muscle fibers, during sleep it makes sense to give your body all the key amino acids just before bed to prevent muscle breakdown and spur muscle synthesis.
Therefore, slow-digesting proteins, such as milk protein isolate or casein, are very useful to take before bed. They provide a constant flow of amino acids while you sleep, which is very important for recovery processes.
The circadian rhythm also determines the intensity of hormone release in the body. As a bodybuilder, you are interested in maximizing the release of growth hormone, testosterone and IGF-1 during sleep. Resistance training has a powerful effect on when and how these hormones are released.
The first thing you should do is ensure that you get 8-10 hours of sleep a night. Why? Even the slightest lack sleep and bodybuilding can affect your body's hormonal response to exercise and increase the breakdown of muscle fibers, inhibiting their synthesis. So what makes us sleep more at night than during the day? The pineal gland in the brain releases melatonin, which then turns into the hormone serotonin, which makes us fall asleep. During daylight hours, less melatonin is released than at night.
There are four main stages of sleep, as well as a fifth, called REM sleep. The most important stages for a bodybuilder are stages three and four, called slow-wave sleep. People less in these stages usually wake up with more muscle soreness. That's why nap does not reduce it. During the day it is difficult to enter the third and fourth stages of sleep. The hormonal response during sleep in people who exercise is different from those who lead a sedentary lifestyle.
For example, studies have shown that in exercising people, the release of growth hormone is lower in the first half of sleep and higher in the second, in contrast to inactive people, for whom the opposite is true. Typically testosterone levels are low at the beginning of sleep, even when taking sleeping pills, and increase in the morning. The same thing happens with cortisol. Again, training, sleep and bodybuilding can change this situation by keeping cortisol levels high in the first half of the night and lowering them in the second half. Therefore, it is very important to immediately suppress the secretion of cortisol by taking special nutritional supplements, such as phosphatidylserine, before bed. During the night, testosterone levels rise in exercising individuals.
Growth hormone comes into play in the third and fourth stages of sleep, during REM sleep Cortisol levels increase. This is not very good from a muscle building point of view. Cell division (mitosis) in all fibers, including muscle fibers, increases in the morning, often coinciding with stages 3 and 4 of sleep. Growth hormone also plays a role here. As you can guess, the lack of sleep and relaxation that valerian can give has a negative impact on work. immune system. Its weakening begins to appear after just a few days of partial sleep deprivation and much sooner after complete absence sleep.
Natural sleeping pills
If you are experiencing sleep disturbances or want to improve your sleep quality, use the following medications.
Melatonin
It is a natural hormone of the pineal gland. Some studies show that he follows the example of others natural sleeping pills can improve REM sleep and stimulate the production of growth hormone (which is interesting for bodybuilders). Melatonin may improve sleep quality, but it causes intense dreams in some people. So be careful, a dose of 2-5 mg at bedtime is sufficient for most people.
Kava-kava
This herb, which is similar in effect to valerian, is used as a sedative and relaxant and to treat anxiety. Its active ingredients, called kavalactones, act as mild depressants on the central nervous system. Taking 100 mg of active kavalactones before bed can improve sleep quality.
Valerian
This plant, Valerian, has also been used as a relaxant and sedative for many years. Scientists believe natural sleeping pills and in particular, it is a weak tranquilizer that can speed up sleep. The sooner you fall asleep, the sooner you will reach phases 3 and 4. A dose of 200-500 mg of the standardized extract (5 to 1 for valeric acid) before bed is sufficient.
L-theanine
This amino acid extract from green tea, like sleeping pills, has a powerful relaxing effect. It has been observed to stimulate alpha waves in the brain, which induce relaxation and blunt the stress response. Some studies suggest a beneficial effect of L-theanine on brain function. Dose – 250 mg at bedtime.
5-hydroxytryptophan
This tryptophan derivative can act as an antidepressant and sleep aid. Tryptophan is converted into 5-HTP in the body, which can then be converted into serotonin, a powerful brain neurotransmitter known as a relaxing hormone. 5-HTP has been used successfully by many bodybuilders to improve sleep quality. Used in food additives 5-HTP is obtained from the African herb Griffonia simplicifolia. Take 300 mg before bed.
Note: It is very important to consult with your doctor before you start taking sleeping pills or any of these medications, especially if you have any medical conditions. Sleep can speed up or slow down your progress in the gym. It should be enough. And don't forget about protein and phosphatidylserine capsules before bed.
Important: if you are looking for a quality drug for insomnia, you can study the delta sleep peptide DSIP, which is available for order on our website. Reviews about it from customers are extremely good.
From: Athleticpharma.com
In bodybuilding and any other sport, there are three main factors that are responsible for your progress.
- The first factor is training.
- The second factor is.
- And the third factor is recovery.
Let’s leave the first two factors for discussion in the and sections, and now let’s talk about recovery.
One of the most important aspects of restoration is the quality and deep sleep, the importance of which for the health of the athlete and his body is difficult to overestimate. Next, we will discuss how many hours it is recommended to sleep, what processes take place in the body while we sleep. Let's talk about what interferes with our sleep, and how to get rid of these interferences.
How many hours of sleep does an athlete need?
Sleep issues are a somewhat individual thing. For each person and his body, the number of hours of sleep required is different. Here we will talk about average numbers and look at general tips on this issue. Take these tips into account, but if you personally are used to sleeping more or less and still feel comfortable, then listen to your body. Approximately 80% of people experience some kind of sleep disturbance or poor sleep, on average 5-6 hours per day. This time is enough for your body and organism to partially recover, however, if you are interested in quality and full recovery and rest, these hours of sleep will not be enough for you.
- If you are an athlete involved in bodybuilding, powerlifting or other sports physical development and training, then the minimum figure for you is 8 hours sleep. In this case, a positive effect will be observed in terms of recovery and progression of the load.
- Ideally, if you are serious about getting the most out of your sleep after a hard workout, you should sleep from 9 to 11 hours a day(include naps if necessary).
- Athletes who are professional bodybuilders sometimes spend up to two hours sleeping in the off-season. 15 hours a day(counting sleep as a day).
What if an athlete is constantly breaking his routine and not getting enough sleep?
French-born playwright Pierre Decourcel said that “Sleep is a break from life.” But the fact remains that when a series of daily tasks that require solutions, a hard day at work, fatigue and other troubles fall on you, the ability to relax and indulge in good restorative sleep is sharply reduced and the person’s mental productivity of the brain decreases, the reaction ceases to be the same, and, as As a result, in this situation, your muscles will not only not grow, but quite possibly will decrease somewhat in size, and your body will lose its previous performance. General state yours nervous system directly depends on the ability of your brain to transmit nerve signals to the muscles; it is this process that causes the muscles to contract safely. In other words, the Central Nervous System regulates the contraction of your muscles. If you are tired, your system will not be able to turn on at full capacity. Get some sleep Special attention, take the time and repay your body for its hard work.
Woman's body Those who go in for sports react to insomnia an order of magnitude more severely than men. It is inherent in nature that the fair half of humanity needs a longer rest at night, approximately 9 hours a day(at least when playing sports). It is recommended to sleep the same amount for male athletes, namely 9-11 hours. Women tend to go to bed earlier and get up later, and therefore, lack of sleep affects female body much more negative.
CONCLUSION: If you notice that you are not getting enough sleep and your system is under increased stress, it is better to postpone the heavy workout for the next day and organize your training program so that the heavy training occurs on days when you are well-rested and in good spirits. In any case, for a tired body, such training will not only be ineffective, but will also cause harm - it will overload the nervous system into a state of overtraining and fatigue.
What processes does the body initiate while we sleep?
While we sleep, our brain, nervous system and sensory organs do not turn off and do not even slow down their work; they move from one mode of operation to another. In fact, sleep is the time when hormonal activity in your system is at its peak, approximately 80-90% of somatotropin (growth hormone), as well as other important hormones, work in full force during sleep. Therefore, it is while you sleep that protein is synthesized and your muscle, as well as the tissue of your organs - the cells of which are renewed. Particularly active during your sleep are the cells of the immune system - T-lymphocytes, which ensure that the entire system is well protected.
Sleep includes several stages in the seed.
slow sleep consists of four stages:
- Sleep stage number 1: dozing, thoughts fill your subconscious.
- Sleep stage number 2: relatively shallow sleep, at this moment the person is quite easy to wake up, his eyes are motionless.
- Sleep stage number 3: Delta Dream. A fairly slow but sound sleep, during which your system is activated and the release of hormones into the blood and restoration of the body begins.
- Sleep stage number 4: Delta Dream. This is the deepest period of your sleep, it is difficult to wake a person, in this moment dreams are seen as clearly as possible, the person is not aware of his personality. This is the most important stage for strengthening neuronal connections (conscious memories).
But there is another, separate stage of sleep called REM sleep. This is the stage when a person’s awakening occurs gradually. It follows the last, fourth stage of slow-wave sleep. In REM sleep, your brain is almost as active as if you were awake, but your muscles are still relaxed and have not yet turned on or become toned.
Do you need a nap during the day?
The most significant stages of sleep, especially for a person involved in sports, are the third and fourth stages. During the day, your body’s ability to enter these stages of sleep is significantly limited, since during the day, the pineal gland produces significantly less melatonin, the sleep hormone, than at night.
Recommended for those athletes who experience significant training loads. In this case, you should sleep for an hour or more during the day - this will help partially restore your nervous system. However, the main processes of recovery of your system occur during the main thing - night sleep. At night, the body receives maximum benefits.
Factors that interfere with sleep. Why can't you sleep? How to sleep?
| Cause bad sleep or insomnia. | Why? Explanation of the causes of insomnia. | What should you do to fall asleep? |
| A hearty, hearty dinner. | If you eat a lot of fatty, heavy food before going to bed, it will be difficult for your stomach to digest it at night. It will constantly send impulses that cause the brain to experience unnecessary activity. | Consume carbohydrates 2-3 hours before going to bed, and before bed, take a protein shake, casein (ideal) or amino acids, which will provide your system with building material for nighttime anabolism, and will not create unnecessary heaviness for the stomach. |
| Uneven, inconsistent sleep patterns. | When you constantly go to bed different time, you upset the balance between the biorhythms of wakefulness and sleep. It's difficult for your body to adapt to the different times each time you go to bed. | Follow the regime. Go to bed at same time day after day, better sooner than later. The optimal time for going to bed is 22:00 - 23:00. | Physical exercise increases your system temperature, increases blood circulation, and excites your nervous system, thereby bringing it into a state of wakefulness. | Get rid of any physical exercise 2 hours before bedtime. If you do do your workouts at night, be sure to cool down and relax after your workout to allow your body to restore temperature and calm your nervous system before bed. |
| Intense thought processes. | Most common reason lack of sleep or insomnia is various kinds thinking in bed, at a time when you should not think about anything and fall asleep. | Set yourself up positively for progress, mentally thank your body for this day and let go of all thoughts, plunging into a long-awaited, restorative sleep. |
Experts offer several tips on strength training, the results will not be long in coming.
American college sports medicine(ACSM) and the American Heart Association look at physical activity differently. In addition to the usual stress on the heart, regular exercise with a load on each muscle group at least 2 times a week is encouraged.
Spero Karas, MD, assistant professor of orthopedics in sports medicine at Emory University, says that testosterone, the male hormone responsible for muscle growth, reaches its limit between the ages of 16 and 18. It reaches its apogee at the age of 20, and then declines. Thus, build muscle in adolescence not worth it.
“If you start doing fitness, especially if you haven’t done anything for a long time, the results won’t take long,” says Karas. "In the first 12 weeks, it's completely normal for the muscles to increase by 10, 20, 30 percent of their original size."
Muscles grow through the use of new muscle tissue, which makes the muscles stronger and more visible. Even if exercise doesn't result in significant muscle gain, Karas says, muscle definitely does increase.
The reason for this is that the muscles absorb water and, due to this, increase during exercise. In addition, muscles burn fat, which makes them even more noticeable. After three months of physical activity, muscle growth slows down. A stage has been reached where the muscles really start to grow, and this takes time.
“After maximizing the load, the body reaches a limit where increasing muscle mass becomes quite difficult,” says Karas. If you want to get serious about bodybuilding or just sculpt your muscles, here are seven basic tips.
Getting in shape with strength training
Unfortunately, good health requires a lot of effort, says Kent Adams, Ph.D., FACSM, CSCS, director of the Exercise Physiology Laboratory at Monterey Bay State University.
“You shouldn’t train constantly without sparing yourself,” he says. “We need to develop a reasonable, designed for a certain person training schedule and stick to it.”
Tips and training schedules can be found on the websites of organizations such as the ACSM or the National General Fitness Association. With absence excess weight The best option is a simulator. Plyometrics and rhythmic gymnastics are also possible.
At a minimum, do jumping jacks, squats, and other exercises that develop your hamstrings and stimulate your leg muscles to grow.
Whatever exercise you choose, do not overdo it. Exceeding your endurance level (amount of weight used) and doing too many exercise repetitions can cause muscle fatigue. And this can slow down muscle growth, Adams says. ACSM recommends three sets of 8-12 repetitions for each exercise.
To speed up the process, says Lisa De Los Santos (Cooper Institute-certified personal trainer, Southern California Air Force Base), exercise to get your heart rate and metabolism up, and try the super-freeze technique. She suggests one set of two or three exercises for different muscles. Rest, then do another set of each exercise. After this, we move on to the next muscle group.
Physical activity causes microscopic cracks in the muscles, which are restored during rest. But if the muscles do not get proper rest, serious damage can occur.
Day 1: rib cage, triceps and shoulders;
Day 2: Bottom part torso (hamstrings, femoral abductors and abductors, calves);
Day 3: back, biceps and abdominal muscles.
Hard? Take another day or two off or work out a different muscle group. Don't forget about delayed muscle fatigue, which can appear 48 hours after exercise.
Drink plenty of water - before and after exercise
Water – required material for muscle building. But even in the absence of exercise, not all people drink enough water. According to nutritional standards, a person should drink 8-10 glasses of water per day. Karas suggests drinking an additional 350-450 g before starting physical activity, as well as 250-300 g every 15 minutes of intense exercise.
Prefer to drink while exercising? It is possible if the lesson lasts more than an hour. In this case, water is needed to restore the supply of electrolytes.
Balanced diet
Building muscle requires a balanced intake of carbohydrates, fats, protein, as well as vitamins and minerals. The source of this is our daily food.
Avoid carbohydrate diets, which increase insulin levels and consequently slow down the growth of hormones that influence muscle growth, Karas says. The best option is 5-6 meals of balanced meals in small quantities. Building muscle does not go hand-in-hand with dieting.
“When you are in a caloric deficit, the body is unable to build muscle,” explains De Los Santos.
Watch your fat intake. Fat should not exceed 30% of your total daily calorie intake. Also, don't forget about fruits and vegetables rich in vitamins and minerals.
More protein - more muscle
“The key to building muscle is protein, protein, protein,” says Karas. “Protein is part of the muscle, and therefore a large amount of amino acids is needed to create a protein reserve.”
Don't have time to cook? De Los Santos offers light, high-protein snacks such as cottage cheese, cheese sticks, and protein shakes. In stores you can find a variety of powders dissolved in water or low-fat milk. The result is an energy protein shake that replaces snacks between meals.
Sleep more
Sleep is directly related to blood pressure, depression and other health problems. Consequently, lack of sleep may delay the growth of hormones needed to increase muscle mass, Karas says. Recent studies have shown that lack of sleep also leads to obesity.
How do you know how much sleep you need? When a person gets enough sleep, they feel rested and don't feel like taking a nap, says the CDC. The average adult needs 7-8 hours of sleep. Of course, some require more.
Training with an instructor
If there is a need for more detailed information or motivation, then the solution is to hire an instructor. Cost varies by location and experience, but typically ranges from $20 to $85 per hour.
In addition, an instructor is not needed all the time. According to De Los Santos, three months is enough to feel confident in the gym and learn the right amount of various exercises and get the required result.
“A good instructor teaches as he trains, and therefore there is no need to use his services all the time,” says De Los Santos. “Ideally, you learn how to maintain your fitness or achieve new results.”
When choosing an instructor, make sure that they are certified by a reputable organization and also have a first aid certificate. Of course, you can hire someone you like better, since you will spend at least an hour together every week.
I am sure that you really want to build muscle, so you are ready to do a lot for this. However, sometimes you need to do nothing to grow muscles. First of all, muscles should not be prevented from growing. You heard me correctly, you need to sleep more.
Now I haven't said anything new. Everyone knows that to restore muscles you need to sleep more: the more the better. If you are a slacker who does not work and does not study, then implementing this recommendation is not difficult. But what if you need to feed yourself, your children and your parents? How long is the minimum amount of sleep after which muscles begin to grow? Where is the limit of sleep, falling below which your training will only harm your growth?
But this often happens: when a person works in the gym for years and instead of filled muscles, he gets “carved bones.”
What does everyone already know about sleep?
Schwarzenegger writes in his encyclopedia that you need to sleep more and get enough sleep. The word "more" has already been said. Joe Weider writes in his textbook that each champion’s need for sleep is individual. The word “individual” is usually used when one does not know “exactly how much,” “when exactly,” and “exactly who” needs to sleep. However, Joe Weider writes clearly: 8-10 hours a day. Non-bodybuilders have said a lot about the need to sleep 8 hours a day. “Everyone knows” this and often it doesn’t work.
What determines the amount of sleep? From body weight? From muscle mass? From the amount of load during training?
In order to answer this question for myself, I conducted a study on myself and my students. Of course, I read the “British scientists” who studied mice, but I trust my eyes more. In addition, there is no way you can force a British mouse to do a bench press, and it is not kept “at work” in a nightclub until 7 in the morning. This happens to my students, and this must be taken into account.
The relationship between the amount of sleep and workload.
My research was simple. Firstly, I studied students without business trips or corporate events, whom I trusted and knew that their daily routine was measured. Passionate individuals, those who drink wine more than twice a week and those who wake up with an alarm clock were not taken into account.
Secondly, I used my proven method: to consider people’s behavior over a period of not just one day, but at least one week. collected training diaries and received data from their fitness bracelets on the amount of sleep per week. Having collected a sufficient number of reports for six months, I saw a simple pattern.
One hour of training requires two hours of additional sleep.
An inquisitive reader will ask: two hours of extra sleep for what? But here we need to remember the founder of bodybuilding, Joe Weider, and his phrase that each person’s need for sleep is individual. One hour of training requires an additional two hours of sleep to the individual requirement. All that remains is to find out your individual need, add two hours to it, train for one hour and wait for muscle growth.
Basic sleep.
As medical observations have shown, the individual need for sleep depends on age. Newborns sleep 16 hours a day. Starting at age 17, the average person sleeps 8-9 hours a day. It is at this age that people stop growing. At least he stopped growing in length at 17 years old.
However, the greatest muscle growth was achieved in the period from 13 to 16 years. Schwarzenegger writes about the same thing - he gained most of his muscle mass between the ages of 13 and 16.
Scientific fact: People aged 14 years need 10 hours of sleep per day.
Have you noticed that when the number of hours of sleep drops from ten to eight hours a day, then statistically average people stop growing in length. With muscles about that. I noticed that when the number of hours of sleep reported by my students falls below 9 hours a day, the results in training stop growing - the muscles do not have time to recover.
Many experienced athletes will object and say that they achieved muscle growth when they slept 4 hours a day. I myself had days when I slept 4 hours, but in a week I still ended up with more than 60 hours. Once, after a hard work-training period, I slept for 28 hours, getting out of bed only to go to the toilet.
Reports from my students have shown that beginners can progress from 49 hours of sleep per week. Reducing the amount of sleep below this limit stops the growth of indicators in training diaries.
What am I calling for? I’m not calling you to sleep more, I’m calling you to watch more. Until your individual data on the amount of weekly sleep, the amount of weekly training and the amount of weekly food are combined in your head, you will not understand why muscles grow.
The attentive reader has already realized that muscle growth is influenced not only by sleep, but also by food, which means food affects sleep - everything is connected.
How does food affect sleep?
Reducing caloric intake reduces hours of sleep. People with experience losing weight and following different diets know that lack of food interferes with sleep. It's all about negative balance. And a negative balance is what...
You can eat until you're full or until you're full. You can also leave the table hungry. Leaving the table hungry means having a negative balance. Have you realized that feeling hungry is a sign of a negative balance?
However, hunger can be absolute or relative. Absolute hunger is when you don't have enough of everything. Relative hunger is a lack of one thing, such as carbohydrates. People who go on a low-carbohydrate diet feel hungry, although they can easily overfeed their body with excess protein.
The body is a complex thing. In our little bodybuilder brain - I know from myself - there is a desire to build muscle. These are the muscles we think about. But! The body will have more worries than can fit in our brain. After the day, there is only night to restore not only the protein structures of the muscles, but also the reserves of carbohydrates, fats, and vitamins.
The lack of something causes the body to feel dissatisfied and anxious, which means it interferes with sleep.
Be careful!
Often young people, in pursuit of bigger muscles, begin to “stupidly eat more.” With low activity and sufficient sleep, this leads to weight gain. However, the body grows not only due to muscles, but also due to fat. Often such “athletes” add 1.5 cm to their waist per 1 cm of biceps - this is very bad!
It would seem that you need to eat proteins for muscle growth and “stupidly avoid eating sweets and fatty foods” so as not to gain fat. Such a simple solution inevitably leads to a simple answer: from a lack of fat and carbohydrates, the body cannot sleep, which means it cannot restore, let alone build, muscles. This is why bodybuilders first gain 20 kg of fat and then lose 18 kg of fat and muscle before the competition.
Even professionals can't build clean muscle and burn clean fat. But you will succeed if you can find a balance between proteins, fats, carbohydrates, vitamins, training and... sleep.
Sleep, coffee and muscle growth.
Since I am writing not only for those who are “stupidly gaining weight,” but also for educated people, and therefore very busy, I am forced to remind you about coffee and other invigorating drugs. Business people It is simply necessary to resort to stimulation of the central nervous system (CNS) to maintain brain function while earning a living. Such stimulation inevitably leads to sleep disturbances, which means it reduces the likelihood of muscle growth to zero.
He conducted his research and persuaded his students to write down all the coffee they drank during the week. The students naturally divided into two groups: those who began to exercise more from coffee, and those who directed the effect of coffee to activities that were not productive for the muscles: “stupidly sitting at the computer.” How did you understand this? To do this, it was enough to combine three reports: on training, on sleep and on coffee.
An amazing fact: those who channeled the excess effects of coffee into training slept as much as needed for muscle growth. On the contrary, those who increased their coffee intake did not increase their training hours, slept less and did not see an increase in results in their training diaries.
A cup of coffee gives you energy for 4 hours of office work or 1 hour of workout.
After drinking too much coffee, you can sit in the evening for 4 hours.
The popular saying that "sleep is for weaklings" continually undermines the importance of this basic human necessity, and specifically inhibits development in bodybuilding and other sports. Let's look at the reasons for fatigue during exercise and find out why you want to sleep after training?
How much sleep does an athlete need?
Athletes high level must always be motivated to achieve their sporting goals. To do this, you can sleep after training during the day, then your mood will be improved and you will not feel the terrible irritability that occurs due to lack of sleep. Therefore, if you are tired, if possible, try to fall asleep and regain your strength.
The Importance of Sleep in Bodybuilding
The quality of your sleep is just as important, if not more so, than the length of your sleep. There are several stages of sleep.
- Stage 1 covers the beginning of the sleep cycle, when the person is still aware of any changes environment.
- The start of the actual sleep cycle occurs in stage 2, which lasts between 10 and 20 minutes.
- The deepest stages of sleep occur around 30–40 minutes into stages 3 and 4, followed by a period of active sleep.
Stages 3 and 4 are integral to an athlete's development as they release growth hormone and regulate cortisol. This is why sleep is so important for a bodybuilder. Growth hormone is an important part endocrine system body. It is necessary for muscle building, bone growth and stimulating fat oxidation. This is important to maintain a certain level of performance throughout your athletic career.
Why do you want to sleep after playing sports?
During and after physical activity The hormone cortisol increases, which not only causes depression, but also a loss of strength. Therefore, after high-intensity exercise you want to sleep. Cortisol, also known as the stress hormone, is regulated by deep sleep. Cortisol levels directly affect the body's ability to metabolize glucose. Despite all the observed benefits full night sleep, many athletes struggle to maintain that uninterrupted 7-9 hours due to strict planning of their daily routine, sleep and training.
When you exercise, you burn calories and expend energy. Depending on the duration and intensity of your workout, you load the body, which requires recovery and rest.
What to do if there is no time to sleep after training during the day?
- and after training, this will allow you to maintain energy and not get too tired after exercise, reducing cortisol levels. Be sure to eat nutritious foods both before and after your workout to fuel your body and replace lost calories, and minerals. If you plan to exercise for less than an hour, eat carbohydrates that will provide a quick burst of energy and a spike in glucose, such as a bagel or toast. If you exercise for more than an hour, choose a carbohydrate source that takes longer to digest - cereals, grains, fruits.
- When you exercise, you sweat. Sweat is mostly water, and you need to replenish that water after your workout. If you don't, you risk dehydration, which can make you feel tired, drowsy, and even dizzy. Three hours before your workout, start drinking water. During these three hours, drink approximately 3 glasses of water. Drink plenty during and after exercise.
- Get more sleep at night. If you don't get enough sleep, you're overtaxing your body, which can make you feel even more tired after your workout. On average, 8 hours of sleep is enough for your muscles to rest and recover.
Conclusion
If you are training to increase muscle mass or improve muscle tone, sleeping after a workout is a great idea for your goals. Your body repairs itself and your muscles grow while you sleep. Try to fall asleep in the afternoon after training for 40-60 minutes, even 30 minutes will be enough for the muscles to relax and the body to recover.
About the importance of sleep in bodybuilding in video format
