Today we will talk about one more very important aspect of our fitness.
Rest and Recovery.
What happens if we don’t sleep enough?
Sleep deficiency can interfere with work, school, driving, and social functioning. You might have trouble learning, focusing, and reacting. Also, you might find it hard to judge other people’s emotions and reactions. Sleep deficiency also can make you feel frustrated, cranky, or worried in social situations.
(https://www.nhlbi.nih.gov/health/sleep-deprivation)
And that is not all.
Sleep deprivation is linked to many chronic diseases like:
- High blood pressure
- Diabetes
- Obesity
- Stroke
- Etc
And it does influence our weight loss program in negative way.
Studies have found that poor sleep is associated with weight gain and a higher likelihood of obesity in both adults and children.
When we are sleeping less than 6 hours we tend to make little bit worse decisions.
With food, and with skipping training.
And that is not all.
Lack of sleep can interfere with our memory, mood, and….
Guess what
Muscle repair.
So sleeping 7-9 hours is not something someone just said so.
It is crucial.
And also there is rising levels of cortisol. It is hormone of stress.
And increased levels of cortisol will decrease levels of testosterone.
And that is not good.
And also increased cortisol levels will interfere with our sleep, and lack of sleep will help increase cortisol even more…..
And so on.
But it is not just about sleep.
A lot of people think that harder they workout they will look better. And that is true, but not always. We will burn calories but for building muscles we need rest and recovery.
And for much more then building our muscles.
We need rest and recovery for our regeneration, for synthesis of protein, for production of our hormones, production of our immune bodies, and much more.
I tried working out twice a day every day in the week.
And I didn’t look better.
I looked tired.
And looked sick too.
So I stopped with that.
And that was good decision.
Why?
Because our muscles need 48-72 hours to recover after good training. Sometimes even more.
And training before our muscles recover to often can lead to muscle or tendon injury.
And don’t forget.
I am talking about beginners.
Athletes, especially pro athletes have their own tools for speeding up recovery.
But if you feel these things it could be sign of overtraining:
Training-related signs of overtraining
- Unusual muscle soreness after a workout, which persists with continued training
- Inability to train or compete at a previously manageable level
- “Heavy” leg muscles, even at lower exercise intensities
- Delays in recovery from training
- Performance plateaus or declines
- Thoughts of skipping or cutting short training sessions
Lifestyle-related signs of overtraining
- Prolonged general fatigue
- Increase in tension, depression, anger or confusion
- Inability to relax
- Poor-quality sleep
- Lack of energy, decreased motivation, moodiness
- Not feeling joy from things that were once enjoyable
Health-related signs of overtraining
- Increased occurrences of illness
- Increased blood pressure and at-rest heart rate
- Irregular menstrual cycles; missing periods
- Weight loss; appetite loss
- Constipation; diarrhea
https://www.hss.edu/article_overtraining.asp
So guys and girls
Rest and Recovery are very important.
zlajafitcoach 