One of the most effective measures for recovering after an intense workout is something you already do, but you probably do not do it enough to get the most of what it could serve you. Exercise causes physical stress on the body, but it is during the post-exercise recovery period that the body alters because of the exercise stimulus. Getting enough sleep could be the best solution to promote recovery and ensure that your workout routine gives the desired outcomes. At Fitlov, our personal trainers make sure that you understand the importance of getting a good sleep and how important it is in your fitness journey.
Here is how sleep can be an impactful tool to be as healthy as you strive to be.
Sleep Duration And Muscle Recovery
One purpose of sleep is to give muscles time to heal themselves. Growth hormone is an anabolic hormone that is released during stage 3 of non-rapid eye movement (NREM) or dreamless sleep and supports the repair of tissues injured during exercise; the longer a period of sleep, the more time muscular tissues must reactivate and develop.
Adults need between 7 and 9 hours of sleep every night, according to research. Increasing sleep time by one hour a night is equivalent to receiving an extra night’s sleep for a week. When it comes to workout planning, consider that the completion of one activity is the start of the next, and how you recover (refuel, rehydrate, and sleep) will encourage you to be completely prepared to get the optimal benefits possible.
Tissue Regeneration
If you have ever felt frazzled yet could not fall asleep, or if you did sleep but woke up feeling disoriented, it may be a result of increased amounts of catabolic hormones responsible for energy generation. Contrarily, a full night’s sleep allows anabolic hormones to repair tissue.
Optimal Cognitive Functioning
Excessive fatigue, particularly during exercise, may result in shortened reflex times or impaired judgment, both of which may end in a training injury. Sleep provides time for the elimination of unnecessary metabolic waste from brain cells, which is an essential advantage. Consider sleep to be the period when your brain eliminates waste while also increasing blood flow to cells and providing critical oxygen and glycogen required for optimal cognitive functioning.
Muscle Growth
When muscles exercise to the point of exhaustion, the volume of glycogen available for energy synthesis is depleted, resulting in metabolic overload. While you sleep, your body continues to consume and convert carbs from your meal into glycogen, which is subsequently stored in muscle cells to power muscular contractions. One gram of glycogen in muscle cells may retain three to four grams of water; as glycogen is restored, it contributes to muscular growth, which is another way your muscles expand as you sleep.
To Conclude
Too much exercise and inadequate sleep can lead to overtraining, which will prevent you from achieving your goals and, at best, may result in an injury that will prevent you from exercising at all. Thus, consistent exercise combined with proper sleep may yield your desired outcomes.