Written by Quincy Totta – Front Door Fitness Personal Trainer in Kansas City
There are many components that go into post exercise recovery long after your personal training session is over. You may receive advice to incorporate cool-downs, stretching, good post-workout nutrition and hydration. All these things play a key role in exercise recovery, but research is showing that no other recovery strategy is more important than sleep!
When you get good quality sleep, your body goes into deep sleep (REM sleep). During this sleep cycle the body goes through metabolic processes to get rid of waste products and releases hormones necessary for daily maintenance such as muscle growth, bone repair, and fat burn.
Studies have shown that lack of sleep can lead to harmful issues to your training such as slowed muscle recovery, unstable mood, increased stress level and feeling exerted quicker than you would if you were rested, and in some cases even injury.
Strategies to makes sleep a priority and improve sleep quality:
Catch up on sleep.
Our bodies can build up a cache for lost sleep (sleep debt) up to 50 hours! If you are lacking sleep, allow your body a few weeks to get acclimated and back on a well-rounded sleep schedule.
Keeping a consistent schedule.
Try to set bedtimes and waking times consistently throughout the week even on Fridays and Saturdays. Don’t worry about one bad night’s sleep. One night will most likely not affect your sleeping habits, but try and get on track the following night.
Take a nap.
Try and take daily naps if you can’t get enough at night. There is no set time for naps contrary to popular belief, so get what you can while you can. Even a few minutes can help!
Avoid a blue light before bed.
Try to stay away from social media and phone screens before bed. Even some bathroom lights may have high traces of blue light. Replacing house lighting with LED lights with low traces of blue light can help improve sleep quality.
Remember, both quality and quantity are important. Get those 8-9 hours a night to help with muscle recovery, to feel better mentally, decrease stress, and prevent injury.
