Getting Enough Sleep
Sleep: The majority of muscle repair and growth happens during sleep. Without enough sleep, an athlete’s body doesn’t produce the testosterone needed for muscle repair and growth, and therefore athletic development. This is key for an athlete in training. Muscle is broken down during workouts, this is the first step to increase strength, endurance, and speed. The second step is muscle recovery and growth, which must happen during sleep. This cannot happen without eight hours and optimally 10 hours per night for athletic growth. Sleep is also the second half of muscle memory, the link between the brain and muscle memory. This development happens during sleep, but cannot if not optimal conditions.
- Sleep gives the body and brain time to recover
- Relieve stress
- Build and rebuild muscle
- Allows organs to rest and recover
- Downloads critical movement patterns to brain circuitry and catalogs
3 Tips for Athletes: Many things can get in the way of getting enough sleep as an athlete such as travel, classes and school, practice, games, stress of competing, etc. Here are tips for your sleep routine…
- Try to go to bed and get up at about the same time each day.
- When you travel, plan ahead and give yourself time to get used to your new setting. Giving yourself extra time and planning ahead can help you get the sleep hours you need.
- Avoid caffeine. Try to avoid anything that can disrupt sleep even if you are not aware of its affect on you.
Rest
Make sure you reduce your volume every fourth day and fourth week for complete mental and physical recovery. It’s important to note that your body is weaker after a workout and only gets stronger if it can recover properly. Keep a log of your sleep (you need 8-10 hours for muscle repair and muscle memory), resting heart rate, and stress levels to indicate signs of overreaching or over-training.