Resting periods are undoubtably the most overlooked factor of body building. Worse still, it’s probably one of the easiest. The fact of the matter is, that they are truly nescessary. Without them, our body cannot recover and all the possible gains will not be visible. Obviously, I know for so many of us, that a 10 hour sleep daily is simply not attainable, however, if you are serious about getting big, then sacrifices are going to have to be made, even if it does mean cutting into your leisure time to simply sleep.
As you probably know if you’ve been reading my previous articles, I believe that work ethic and nutrition are extremely crucial to the correct growth of muscles, however, I also believe that correct rest is absolutely key to growth. If you fail to get a decent amount of sleep on a regular basis, then your growths will suffer. Your body will find it literally impossible to recover from the amount of stress that you are putting on it by working out. Obviously, you can still get visible gains while under a limited sleep regime, but they won’t come as big or as quickly as if you just got the correct amount of rest for your activity level. It’s understandable to think that a lot of you are probably feeling slightly alienated by this whole kid ‘bedtime’ routine. I also get the fact that it cuts into leisure time, which sucks cause even I do things other than just work out. With all the responsibilities people attach themselves to nowadays (e.g a job) even I can’t go sleep at 9pm every night. It’s just plain unrealistic for me to assume that you can all get 10 hours of uninterrupted sleep a night, every night.
However, what I can suggest to you all is to simply make an effort to. Any improvement in sleeping hours is still an improvement. Sleeping just an extra hour a day will give you those visible gains your looking for. And if you can get an extra two hours sleep in on the weekend, then that’s even better. Don’t completely sacrifice your resting time at the end of the day, after a hard day at work just to sleep. Just try to cut it down a bit, and catch just a little bit extra shut-eye.
Remember though, there is a limit to how far you can push your body. Sleep gives your body energy, and without enough energy, you might just not be able to work that bit harder in the gym.