Sleep: Recharge for the best Gym results
Written by Emma Beale
Emma is the Marketing Manager for Workout Ashton
Most of us come to the gym to work towards improving our health, but what exactly is good health and what can we do to make a positive impact on it? One of the most fundamental models of good health is ‘The Three Pillars’. These are exercise, nutrition and sleep, and they work together to support our overall wellbeing. The first two pillars are talked about a lot and we know the importance of regular movement and a balanced diet for your bodies. But what about sleep? Sleep has as much of an essential role in the foundations of health, but often gets overlooked.
Research has shown that consistently getting a good quantity and quality of sleep can help improve your body's ability to perform, which is important for anyone wanting to regularly hit high activity levels in the gym every day. It will also support your energy levels and ability to concentrate throughout every day tasks.
Sleep to support fitness:
Broadly speaking there are two kinds of sleep:
Rapid Eye Movement (or REM)
Which is where we do our most vivid dreaming
Non-Rapid Eye Movement (NREM)
Which is a quieter and much more restful state of sleep. During the deepest phases of NREM sleep is when our bodies carry out most growth and repair. The majority of our growth hormone is released during this phase. Not only has muscle been shown to carry out most growth during this stage, but it also replenishes its glycogen stores, leading to better recovery and increased stamina.
Fitness to support sleep:
We all know how frustrating it can be when you can’t initially get to sleep. When this happens night after night it can leave you feeling physically and emotionally exhausted. Sleep itself is controlled through an internal body clock system called your circadian rhythm. This signals when your body should be in a wake-phase and when it should be in a sleep-phase. Regular exercise is an extremely effective way to reinforce the wake-phase of your circadian rhythm, and when this phase is locked in, it means that the sleep-phase arrives more naturally at night, making it easier to drift off to sleep.
Better sleep is shown to improve physical and mental health, which are often the reasons we choose to hit the gym and eat a healthy diet in the first place. Prioritising your sleep can help support better results in the gym, and regular exercise can help to support a good night's sleep.
If you want to find out more on improving your health through better sleep, then the experts at www.thebettersleepclinic.co.uk have all the information you need.
