Sleep more

We are all busy.  Most of us have high pressure jobs that keep us under stress all day and sometimes even after we leave for home.

We also have little time to ourselves. ….we get up early and stay up late.  On top of that, you have listened to my advice and have started a strict and rigorous exercise regime that is kicking….your…..ass.

The end result is that we often make time for all we have in your life by just staying up a bit later, sleeping a little less.

This may solve the time crunch we often suffer from but comes with its own set of problems.

With less sleep also comes:

• Decreased results/lack of progression in the gym.
• worstening fatigue.
• Motivation and will power decreases as the week progresses.

So we can see that this is not the way to get your carnival body…in fact its no way to live.  Tough decisions have to be made.  You have to make time for your family, but it may be time to start sacrificing other things.  Staying up to watch your favorite TV show….DVR it.  Going out for drinks every night…..raincheck till saturday.  Look critically at all your non essential/ non-family/non-significant other activities and start to trim the fat so to speak.    It’s worth it.  Once you can get 7-8 hours of ACTUAL SLEEP  (not just time assigned to sleep) you will:

Start to get better gym results.  This is because deep sleep is when your body produces the most growth hormone.  Yep thats the same stuff Marion Jones used to win up all those medals….your body will make more of that to make you awesome!

Rebuild your levels of brain chemicals.  Neurotransmitters are the juice that makes your brain work!  These must be utilised to cause muscle contraction and adrenaline, testosterone and other hormones are produced to give your that excited vibe and aggressive attitude needed to get a goodworkout.  These are produced and utilized and therefore must be replenished after use.  Sleep is needed for the levels of these important substances to rise back to normal or else your Friday workout will be MUCH worse than your Monday workout!

Plan

• The best thing to do is to physically WRITE down a schedule.
• It will take about a week to get all the things you need on it, but keep revising and writing it down.
• Plan your evening so you go to bed the same time every night.
• Minimize disturbances. 8 hours of frequently disturbed sleep is next to useless.  You need deep, REM sleep to benifit.

Now this plan will only help you if you are actually putting in the work.  Be it gym, or crossfit or running.
So get and stay active and also get more sleep!  Your body will reward you greatly.

 GOT SLEEP?