Sleep to gain Muscle and Burn Fat

Hi everyone

I hope this blog finds everyone fit and well.

Building Muscle takes a lot of hard work, and if you are going to do all of that hard work, you want to ensure you feed your body right, and also get enough sleep in order to make your workouts pay off. When you sleep, your muscles grow from the workout that you gave them, but guess what! If you don’t sleep properly your efforts will be wasted rather than rewarded.

Recovery Time

Your body needs substantial recovery time after a workout, that means 8 hrs sleep each night, (not 10hrs one night and 5hrs the next). You cannot store sleep, so it must be regular, adequate sleep is something you must engage in every single night.

Stages of Sleep

There are 5 stages to sleep and if you are like most people leading stress filled lives, you never make it past stage 1 or 2. Because of this you will wake up feeling as tired and drained of energy as what you did when you went to bed. This type of sleeping will not help you to build muscle.

If you were to practice deep breathing, or meditation before going to bed you would be more likely to reach stages 4 and 5 where your body can heal, repair and grow. These are the stages of sleep you need to get to in order for you muscles to grow. Your body however will react to a number of different elements in your life. You must also focus on stress relief, eating right and exercising on a regular basis. A good Personal Trainer will be able to help you with this.

During the deep sleep stage, your body goes through a process of specific adaptation to imposed demand, which means your body goes through a process of building your muscles bigger and stronger so that when you work out again, they will be ready. This is the reward you will get from your workouts if you get the right amount and type of sleep, they will build bigger and stronger.

Additional benefit

How does your body get the energy to do all of this work while you are asleep. The answer is Fat, that’s right, that rotten old body fat that all of us want to get rid of, while you are in a deep sleep, not moving at all, your muscles are using your fat stores, so, not only are you building muscle but you are also burning fat simply by getting a proper amount of sleep, I’m sure you won’t want to complain about that.

I don’t have time

Look at ways you can do things better through the day, can things you go out for be done online or on the phone etc, Use time blocking for certain tasks and do them in that time. Prioritise. Your family, work and sleep should be your priorities, and you will be able to deal with all of them far more efficiently by getting a proper amount of sleep, so if you want to live your life to it’s fullest (and who wouldn’t want to)? Get the right amount and type of sleep and in return you will have increased muscle, lose weight and feel rested and ready to tackle each day.

Goodnight from me for now, see you in around 8 hours.

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