Workout routines are a lot more than just exercising, and here’s why fitness recovery should also be a big priority!
Everyone’s living such busy lives these days, so it’s normal to forget how important fitness recovery is for your workout routine.
Society tell us to go, go, go; however, fitness specialists like the Rising Legends team are now helping gym enthusiasts better understand how our bodies need enough time to properly rest during intense routines.
The National Sleep Foundation (NSF) recommends that adults should get around 7-9 hours of sleep per night in order to adequately recover after fitness workouts, but the vast majority of people don’t quite reach seven hours of sleep on a consistent basis.
Sleep hygiene is something that a lot of fitness enthusiasts don’t fully understand, and below we’re detailing why rest and recovery should be core parts of your fitness journey!
Why Exactly Is Sleep Such An Important Part Of Fitness Recovery?
Although it might seem like your body is simply shutting down during sleep, the truth is that your body and brain are restoring damaged tissues, replenishing energy levels, and eliminating waste while you’re asleep.
There are many different fitness recovery benefits associated with sleep, including:
- Repairing Muscles: Your body’s anabolic hormones require glycogen from your daily diet to repair and rebuild the micro tears within your muscles that you’ll inevitably create during your workout sessions.
- Removing Waste: When you reach REM sleep, your brain will efficiently clear away all sorts of metabolic waste. This waste can detrimentally impact your brain’s functionality, so sleeping is essentially like flushing away unwanted fluids.
- Increasing Energy Levels: Active fitness enthusiasts need a ton of energy to power through tough workouts on a daily basis, and sleep gives the energy you need on a daily basis.
- Improving Mental Health: Adequate sleep is crucial for your mental health, and it can help you stay motivated and committed toward your fitness journey.
What Happens When Fitness Enthusiasts Don’t Get Enough Sleep?
We all know the heavy feelings after a sleepless night, but it’s important for fitness enthusiasts to understand that poor sleep patterns can actually lead to pretty significant issues. This is especially the case when poor sleep hygiene persists for a long period of time.
Some of the common sleep-related issues that fitness enthusiasts experience include:
- Muscle Breakdowns: Cortisol and other catabolic hormones can actually break down your muscle tissues when you’re not getting enough sleep on a nightly basis. This makes it much harder for your muscles to recover after intense workout sessions, which will have you feeling consistently sore each day.
- Brain Fog: Sleepiness and exhaustion will undoubtedly make it more difficult to stay alert during the daytime, which often leads to forgetfulness, focus issues and high stress levels.
- Nutrition Changes: It’s also possible that you might feel abnormally hungry after a sleepless night, and this is generally due to unwanted hormonal imbalances. These appetite changes can be detrimental for your nutrition plan, because it can lead to overeating and impulsive eating—which makes it more difficult to lose weight.
Sleep Hygiene Tips To Improve Your Sleep Duration & Fitness Recovery
It’s essential to remember how there’s a strong connection between muscle repair and high-quality sleep cycles. This is why fitness enthusiasts should also be sleep hygiene enthusiasts, because ensuring healthier sleep will have a positive ripple effect on your entire fitness journey.
Here are some sleep hygiene tips to keep in mind to improve your fitness recovery:
1. Managing Light Exposure
Lighting significantly impacts your sleep quality, and this is largely due to your circadian rhythm relying on light changes to catalyze melatonin production. When your melatonin production is disrupted for whatever reason, you’ll subsequently disrupt your sleep cycle and recovery.
Although light exposure in relation to sleep is often correlated to the evening hours, the truth is that you’ll still need to prioritize bright sunlight in your eyes during the early morning hours as well. This is why we recommend drinking your morning tea or coffee on your porch or near a window, as well as taking midday walks to get some sunlight.
But when it’s time for sleep, you’ll need to create a darker atmosphere for yourself. Too much screen exposure right before bed can actually disrupt your melatonin production and keep you up longer than you’d like. This is why it’s important to shut off your screens at least an hour before going to sleep, because this will help your brain relax and it’ll support a more natural melatonin release.
2. Regular Exercise
Whether your fitness journey entails intense daily weightlifting or you’re more interested in group fitness classes, it’s important to remember that a consistent workout routine will go a very long way to stabilize your circadian rhythm and improve your sleep quality.
People who exercise earlier in the day are known to sleep more deeply and for longer sustained periods, as compared to those who exercise later in the day. However, it’s still important to note that people who only exercise in the afternoons and evenings still are fully capable of obtaining great sleep benefits.
The trick with exercising later in the day is that you’ll want to give your body at least an hour or two between your workout sessions and bedtime. This separation period is important because it helps ensure that your endorphins and other energizing hormones are fully out of your system.
3. Develop A Relaxation Routine
It’s also widely known that people fall asleep much easier when their bodies and minds are fully relaxed prior to bed.
Everyone has their own sleep routines, but it can go a long way to maintain a consistent routine each day to keep your body signaling when it’s time for sleep. Some awesome relaxation techniques to keep in mind for your sleep hygiene include:
- Yoga: Yoga is an ancient exercise that combines static poses with breathing exercises, and it’s no secret how it’s become one of the most popular fitness practices around the world in recent years. Yoga does wonders for your fitness recovery, and this is especially the case when you combine yoga classes with strength training and other intense forms of cardio. And one thing that’s great about yoga is that you can do it literally anywhere—even next to your bed at nighttime!
- Meditation: Although meditation is sometimes initially tough for people to grasp, it’s an incredible skill that all fitness enthusiasts should harness to the best of their abilities. Meditation can do wonders for relieving stress and channeling your own inner peace, and this is because you’ll be focusing on your breath as all of your thoughts essentially vanish into mental obscurity. Even just 5-10 minutes of meditation before sleeping can trigger your body’s relaxation response and prepare your brain for a high-quality sleep cycle.
- Breath Work: Although deep breathing exercises might seem similar to meditation, it’s important to remember that you can do certain types of breath work without fully calming down your mind. Breath work will go a long way to simply calm down your nervous system and reduce your heart rate, which is important for relaxing during stressful moments and before sleep.
Improve Your Fitness Recovery With Help From The Rising Legends Academy Of Fitness In Nyack NY!
Workout routines and fitness recovery always go together, and joining a gym and partnering with personal trainers that prioritize your rest and sleep hygiene will ultimately improve your entire journey toward long-lasting results.
Here at The Rising Legends Academy of Fitness in Nyack NY, we support newcomers and experienced fitness enthusiasts with cutting-edge nutrition coaching, renowned group fitness classes, and a state-of-the-art gym facility full of experienced personal trainers.
We’ve simply got your back when it comes to improving every aspect of your fitness journey, and that includes your rest and recovery techniques.
We look forward to seeing you at the gym!