The importance of sleep
😴 A fundamental, often overlooked factor in the process of building muscle and losing fat is SLEEP! You may have the best nutritionist… the best personal trainer… the best workout…
BUT what about rest? Experts disagree about the ideal amount of rest… but you can’t do without a good night’s sleep: it improves your mood and performance and helps prevent illness. And everyone needs to get the right amount of sleep for them.
Sleep quality
The most important thing is sleep quality! A 2010 study analyzed 10 overweight people in an experiment involving two sleep durations: 8.5 hours and 5.5 hours, respectively. The same participants were used in both situations and followed the same diet.
The results showed that restricting sleep duration affects the body by reducing fat oxidation, increasing appetite, lowering basal metabolism, and causing muscle loss. In short: Get a good night’s sleep! And only stay out late if it’s really worth it…
Pay close attention to rest
Rest is simply one of the most important factors for the body to function properly. Sleep means taking a break every 24 hours — 8 to 10 hours (which we’ll discuss in the following sections).
A good night’s sleep can improve performance at every level, including better reflexes during physical activity and increased mental alertness.
Mental rest is achieved by ensuring that brain processes and neural connections restore the organ’s function. The result is basically a “cleaning” of the brain, ensuring the retention of memory and learning processes while discarding information considered irrelevant.
As for rest during your workout…
First, there is no fixed rest period. Relying on the idea that 30, 45, or 60 seconds is ideal may not suit the goals of every person who strength trains. Remember that every body has its own biological individuality, and we should respect that.
That’s why we use the concept of an “interval,” which generally ranges from 30 seconds to 2 minutes. But, I repeat, it’s not fixed!
