Over the last couple days I have been posting a series of articles on how to make the most of your experience at the gym. Today, we want to talk about the next two points – Sleep and Nutrition.
Be rested.
The first thing I want to talk about is probably the most important and also the one that gets cut the fastest during our hectic lives – rest. Sleep.
The single most important thing you can do on your fitness journey is make sure you get enough rest. Lack of sleep will short circuit your fitness faster than just about anything else. You do not get stronger while you are lifting heavy things. You get stronger while you rest and your body recovers from you lifting heavy things. If you put your all into every workout but don’t ensure you have enough recovery you will stall your fitness progress, or worse yet, you will regress.
How much sleep should you get? That is a very good question! My favorite quote on the subject comes from Robb Wolf, an expert on paleo lifestyle and healthy living. He says, “Sleep as much as you can without getting divorced or fired.”
If you can’t commit that much to sleep at least make sure you are getting at least 8 hours at the bare minimum.
You should also strive to make sure the sleep you are getting is the best possible sleep you can get. Not all sleep is created equal! You should try to make sure your bedroom is as dark as possible.
You should also work on not using electronic devices within an hour of bedtime. I find that reading an actual book is much more relaxing than playing on my phone or laptop when I am getting ready for sleep.
Consume the right and enough nutrients.
Second only to sleep in importance, is getting the proper nutrients so that your body can recover and repair itself after your workout. I am not going to take this time to push a specific diet or lifestyle. I will make some general recommendations though.
Within 45 minutes of working out you should ingest a good solid amount of protein (at least 20g). In a perfect world this protein would come from real, solid, unprocessed food.
I like to think of myself as a realist though and I fully understand that very few of us have the time or dedication to make sure this happens. At the very least make sure you get that protein from a source you trust.
If you decide on a post workout shake, make sure that it doesn’t have things like artificial sweeteners (or sugar at all if weight loss is your main goal). Remember, the stuff you put into your body actually becomes you.
Both of these points are intertwined. Getting enough sleep without eating the right things won’t help much. Likewise, eating the right things but short changing your sleep doesn’t help much either. Committing to working on both is where you will see the most gains!
A Nutrition Coach can help you with these things as well.