People often think that building muscle is a process that concerns making their daily trip to the gym, pounding the weights, and loading up on protein afterwards.  Well, that is partially true but fails to show the entire picture.  Sleep, by far, is the most important aspect of making a full recovery and allowing your body, including your exhausted muscle tissue, to grow and make a full recovery.  While you sleep, your body is recovering in a variety of ways.

When you go the gym and workout, really, what you are doing is actually breaking your body down in order to build it back up again even stronger.  When you lift weights, you are breaking down your muscles and causing small micro-tears in the muscle fibers, which is what often results in sore muscles the next morning.  Getting a good, full nights sleep is extremely important to allow your muscles to repair themselves and grow so, in turn, they will be good and strong when you exercise them again.  Although everyone’s sleep patterns are different, the CDC (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention) recommends that adults get 7-9 hours of sleep each night.  Many people mistakenly believe that muscles grow in the gym, which is false.  The gym is merely where you break down your muscles, causing damage to them in order to stimulate growth.  Muscles are built when you sleep, not in the gym, and it is very important to aim for, at least, a good, solid 8 hours of sleep each night so that your muscles have a chance to rest, repair, and grow.

In order to be at your best in the gym and, in turn, exhaust your muscles and even further stimulate growth, you must feel awake and well energized in order to do this!  Again, a good night’s sleep is adequate for good energy the next day so that you can be at your best during your workout and here’s why.  Cortisol is a stress hormone your body produces which can lead to a variety of health problems including weight gain, stress, low energy and bad moods.  Getting a good nights sleep can help reduce cortisol in the body and it has been shown that getting too few hours of sleep can increase your body’s level of cortisol, affecting your performance in and out of the gym.  Getting too little sleep can also affect how much HGH or human growth hormone your body produces, and human growth hormone is very important for your muscle repair while your body is resting.

Remember, don’t fall into the trap of thinking that your muscles grown as you pound away at them in the gym.  It is when you sleep that your body is recovering in so many ways, ways that you cannot only see but feel as you awake the next morning feeling rejuvenated, energized and ready to conquer the world!  So keep the workouts strong, diet clean and be sure to get at least a good 8 hours of sleep each night and watch those muscles grow!        

The most common mistake bodybuilders and athletes make is in their post workout nutrition.  You workout for an hour, tear up your muscles until a point when you cant even lift your arms, and then you go home… and then what?  Watch some TV?  NO.

Its Friday night, you are about to hit the town for a couple with a some friends… but you want to work out in the morning.  You ask yourself if this is a good idea?  I really want to have a good workout tomorrow.  Let me help you answer that.