Working out is a great way to get in shape and it’s important to have fitness goals to keep improving. However, working out is not the only thing to consider when you are on your fitness journey and there are many aspects, like sleep, that can make a difference. In today’s blog post, Temescal Fitness & Movement will talk about the importance of sleep for your fitness goals and provide more information about how sleep helps your body!
Why Sleep Is The Key To Reaching Your Fitness Goals
Why Sleep Is The Key To Reaching Your Fitness Goals
Helps Recover Muscle Tissue
When you work out, whether that is lifting weights or calisthenics, your muscles create lactic acid, and, depending on the activity, microtears also happen to the muscle tissue. While there are other ways to help your body recover from these working-out byproducts, having a good night's rest is one of the best ways to help your body deal with it. When you sleep, not only you are allowing your body to rest from the activities, but you are also allowing it to cater to the areas of your body that need more care, in this case, the ones that you worked on.
Makes You Regain Your Energy Levels
Working out can use a lot of your energy and it’s important to let your body cool off and rest to avoid problems. If you do not sleep well, your energy levels might be substantially lower which can lead to injuries and other problems. Not having enough energy to workout can turn into fatigue which, in turn, can make your muscles give up in the middle of a set or an exercise session — the last thing you want is for your legs to stop working properly when you are doing a squat or deadlift.
Hormonal Balance
Hormones are a big part of your health and some hormones can help you to reach your fitness goals. When we sleep, our bodies go into recovery mode and one of the areas our bodies focus on is balancing your hormonal chart. For example, in men, testosterone is one of the most important hormones for the male body and men usually have their testosterone rise up during the morning and midday (depending on a sleeping cycle) and start diminishing during the afternoon and night. At that point, once the body rests, the hormonal balance occurs to repeat the process all over again the next day.
Improve Your Performance
There’s nothing like going to the gym or performing your favorite physical activity while you are fully rested. Your energy levels are optimal, your muscles are rested and ready to power through anything, and you are mentally more focused on what you are doing. All these factors pile up at the time of working out and can help you reach your peak performance without needing to either cut your workouts or rely on artificial energy supplementation — these supplements are not bad, but they should be considered as a small boost to your energy levels and you should not rely on them to get you from fatigued and tired to fully functional.
Keep Up Your Motivation
The lack of motivation to go work out can be mental a lot of the time. If you haven’t slept well, your mind might be too exhausted to think about spending energy on physical activity. So, whenever you sleep well, your mind is more prone to be motivated to go to the gym!
Reach Your Fitness Goals at Our Gym
There you have it, these are but a few of the reasons why sleeping well is an important part of your workout routine and why you should consider giving your body the time to rest. At Temescal Fitness & Movement, we believe in balance when it comes to working out and every little bit helps to help you reach your goals. Reach out to our team to learn more about our program and to start working out at our gym today!