Sleep is the most important component to muscle growth and recovery, so I think they are saying that it makes sense to focus on making sure you get ample sleep before cycling through a bunch of different workout styles and methods - not that you’ll be able to get the gains without the gym entirely.
Those who need less than avg sleep naturally feel attacked 😅 .
But for real it's true. I natural only sleep about 5 to 6 hrs a night. And when I'm adjusting my workouts, whether it's to cut or go up on strength, it's DEF when I am more concerned with clocking closer to the 6 hrs amount. The recovery sleep matters
If you don't sleep well, you will limit your gains and increase your risk of injury. That's when your body does maintenance. If you injure yourself you might wind up worse than when you started.
Correct. The order is irrelevant unless you do all 3. Strength gains vs fat loss vs fitness improvement (e.g running) change the order. For fat loss it’s diet, training, sleep. Cardio fitness it’s training, sleep, then diet. Gaining muscle sleep is prob more important than the others, but it’s still last IMO.
Sure, but if you train without treating yourself right then you are running the risk of putting yourself in a worse off position than when you started. Meanwhile if you sleep well and eat well and don't train, you're not going to get the gains but you're also not going to hurt yourself and end up worse off.
I have sleep apnea and have barely made any gains over the past several months. Really killed my. Motivation. Still feel weak 2 or more days after working out sometimes.
Brother it’s a game changer. I went from exhaustion all day and snoring myself awake to going on 1 hr hikes/walks before work. I’m also not overweight and in my 30s. Apnea can happen to anyone. It sucks
Same, i'm actually underweight for my height, 190 at 6'3 and i'm 28 (still skinny but a lot stronger than i look). But i'll go all out on bulking when i get used to my cpap machine.
I have been dead exhausted for the past 3 years it's made me suicidal. I really want to end this chapter. Very much ruined my last few years.
Yup I hear you. I ran a ton. Did 7+ years in powerlifting. Participate in a lot of combat sports. Apnea really messes with your life. After I got a CPAP it was like a light switch went on after being off for a long time. Irritability and fatigue went away.
Your body is also recovering by just sitting around. Not sure where the myth came from that the body only recovers when youre sleeping. I train at night and would never be able to do a morning session the day after. By the time it hits night time ive recovered through the day and im ready to train again.
Yes, spacing out your workouts is also part of recovery but try getting 4 hrs of sleep for a couple nights in a row and see how your workout feels vs 8 hours of sleep a couple nights in a row.
I get around 5 a night on average which I find is enough personally, never noticed a massive difference getting a full 8 vs 5-6 in terms of training. I actually got injured more when I was younger and had the privilege of sleep, but my training was also alot more dumb back then which was probably more the factor.
Do you ever use a Fitbit or something similar? I have been sleeping like shit, last week I got 7 hours and it was the longest stretch in over a week. Last couple nights I finally caught up and got 9 hours and 8 hours, and it's such a huge difference. My readiness score went from 15 to 61, my resting heart rate got lower, other physical signals improved. Every body is different but being able to track it and see the numbers has been interesting.
I've had quite a few in the past and honestly it played alot with my mental game. I remember days my heart rate was elevated or my sleep score was low it was almost subconsciously making me more anxious or making me feel like I was more exhausted than I should be because my sleep score was low. I remember I had a really good gym sesh one day and hadn't checked my score assuming it must have been great. But it was terrible, difference was I didnt have a nagging playing on my mind that "I won't do well today because my score is lower" because I just hadn't checked. Trackers can be useful, but felt more detrimental in some cases. Since ive stopped tracking I feel alot better for it honestly and have performed pretty great for years now
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u/RedditIsADataMine 11h ago
The thing is, if you workout 5x a week but get 6 hours sleep a night... you're still gonna gain muscle. Sure, it's not optimal.
But if you get the absolute greatest sleep every single night but don't exercise.. well you aren't going to spontaneously start gaining muscle.
So personally I'd swap those two around in priority order.