3 Reasons Sleep is Very Important For Gaining Muscle

Many people from all around the world love lifting weights and exercising- in fact my blog is all about it! Many learn the importance of a good diet, pushing yourself to your limits, and growing your body to be stronger and healthier.

However, rarely do you hear the topic of sleep come up! However, it is in my opinion one of the most critical parts of bodybuilding. Lack of sleep can lead even the most competitive lifters and strictest dieters to complete collapse. This can also result people to see their body not growing or looking the way they want it to.

Personally for me, it was something I struggled with. I would sleep 5 or less hours a night trying to balance school, lifting, and work! Because of that, my gains were falling apart miserably.

In this article, I’m going to tell you how to increase not just your muscle mass but your life quality as well! Here are 3 Reasons Why Sleep is Very Important For Gaining Muscle.

Someone sleeping to maximize their muscle growth. Provided by https://www.flickr.com/photos/rlcalamusa4156/6041578611/

#1 – Sleep Produces Proteins That Help Muscle Grow

While we all think that tons of protein in every meal and shake we consume will just pack on muscle alone, without sleep, you’re basically disrupting half that process.

While the protein in your diet will help, according to a sleep.org article, “your body produces its own muscle-building hormones while you sleep, including human growth hormone (HGH). During the N3 stage of NREM (non-rapid eye movement) sleep, blood flow to your muscles increases, and tissue growth and repair occurs”.(sleep.org)

Sleep.org is essentially reminding us that while we sleep, it’s not just for no reason, but it is an indispensable time for our body to actually start repairing all that muscle you built down in the gym earlier, preferably on Arnold’s Blueprint to Mass (the best free program out there!).

#2 – Sleep Helps You Recharge For The Next Workout

Ever have a bad day in the gym? Lifts didn’t increase? You’re just not feeling it? It’s likely due to sleep deprivation.

According to jefit.com, not only can you feel moody and not concentrate, but, “without proper sleep, your muscles and bones cannot grow or repair themselves. This can perpetuate DOMS, make it harder for you to feel 100% again and back to normal. This is especially bad if you do weight training or strength training”(jefit.com).

I can attest to this myself! Many times in the summer where I had a long night partying with my friends. Also, my car randomly breaks down. Life happens, and my gains suffered!

Now I’m stuck there because of the brake caliper flying off and me trying to desperately fix it in the local high school parking lot. If you aren’t getting that 7-9 hours of sleep you won’t feel good. To sleep better, it helps you even more if you’re on a consistent schedule. But, I get it! Life happens sometimes.

While life happens, try your best to make it a habit to get that sleep.

For me personally, I found that once you start waking up at a consistent time everyday, your sleep schedule will fix itself. This means even on the weekends!

Even if that means you have to sacrifice some parties here and there, you’ll find your life more productive! Additionally, you will be overall happier with your mood. Plus, your gains will be skyrocketing.

#3 – Sleep Helps You Have a Good Diet

Ever wakeup and be constantly craving sugary snacks? It may be caused by your lack of Z’s last night. According to TopFitnessMag.com, “when you don’t get enough sleep, your body over produces the hunger causing hormones leptin and ghrelin”, these hormones lead to fat gain, your fat cells not using insulin properly, and you feeling stressed out!

This means, even if your TDEE is 100% accurate and you’re eating health:, some of that will get converted to fat due to your poor sleeping habits! This is the biggest part of it! Even if you have a perfect diet, a poor sleep schedule will leave you falling behind in the race.

Additionally, the more you sleep, the less time you have to eat. This means less time to indulge in sugary snacks that will throw your diet off.

Conclusion

We learned that sleep is very important for bodybuilding today. In fact if you do everything else perfect, sleep can still hold you back by not allowing your body to repair muscle. This can make your body even store most of your additional calories as fat and not the muscle you so desire! Go to bed and go get some Z’s, and I think it’s time for me to do the same…

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