Muscle Recovery and growth ( Sleep and muscles )
As bodybuilders, you better have a very high respect for your ability to recover. Your recovery is more important than a workout in your over-all plan to getting to the next level. Q: What is the best piece of equipment for growing muscles? A: Your bed.
Our sleep cycles begin with a deep REM sleep that lasts for ~10 minutes, we then come out of this deep sleep into a lighter sleep. Each completion from going in and back out of a light sleep takes ~90 minutes and then we continue to repeat those cycles throughout the night. Q: How is sleep important in terms of building muscle and hormonal response? A: Your growth hormone is maximally released in your first REM cycle. As those sleep cycles continue, the REM time keeps expanding; however, unfortunately, your growth hormone does not continue getting pumped in larger quanities during those expansion times.
Since our first REM cycle is the best at pumping growth hormones, it is vital that we have a high quality presleep protein intake. We want to have the components of muscle building set in place during that time when the growth hormones are pumped to help you reach a more anabolic state. That being said, it makes more sense to combine whey with casein protein to get the benefits of both the fast and slow acting proteins during your sleep cycles.
Another factor to consider is to try to wake up at the top of those sleep cycles (light sleep) to ensure you are well-rested throughout your day. Waking up during the hours of REM sleep will most probably make you feel irritated along with other negative symptoms during your day.
Lesson learned: Sleep is where you grow your muscles and the gym is where you stimulate them for growth.
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