To sleep perchance to dream
28 October 2005If you're new here, you may want to subscribe to my RSS feed. Thanks for visiting!
Sleep, rest, recuperation and recovery are critically important for babies and athletes. A decade ago I interviewed Shawn Ray for a training article for Muscle & Fitness. In it he said, Bodybuilders and athletes are like babies, they go hard and go all out, then they eat and collapse in a pile on the floor until they are recovered then they repeat the process. A bit of an oversimplification but Shawns analogy is illustrative of the growth cycle paradigm: intense physical activity + ample food + rest = muscle growth. This ultimate growth procedure that commences with vigorous exercise of some type followed by ample calories followed by quality rest and recuperation has been the magical procedure for triggering transformation for decades. The third leg of this triad, rest and recuperation, is easily the most overlooked and possibly the most misunderstood procedure. Rest, sleep, recuperation, etc., used in the context of fitness, are code words for a larger and more accurate idea, an idea that can be encapsulated as follows: if you have blasted a muscle intensely, that muscle need make a full and complete muscular recovery from the traumatic effects of the last workout before you blast it again. The length of time it takes to recover from a training session can be shortened (improved) over time. You can teach the body to do more in a compacted time frame assuming you feed it and rest it. As US Olympic weightlifting coach Dragomir once told Randy Strossen, (and I paraphrase) When I started out, training once a week made me sore. But I got used to that and began training twice a week, then three, four and five timesI adapted and became more adept at recovering from the effects of all out progressive resistance training. Over time I increased my frequency and the body improved and adapted and allowed me to train harder, heavier and more often.
The faster you can recover from the physically devastating effects of a serious workout, the more often you can train. The more often you can train the faster you progress. Recovery rates vary radically individual to individual. Some folks recover quick and some are knocked for a loop for ten days. I can say this with reasonable confidence that the speed of recovery improves over time. There is also a direct correlation between cardio proficiency and muscular recovery. The better shape a person in the faster they recover. The better endurance a person possesses the faster they are able to dispose of toxic waste products created by a traumatic workout. Why work out so hard that you traumatize muscle tissue? Frankly and intense workout is the only workout with sufficient critical mass to throw the hypertrophy trigger. Muscle growth occurs as the result of cellular nuclear explosions set off by savage training comfortable sub-maximal workouts (at best) retain that which youve already acquired. Only workouts that kiss the lip of current limit or push beyond are dramatic enough to pull the switch. The human body will not favorably reconfigure itself in response to sameness. Unless we seek to exceed and extend or current limits in some manner or fashion nothing of any significance will occur. This is not some whacky hypothesis this is science and biology 101. In the progressive resistance arena there are three ways to generate intensity sufficient to trip the growth switch: increase poundage, increase reps, increase frequency. Within each area are numerous technique and exercise variations.
An integral part of the growth formula is: rest, recovery, recuperationbasically what can be done to return of the organism to normal? When rested, healed and hopefully a bit more muscular and stronger, the athlete recuperates to a point where he/she can hit it again. Acquiring more power and muscle size occurs when intense lifting is followed by the consumption of plentiful amount of food. To keep muscle gains lean and fat free we eat clean calories and avoid saturated fat, sugar, alcohol and man-made foods. Rest the body until it has had time to complete the growth cycle; there is always a cause and effect lag time. The muscular nuclear fission ignited during a workout occurs on the last few reps of the top set of any given exercise. The muscle fission ignited on those key reps continues after the cessation of the workout. Hard science has shown that eating after training accelerates and amplifies results. Feeding the body exactly what it needs immediately after the workout is smart: so smart the post-workout drink or Meal Replacement Pac the iron elite consume is called a smart bomb. The elite consume a drink containing roughly equal amounts of whey protein and carbohydrate (though much dissension, strife and controversy surround what type carbohydrate) within one hour of a high intensity weight workout. This results in the nutrients being assimilated at roughly a 300% greater rate than normal. Liquids smart bombs are somewhat predigested and get into the system faster than eating a whole food meal. Post-workout, muscles silently scream for amino acid building blocks and various carbohydrate-derived glycogen forms needed to rebuild and create new muscle tissue. Muscle tissue torn down by the workout can commence the tissue reconstruction process immediately if supplied with the right nutrients.
Once the building process is triggered by a kick-ass workout, the right nutrients need be supplied to traumatized tissue immediately. Dont blast that particular muscle region again until things normalize. The heavier and stronger a person is the longer it takes to recover. A man with 20-inch arms who bench presses 500 for reps will need more time to recover for his next bench press session than a young woman handling a respectable pair of 30-pound dumbbells. Rest is not just sleep, though sleep is great; rest is also about staying stress-freeeasier said than done. Fatigue manifests itself in many ways and mental stress keeps the central nervous system in a state of continual excitation. Like any other machine or device, the CNS need be periodically rested; otherwise the circuitry eventually burns out. Heavy weight training is a stress-buster par excellence. There is no way you can think about the latest office crisis while under a 250-pound barbell. In times of stress the enlightened train more, not less. Light athletic activity is another stress-reliever when the brain is fixated on an external event like playing racquetball, tennis, basketball, outdoor trail walking, swimming, kayaking or biking the activity forces you to concentrate and in that concentration the brain and central nervous system are afforded a hour or so of shutdown time. During this respite the overheated CNS circuits and synapses cool down and the frenetic pace of eternal thought impulses is interrupted. When turned back on after the workout, a nirvana-like hot shower, a rich protein/carb shakes, the rested brain springs back into action with fresh perspective and incredible energy. Sleep is critical but its the quality, not the quantity that counts. A few hours of restorative REM sleep is better than twelve hours tossing and turning. One way to ensure you sleep deep is to be like Shawn Rays Baby: train so hard that come time to hit the rack you pass out in a deep sleep-trance. Train, eat, rest. Ad infinitum.
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