{"id":20570,"date":"2022-08-31T12:58:39","date_gmt":"2022-08-31T04:58:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/paulstokes.com.au\/?p=20570"},"modified":"2023-09-23T13:09:42","modified_gmt":"2023-09-23T05:09:42","slug":"how-sleep-affects-muscle-growth","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/paulstokes.com.au\/how-sleep-affects-muscle-growth\/","title":{"rendered":"How Sleep Affects Muscle Growth"},"content":{"rendered":"
Did you know the amount and quality of your sleep has a strong effect on your muscle growth? No, rest isn’t for the weak. Adequate rest, recovery and sleep can help make you stronger, fitter and encourage muscle growth.<\/p>\n
These days, we all lead busy lives with hectic schedules. Often, we may feel encouraged to sleep as little as possible so that we can achieve more during waking hours. Beware though, too much hustle makes it difficult to grow muscle.<\/p>\n
Regardless of your diet, protein intake, supplement regime and training schedule, you won’t reach your potential without proper sleep.<\/p>\n
Below, we’ll cover a few ways in which a good night’s sleep is crucial for not only muscle growth, but your overall health and fitness.<\/p>\n
In essence, sleep is crucial.<\/p>\n
When it comes to muscular hypertrophy (a.k.a. muscle growth), any type of strength training can work.<\/p>\n
too much hustle makes it difficult to grow muscle<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
Strength training works by breaking down muscle fibres at a microscopic level. Essentially, your body detects this breakdown of your muscle protein and attempts to repair the ‘damage.’ Cells grow, adapt and create new muscle strands. As a result, your muscles grow back bigger and stronger.<\/p>\n
When does this muscle growth and repair take place? When you’re\u00a0 asleep.<\/h3>\n
Additionally, it’s during your sleep that your body replenishes its glycogen stores. This glycogen is the fuel source your muscles use.<\/p>\n
Naturally, when you work out, your body uses up glycogen. Therefore, if you plan of exercising again in the near future, you’re going to want to do so with full glycogen stores.<\/p>\n
Recovering well and getting sufficient sleep helps your body do this.<\/p>\n
What does the research say about sleep affecting muscle growth?<\/h2>\n
If you train a lot, but don’t prioritise sleep, you’re working harder but not smarter. Ultimately, you may even be undoing some of your hard work in the gym by not sleeping enough each night.<\/p>\n