If you want to maximise your muscle growth and boost your overall performance, you need to recover properly. A key part of recovery is sleep, and yet so many beasts and would-be beasts neglect it, probably because ‘sleep is for the weak’ and all that. But it’s not. If you can optimise your sleep, you can optimise your health. Importance of Sleep For Beasts It’s during sleep when your muscles grow - and heal. While you may have shut down for the night, your body is working hard to knit tissue together, strengthen and form your muscles, and aid your recovery, both psychologically and physically. Indeed, it’s during sleep when muscle is built. And the more sleep you get, the less tired you’ll feel after an exhaustive workout. Thus, the harder you’ll be able to go. See, without enough sleep, you’ll suddenly find it’s tougher to go for longer in the gym. Studies have even shown that NBA basketball players who slept for 2 extra hours were able to improve their speed and reaction time - important for boxers, too. GABA And How To Get More Of It GABA is short for Gamma-Aminobutyric Acid. It’s a neurotransmitter that calms your central nervous system down, therefore priming you for a better night’s sleep. Your body needs as much of it as it can get, but many of us don’t have enough of it. So how can you get more GABA? Essentially, you need more L-Theanine. L-Theanine is an amino acid that helps you to relax by boosting your GABA levels. It’s found primarily in green tea, which is bad news for those who can’t stand the taste. Worry not, however, as you can now buy flavoured green tea, which works just the same. It’s well worth it too because L-Theanine also improves your focus. How To Improve Your Sleep If you struggle to get a good night’s sleep, here are some tips: Relax Easier said than done, of course, but you need to be in a chilled state to fall asleep. I always find it’s a good idea to shut down your laptop earlier in the evening (at least an hour before bed) so that nothing is lingering in your mind, such as work emails. It’s also a good idea to prepare tomorrow’s tasks before bed if you’re the sort of person who feels overwhelmed by things easily. Maybe chuck on a comedy movie before bed, too. Hydrate Sleep can dehydrate your body, so it’s important to drink enough water before you go to bed, as well as throughout the day. Sleep in the Dark Believe me - any kind of light can be really off-putting to some people, and even just a glimmer of it could be stopping you from sleeping. Get on a Schedule A major reason some people find it hard to sleep at night is that they have no proper schedule. They live from day-to-day, not really knowing when they’ll be home from an evening out, and especially not knowing what time they’ll get up on a weekend morning. But if you’re to become more beast in general, you need to schedule the important stuff. This includes getting on top of your gym routine and your sleep routine. Fix a time to go to bed each night and wake up in the morning. Fix it and make sure you stick to it. Pretty sure, your body will adapt and will know when it’s time to switch off and go to sleep. Conclusion I get that it can be hard to think about sleep when you’re powering up in the gym. It’s often the last thing on our minds. We’ll sleep when we’re dead. But if you start seeing sleep as complementing your workout regime and actually helping you get bigger, fitter and stronger, you’ll soon start to see its value.
