I got a question from one of my athlete patients just a while back, "I didn't sleep well. Which is better: going on my morning training run or sleeping in?"
My answer to the athlete was it depends. If it was just an occasional situation where say you stayed up to watch TV, you can still go for your training run.
But, if you haven't been sleeping enough over an extended period of time, it'll be better to sleep in. Rest is when the body heals, repairs and recuperates itself to adapt to the training stresses you've put your body through.
Just like in body building, the muscle grows when the body is resting not when you're lifting weights. In fact the muscle breaks down while you're weight training not the other way around. When you allow the muscle to rest it rebuilds itself bigger and stronger.
Not sleeping enough means not giving your body time to recover. Focus on your sleep needs first. When you've rested enough, you'll feel better and can make time to run later in the day.
Bear this in mind, sleep is a necessity not a luxury, especially for athletes. It's a training tool, running on empty won't get you far. For the rest of us mortals, skipping on sleep to fit in running, working and our personal lives will cause more problems than it solves.
No comments:
Post a Comment