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Go To Sleep

What kind of creatine should I take? What sort of diet should I follow? What mobility routine will help my lifts in the right direction? These questions are all too common and flood every fitness discussion. I believe this is a misdirection on our part, we are looking for that one easy thing that will make “all the difference” in our strength or body composition.  While we seem to overlook the most valuable asset we have. What is the one thing you can do everyday to help put 20kg on your back squat? Sleep. To help you lean out on your new diet? Sleep. To solidify all the hard work you’ve put into your technique? Sleep. You. Have. To. Sleep.

You’re Drunk

First of all, if you’re chronically depriving yourself of sleep you have the motor functions of a drunk person. Sleep deprivation can decrease reaction time, increase losses in focus and generally makes you feel weaker. The olympic lifts are extremely technical, and require you to be at the top of your abilities to get them down. If you are battling with a foggy brain from only getting five or six hours of sleep the night before; you probably aren’t going to be at your best trying to master the lifts  and drive your strength upwards. Secondly, sleep will help you out with your diet goals as well. Getting a good night of sleep can help reduce the risk for insulin resistance, and other metabolic diseases. Alternatively sleeping poorly can have negative impacts on the bodies ability to lose fat, gain muscle, and regulate hunger. Last but not least, sleep is when we etch new memories and motor patterns into our brains. If you put in a couple hours of solid practice on your snatch pull, but you don’t sleep that night… you won’t be retaining as much as you could with a full night sleep. So in short losing sleep will make you weaker, worse at lifting, and potentially at greater health risks in your day to day life.  

Quantity

Listen. I know, the new season of Kimmy Schmidt is pretty good, but you’re probably going to have to watch less tv and get off your phone. Traditionally we hear that the sleep standard we should be shooting for is seven to eight hours, and for your average person this might be okay. If you are a training in a strength sport three to five days per week, you are not the average. It is recommended that lifters get between nine to ten hours of sleep. Does that mean you will? No, probably not, but it should show you how far off base you are with the five or six hours you’re getting. You need to try to get as much sleep as you can every night if you want to make the best progress you’re capable off. If you have a crazy schedule, try to find time for a nap a couple days per week. Make sleeping a priority. If you slept poorly all week, be conservative on heavy workouts and stay safe, it’s not worth risking an injury.

Quality

 Here are a couple of things that can help you improve the quality of the sleep you’re already getting. First, limit screen time. For the two hours before bed refrain from watching tv or looking at your phone, the blue light can stimulate wakefulness. Some people will wear blue blocking glasses to use their devices, but then you have to be the guy who wears sunglasses inside at night, so it’s your call. Second, it can be helpful if you keep your room designated as a sleeping only room. Try to refrain from working, eating or watching movies in your bedroom, make is associated purely with sleep. Lastly, you’ll want to make sure that your room is as pitch black as it can be, and cool to boot. Blackout curtains and a fan go a long way toward improving sleep quality. Again, if you want to be that sort of person, you can go as far as to put tinfoil all over your windows to block the light.

Wrap up

We all want the quick fix, but there is no replacement for sleep. No supplement regimen, detox drink, or fad diet can help you if your sleep is dreadful. Sleep keeps you healthy, makes you stronger, and encodes the difficult technique we are all trying to master.  It’s not admirable to sleep only four to five hours a night, it’s unhealthy and limits your success in the long run. Try making sleep a priority, you’ll be shocked by how much better you perform.

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How Bad Do You Want It, Really?

I was asked a question by an athlete recently. The question was, “What do you do when no matter how bad you want it, it doesn’t happen?” I watched the athlete step up to the barbell, set up their starting position, and go for the lift. There are times when no matter how much you psych yourself up, no matter how many people are cheering for you, no matter how many scoops of pre-workout you took, your ability to make it happen isn’t there. Sometimes, that’s just how it goes. A little later I thought more about what it means to really want it? I came to this conclusion, you don’t show how bad you want it when you step up to the barbell, it starts well before that. Sure, sometimes you can pull off a lift on sheer will but is that something you want to rely on when it really counts (like in competition). Beyond those rare moments, it starts in how many times you show up to the gym when you don’t feel like it. It’s in how much you push yourself in your training session and not checking your phone every 5 minutes. It’s in how well you eat, sleep, and commit to self-care. It’s in how much you’re willing to give up in exchange for an ounce of performance. When someone says they’re committed and will work harder than anyone else, I don’t care what they say, I pay attention to what they do. In the age of social media, I can tell if an athlete really means what they say. If they’re out on Saturday night, cracking a cold one with the boys, I know they don’t want it bad enough. When they spend the week eating junk food, barely making it to sessions, and skipping out on accessory work, I know they don’t want it bad enough. Words are wind, and I’m from the Show Me State (not really, but metaphorically). Athletes who don’t do the seemingly small things, don’t want it bad enough. It’s a way to make an excuse later on, to avoid personal responsibility. “Oh well, I gave it my best shot, and that’s all that matters. Next time.” Did you really give it your best though? An athlete has to be selfish, and they’re rarely satisfied with their performance, and a single-minded focus with a relentless pursuit of their objective is necessary to achieve something beyond mediocre. Mediocre effort will get you mediocre results. An athlete has to set aside life balance to achieve great results, and that applies to anything else in life that requires a lot of time and effort to achieve. Look at any historical figure or athlete that accomplished something great, and I’ll show you a person who shunned balance. When their teammates were out stuntin’ and flossin’ at the club, they stayed behind and kept practicing. They didn’t tell themselves they did their best, they gave their best, in and out of competition. Telling yourself you did your best with a mediocre effort is the equivalent of giving yourself a participation trophy. I’ve given myself that participation trophy, telling myself it didn’t go as planned, but I tried my best. Did I though? When you step up to the barbell, whether it’s in training or on the competition platform, is the wrong time to ask yourself how bad you want it. The time to ask yourself is when you need the self-discipline to avoid junk food and not have to nearly kill yourself to make weight, when you get an invite to drink yourself into a hangover, at the start of a training session, when you need to go to bed early, when you don’t feel like doing it. Those are the moments where saying you’re committed and showing you’re committed are separated. If you do as much as possible to set yourself up for success, you can be proud of your effort, no matter the result, because you can say with integrity that you really did give it your all. Ask yourself what kind of effort you have really given, leaving no room for excuses…How bad do you want it, really?