The grind, the intensity, the push, gotta be in a pool of sweat on the floor.
I really don’t know when this whole I have to smash myself more and more began, but It really needs to be pissed off.
I have spoken with people that feel like they need to get up at 4am to get in a super sweaty gym session before the day begins, and then have to do another one the same in the evening, and go hard like this for a month or two to get where they want to go.
They seem to struggle though with something that is probably one of the biggest pillars in your health and fitness, and that is sleep.
If you are getting up at 4am or earlier regularly to ‘fit your exercise in’, then I truly hope you are in bed and asleep by 8pm, 8:30 at the latest!
Yes that is right, that early.
Sleep needs to be around that seven to eight hour mark, and so if you are ‘an early riser’ you need to be in bed early also.
The next part of this is if you are doing a gym session first thing in the morning, and then backing it up with another one very similar in the afternoon, you will probably need a bit more sleep than just eight hours.
I am sure you have met someone or know someone that has done a fitness program, a challenge, or a get fit quick regime and you have noticed their rapid results (think anywhere between six and 12 weeks). And then you see them maybe six months or so later and they have gone back to where they were before. They have yo yoed a bit.
If you ask them about that intense period of rapid results they might tell you that it was a super intense period, lots of really high intensity workouts, six, sometimes seven days a week, and even a couple of times a day. Very minimal calories, and then, the icing on the cake, never enough hours in those days to get enough sleep in for recovery!
Look I am all for getting your fitness regime started with a short intense challenge, If I hadn’t have done them I wouldn’t be doing this today. They are a great vehicle to start.
But with the lack of calories, the somewhat overtraining and lack of sleep they are far from sustainable.
Sleep is essential for recovery. When we rest it is when our muscles recover, rebuild, grow. It is when our body replenishes its depleted energy systems, and believe it or not, it is when we burn some fat too.
So how do we get enough??
Number one, pick a time for you that gets you into bed at a time that allows for seven to eight hours.
Once you have picked that time. Stick to it for at least three or four nights a week.
Stick with that for three weeks.
And like so many other things when it comes to health and fitness, be consistent with it. This is the biggest part of all aspects of any program, consistency!
I am not trying to give you heaps of things today. This is about breaking it down to one step at a time.
So our first step is a consistent, reasonable bed time. Not crazy early so you can get up at 3am to ‘win the day’, but at a time that more fits in with you and when you are starting to feel tired, when you are on that wind down that won’t have you laying in bed for ages thinking, scrolling etc.
So let’s do that this week, a consistent, reasonable bedtime.
A bonus one this week too will be fresh linen. Change your sheets maybe a little sooner than you ordinarily would. Only by one night maybe. And see how that helps.
If it does, it might be something else to consider in time.
I will leave it at that one thing this week. In the coming weeks we will layer on maybe some more bedtime routines to really help that sleep be some of the deepest you have had in years, and you will be recovering from all areas of life in no time!