Recovery for Week 2

Last week, we went over the basics of how muscles grow and the importance of relaxation to muscle growth. It is vitally important that you learn how to relax and get plenty of sleep every night. Consider 8 hours to be a minimum.

This week, we're going to talk about a fundamental practice you should follow if you want to maximize your muscle growth.

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That practice is consistency.

Research has shown that people are more restful on any given day not only because they got a sound 8 hours' worth of sleep, but also because they fell asleep and woke up at the same time each day.

Schedule your sleep!

If you have children, you probably already follow this practice — for them! It's a well-known parenting principle that you put your kids to bed each night following the same exact routine every single night; you may read them books, give them some milk, brush their teeth, and then put them in bed.

This works best if you put them down at the same time each night.

You should be doing the same for yourself!

Research has also found that even more important than going to sleep at the same time each night is rising the next morning at the same time.

Whether – for whatever reason – you fall asleep earlier or later than plan, always try to wake up at the same time each morning. Now, if you got in at 4am and you normally get up at 5am, you may want to disregard this advice

(However, I will ask you this – why in the world were you out so late? You simply cannot live a playboy's life and expect to make rapid progress with this – or any – system!)

You will find that after several weeks of following a consistent sleep plan that you will fall asleep and awaken at nearly the same time every day. Your muscles will thank you for this by growing as fast as possible.

More importantly, your mind, which controls everything, thrives on this consistency. Your subconscious becomes quite comfortable with the routine and actually starts reinforcing the good behavior, such that every goal you set for yourself becomes ever easier to attain!

This is powerful stuff.

To recap:

• Follow the same pre-sleep routine every single night. You may read, meditate, or have a light snack before bed.
• Go to sleep at the same time each night.
• Wake up at the same time every day.
• Get at least 8 hours of sleep a night. The more restful, the better!

That's it for Week 2! See you next week!

Back to Train, Eat

Recovery for Week 1

As you may know, there are 3 pillars to any bodybuilding program: Exercise, diet, and recovery. They are all important. You cannot skimp on one. If you think you can train hard, eat junk, and party all night long and still build muscle, you better think again. Oh, you may gain some muscle, but just think how much muscle you would have gained had you eaten right and gotten enough rest!

Rest is super important. If you don't rest enough, you won't give your muscles enough time to rebuild.

Let's talk about that for a moment.

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When you train, you're actually tearing down your muscles. You are inflicting damage. It's this damage that is the spark to make your muscles grow: Your brain instructs your body to produce more testosterone and growth hormone, which lead to building bigger muscles.

When you eat, especially right after your workout, you are supplying your body with the nutrients it needs – predominantly protein – to not only repair the muscle tissue but also to grow your muscles bigger and stronger than they were before you worked out.

Food supplies the raw materials and time supplies the "labor."

Think of building a house. You can have the best lumber and building supplies delivered, but if there aren't expert carpenters there to cut the wood and hammer the nails, no matter what you do, you won't get a house built.

Same goes for your muscles. You can supply the stimulus (hard training) and the building supplies (nutrition), but if you don't give your body the time and rest it needs, you simply will not grow.

End of story.

Fortunately, recovering properly is pretty simple. Here's the prescription for Week 1:

• Get at least 8 hours of sound, restful sleep.
• Try to take a nap after your workout and post-workout meal. If you cannot nap, try to rest as much as possible for 30 minutes.

That's really all there is to it. The key is to relax as much as possible when you're not working out. If you nervously tap your toes when you're sitting down watching television, stop. You will have to consciously think about relaxing.

If you have a really hard time relaxing, you may want to consider yoga and/or meditation. Either (or both) of these practices can help you relax.

Some things to keep in mind if you have trouble sleeping:

• First, make sure you don't have a medical condition by conferring with your physician. Get any medical issues ironed out before you take on any new exercise system.
• Refrain from watching television before going to sleep. There's something about TV that actually heightens anxiety and keeps you from relaxing properly.
• Drink some warm milk right before bed.
• Do not drink caffeine after about 3pm.

If you follow these guidelines, you are very likely to experience 8 hours of restful sleep. We'll talk more about rest, relaxation, and recovery in the following weeks.

Back to Train, Eat

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