We all know that sleep is important, but how important is it really for our muscles’ recovery? Well, the importance of sleep is so critical, in fact, that it has a direct effect on the most important part of muscle recovery: insulin. Insulin’s role is to shuttle amino acids into cells to be used for protein synthesis and storage.
An article written by Dr. Portman mentions, “that it’s not growth hormone or some mystery anabolic agent. I am talking about insulin, the body’s ultimate recovery mediator.”
You also release more growth hormone (GH) during sleep than you do at any other time. GH is a vital part of muscle repair, so if your sleep is disturbed the amount of GH released while you’re sleeping drops significantly.
Researchers have suggested that reductions in sleep duration may inhibit muscle growth and recovery and lead to a catabolic environment. Catabolic environment means that your body is breaking down or losing overall mass.
Not getting enough sleep will backfire on you since it will make your body more catabolic and will also delay muscle growth, especially if you’re using a high-intensity training style such as lifting heavyweights.
Your body will produce less protein than it otherwise would. That’s why you need to sleep for at least 7 hours a night if you want your muscles to grow properly and quickly.
Not getting a lot of sleep decreases the activity of protein synthesis pathways and increases the activity of degradation pathways, which favors muscle loss. This hinders recovery after muscle damage induced by exercise, injuries, or certain conditions associated with muscle breakdown.
You may not be getting enough sleep, and that’s why you’re struggling to build muscle. Sleep is crucial for recovering from workouts and if you aren’t sleeping well then, your muscles can’t repair themselves properly after a hard workout.
Sleep helps muscles release protein-building amino acids into the bloodstream at an increased rate which helps them grow bigger and stronger over time.
Sleep helps to release growth hormones during rapid eye movement (REM) sleep which helps with muscle repair.
You also release several healing substances while you sleep that keep your muscles healthy.
Alongside sleep for muscle recovery, remedial massage will help facilitate a faster recovery time for our muscles by softening the muscle fibres and bringing blood to the muscle tissues, which carries oxygen and nutrients necessary for muscle recovery.
