Rest And Sleep
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Some respected recent texts on sports nutrition don’t even mention rest and sleep. It may seem unwarranted to include a chapter here on the subject. It’s not only warranted, it’s vital. Bodily growth and repair occur only during rest or sleep, never during training. Successful development of an athlete is always a delicate balancing act between three variables: a training program of progressive overload, the correct raw materials (nutrients) to maintain and repair tissue and build new tissue, and sufficient rest and sleep to permit the repair and new growth to take place.

 

Numerous texts discuss only the nutrition you need before, during, and after athletic performance. But tbat’s only half the picture. The main business of nutrition is to build a better body. That work takes place only during rest. Even if your training and nutrition program came straight from the mouth of God Almighty, without adequate rest your body will fail to adapt.

 

Some athletes tell me they need only six hours of sleep a night. My reply is, "Maybe you can get by, but you will never reach full potential." After 18 years in the business, I have seen it many times. The short sleep athletes are the first to succumb to that big killer of sports careers - overtraining. Many recent studies document that the overtraining syndrome occurs primarily because of insufficient rest.

 

The great coaches have always known. Swimming great Jim Councilman of Indiana University , for example, makes his athletes sleep nine hours a night, plus a nap in the afternoons. With a tip of my hat to Jim, the Colgan Institute gives similar advice. You have to allow your nutrition the space it needs to work.

 

There’s no way you can gut it out by will power. Just the opposite. Athletes who are falling into the overtraining syndrome often start to train harder to "break the plateau." Instead of improving they get worse faster. You can’t beat overtraining with more work because, by the time it becomes noticeable, your body is already shot.

 

Studies show that the neuroendocrine system becomes exhausted, altering hormone levels so that optimal performance is impossible. Some severely overtrained athletes have developed Addison’s Disease, characterized by the permanently reduced function of the adrenal glands, so that they no longer maintain proper hormone levels. That’s the finish of any elite sports career.

 

The other big problem is suppression of immune function. Overtrained athletes become progressively more susceptible to infection. They also get more injuries, especially muscle and tendon injuries, the type that can cut training for months. My friend, Olympian Jeff Galloway, who has taught thousands of athletes how to run, put it best. "The single greatest cause of improvement is remaining injury-free to train."

 

Compelling evidence of depressed immunity also comes from athletes with poor training advice, who increase their training intensity without increasing their rest. They almost all get sick or injured, which promptly cancels any benefit of the extra worker In contrasts carefully balanced training and rest can enhance immunity. So if you went optimum performance, you better get it right.

 

The general rule for rest is to get 7 1/2 - 9 1/2 hours sleep a night. For athletes who train twice a day, and you should if you want the maximum training effect, a 30-60 minute nap after your first training session, is invaluable. It may be a hard habit to get into, but persevere. You’ll thank me.