When Does Your Workout Training Day Start?

How good sleep impacts your exercise and training results.

By Brendan Duffy, RPSGT, CCSH

If you were to ask athletes when their training day begins, many would likely say it starts when they get to the gym. Early morning joggers might say their training begins after a healthy breakfast. However, if you were to ask elite athletes American football legend Tom Brady, superstar basketball player LeBron James, Olympic track speedster Usain Bolt, or basketball star Caitlin Clark, they all would tell you unequivocally that their training starts the night before!

It starts with a good night’s sleep. These four elite athletes are part of a growing trend of athletes who are believers in sleep, emphasizing quality sleep routines as crucial parts of their performance and recovery protocol. They embrace the growing science that points to sleep as perhaps the best mode of recovery available to any athlete. Sufficient rest is as important to these athletes as the nutrition they select to fuel their bodies and their minds.

How does sleep impact exercise?

Sleep is an often overlooked but crucial component of athletic performance and recovery. Whether you are an elite athlete or a weekend warrior, quality sleep can greatly improve your physical and mental performance via several pathways – and not only does your sleep influence your exercise, but exercise can increase your sleep quality. Exercising is important for our overall health and weight management. Through better sleep, our hormones work efficiently to manage our caloric intake. Lack of sleep causes several growth and metabolic functions to be out of balance. This may stifle many exercise benefits. Proper sleep opportunity aids in boosting our immune system, keeps our heart healthy, improves mood, and helps in several other physical and mental aspects of a healthy lifestyle.

What else does a good night’s sleep do to enhance your exercise?

Body Restoration & Repair

When you sleep sufficiently, you repair, strengthen, and sculpt your muscles. Daily exercise causes microscopic muscle fiber damage to be rebuilt stronger via restorative sleep. Various hormones such as growth hormone and testosterone are released during sleep. They are essential in muscle repair and growth. In addition, our appetites are regulated in part by nocturnal sleep via hormones such as leptin and ghrelin. Ensure your exercise schedules include sufficient sleep and recovery time to achieve your desired weight loss or other training goals.

Performance

Quality sleep can also help you to improve your performance and your accuracy skills. It enhances your ability to stay on task and retain information. This is important when learning a new game strategy or perhaps a new exercise routine. In one research study at Stanford University, basketball players who increased their sleep time were able to improve their foul shot accuracy and 3-point shooting by 9%! In another study, tennis players increased their serve accuracy from 36% to 42%!

Mental Health

Exercise is a wonderful way to reduce stress and improve your mood. Sleep also has a positive effect on mood and emotional wellness. You probably can easily recall how “out of sorts” you felt after suffering a bad night’s sleep. An important part of our nightly sleep is an emotional reset. When sleep time is insufficient, you do not allow time to completely reset mentally for the next day’s stressors. If sleep deficiency continues, it may contribute to mental distress. A lack of sufficient sleep and increased negative feelings are bidirectional. In other words, the less sleep, the more mentally troubled you may feel. An increasing emotional burden can then lead to even more sleep issues. It is wise to seek help if you are experiencing overwhelming stress or sleep issues to avoid this scenario.

So... when does a good workout and training day start?

It starts the night before! Train well, sleep well! Exercise will improve your nights, and good nights will improve your exercise!

Brendan Duffy, RPSGT, CCSH is the Director of Catholic Health Sleep Services on Long Island, NY and also works with several athletes and NCAA teams on sleep P.R.O. skills and strategies (Performance, Recovery, and Optimization). He can be contacted via email at sleepcoachz@gmail.com or via his LinkedIn page, linkedin.com/in/brendan-duffy-08622049