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Sleep is a weapon




Picture from New World Cup 2017

“We’re teaching our players: Sleep is a weapon.”

— Sam Ramsden, Dir. of Player Health and Performance, Seattle Seahawks



 
I first really started to pay attention to sleeping after one of my favorite professional strongman competitors talked about how he uses a CPAP machine. He went on to say it helped him recover faster, and get much more quality sleep. As you get stronger, specifically powerlifting or strength training, your neck gets thicker. This could lead to sleep problems by obstructing the airflow you need as you sleep. Others like myself fall into the category of just bad genetics whereby the mouth and the nasal cavities are formed in such a way to be the perfect storm for sleep apnea. It didn't help that I was also overweight
 
Sleep is an important component of maintaining your health and performance. For Bohurt athletes in particular, proper sleep is a weapon in their arsenal for overall success. 

Worcester Effigy, photo Tony Grist source


"Studies have shown that reaction times, motor function, motivation, focus, stress regulation, muscle recovery, sprint performance, muscle glycogen, glucose metabolism, memory and learning, injury risk, illness rates, unwanted weight gain…. sleep (or lack thereof) plays a part in all of these things. And sleep, as more and more athletes are learning, has a big impact on performance, wins, and losses. source"
 (Fatigue Science)


Another study found that sleep loss directly impacts how much you lift, and your overall energy to perform. The p value in this case helps you interpret the significance of your results. The lower the p-value (0.05) indicates a strong evidence against the null hypothesis (sleep loss does not impact lifting performance).

"There was no significant effect of sleep loss on performance of maximal biceps curl (p < 0.05) but a significant effect was noted on maximal bench press, leg press, and dead lift (p < 0.001). Trend analysis indicated decreased performance in submaximal lifts for all the 4 tasks: the deterioration was significant after the second night of sleep loss (p < 0.01). Performing the lifts had little influence on sleepiness ratings which increased linearly with successive days of sleep loss. Mood states of confusion, vigour, and fatigue were affected significantly by the sleep deprivation regimen (p < 0.001), but there was no significant effect of sleep loss or anger, tension, and depression (p > 0.05)." (NCBI)

In the end, sleep and getting enough of it is key to your performance in and out of the list. If you are looking to help your metabolism, get stronger lifts, perform better, heal faster, or just be more cognitively aware at work, sleep is the key.

Until next time, see you in the list... 

Jeff








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