Did you know that your muscles grow, your body takes shape during the periods of rest and not during the periods of active work?
Teresa is always getting after me to get more sleep, to rest more. I barely get 3 to 4 hours of sleep a night. She continues to preach on how important it is to rest and relax the body so that you start to see change, so that you don’t continue to put your body under stress. When you are overworked and likely overtired, your body naturally produces cortisol which is a stress hormone. Stress does not help your body repair or transform.
I missed finishing my post yesterrday, because my day ended up being busy from the minute I left the gym until I crashed. Unlike most days, I fell asleep on the couch at 8PM and then only got up enough to walk the dogs and get ready for bed and went back to sleep until I write this now!
This morning, I saw change. My weight had dropped (I honestly was not expecting any weight loss because I used yesterday as my cheat meal day) and I am glowing in a way I haven’t been, from overworking both my body and my mind.
So, I woke up this morning, I’m already ready to go to hit the gym and I thought this was a perfect way to start the day! Let’s talk about rest!
The Value Of Rest
It is rest that makes you stronger, because it is the rest that allows the muscles that you have broken down to heal and recover. It is the rest that allows you to recover so you can be strong, and thereby handle the increased weight, and increase the workload during your workouts so you perform at heavier weight and additional reps.
Sleep also plays a big role in muscle recovery, where the growth hormone levels are at its highest. If proper recovery is not given, the body cannot regenerate effectively
Without proper rest, your body will fight recovery and you may just reach a performance plateau. You run he risk of injury and sometimes we go backwards rather than forwards in our training.
At the end of the day, everyone is different but there is so much value to feeling and looking rested and for me, my schedule is such that its so very hard to get more than four hours of sleep a night, but after yesterday, I do see and feel different and will make a concerted effort to even increase my rest by 25% each night!
Talk to you later! Today is a super Abdominal and Shoulders Workout! Yippee!
With love and hugs,
Jenn @ Do You Bake?
PS : Don’t forget to follow us along on Teresa’s Instagram Feed! We’re always having a ton of fun!
