Sleep, Nutrition, and Strength Training

CC09LawAg

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I was not sure how to Google this to do my own research, so I thought I would ask the board...

Obviously, diet and sleep are important for recovery and strength training. My question is when and how does it effect it?

Let's say I do a workout Monday evening. When it comes to eating protein, does the stuff I ate Sunday and Monday during the day matter more than, less than, or equal to what I eat after my workout and on Tuesday? Does what I eat Wednesday still matter in regards to my recovery from my Monday workout?

And for sleep, let's say I have that same Monday evening workout. If I take a nap during the day on Tuesday, does that help my recovery at all, or is the most important sleep the sleep you have Monday night? What about Tuesday night?

Hoss

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10:15a, 12/11/23

AG

I'm not an expert by any means but I've read that naps don't count as sleep (unless they're long naps) and that it's best to just target 7-8 hours of sleep per night (although some say more).

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True Anomaly

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In reply to CC09LawAg • 5:08p, 12/11/23

AG

CC09LawAg said:
I was not sure how to Google this to do my own research, so I thought I would ask the board...

Obviously, diet and sleep are important for recovery and strength training. My question is when and how does it effect it?

Let's say I do a workout Monday evening. When it comes to eating protein, does the stuff I ate Sunday and Monday during the day matter more than, less than, or equal to what I eat after my workout and on Tuesday? Does what I eat Wednesday still matter in regards to my recovery from my Monday workout?

And for sleep, let's say I have that same Monday evening workout. If I take a nap during the day on Tuesday, does that help my recovery at all, or is the most important sleep the sleep you have Monday night? What about Tuesday night?

For protein- by far and away, what matters most is total daily intake. Timing of protein may play a role, but it's vastly outweighed by just getting in the total amount. At least that's what the evidence says. My own practice pattern is just to adhere to a daily total and not think about the timing too much. And I can still support a good deal of muscle size with this approach along with my resistance training

As far as sleep....well, evidence is that good quality sleep that is consistent is best for muscle growth and recovery. However...my own personal experience suggests that I can fudge around a bit with sleep and still see good progress on my body and in the gym. I lost 50 pounds in several months working a completely haphazard day/night/weekend chaotic schedule that literally changed every week, and still managed to see great progress in the gym. So my personal advice is to get the sleep when you can, and if you find that your sleep pattern is causing consistent decreased performance in the gym then you can try to back off the weight training in some way to help compensate until you're able to recover a bit better.

I'm a HUGE fan of making this **** as simple as possible, because there's so much excess noise about numerous variables that you will never be able to correct for. So I stick with the basics which allows me to have better consistency, even if it's not "ideal"

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lazuras_dc

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7:26p, 12/11/23

AG

Timing does matter… at least according to Dr. Attia
Skip to 1h24min for timing specifically

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True Anomaly

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In reply to lazuras_dc • 10:51p, 12/11/23

AG

lazuras_dc said:
Timing does matter… at least according to Dr. Attia
Skip to 1h24min for timing specifically

Don Layman is truly the man- I have much respect for him. I watched this when it first came out and loved his perspective on all things protein. He did note based on his research that large boluses of protein in a meal are more helpful for muscle growth (i think he cited an amount > 30 grams), and noted the two big meals where it matters- morning and evening. But he also mentioned that the "post-anabolic feeding window" that was all the rage years ago only really matters for untrained people. If you've been training consistently for more than 6 months, he specifically stated that the timing isn't important for growth or strength- it's still the total amount spaced over your meals

But if your total daily amount of protein is consistently low, then the timing matters even less. The data shows this, and this also reflects my own personal experience of playing around with different protein timings versus just eating the full amount

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CC09LawAg

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In reply to True Anomaly • 8:52a, 12/12/23

Thanks.

Regarding eating, I take the same approach - I try to just get it in every single day whenever I can and not worry about it. I'm mostly successful there. I obviously have some off days here and there, but it's good to know that the occasional work day where you can't eat every 2 hours isn't probably a big deal in the grand scheme of things.

As far as sleep, I am kind of seeing the same thing - I get anywhere from 5 to 8 hours for the most part, usually averaging around 7 a night.

If I lean towards the 5 hour mark, I notice my workouts themselves suffer. But I have been pretty consistently making gains with my workouts. I think I am just wondering, am I leaving something on the table by not drilling down on it?

It's hard to evaluate when you are making forward progress if you could be making MORE forward progress, you know?

True Anomaly

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In reply to CC09LawAg • 11:29a, 12/12/23

AG

CC09LawAg said:

It's hard to evaluate when you are making forward progress if you could be making MORE forward progress, you know?

Oh I know- I try not to think about how much I left on the table by training so haphazardly for 20+ years before I finally was able to drill down on stuff for the past couple of years. I was just too prideful to ask for help

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MouthBQ98

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10:18a, 12/13/23

AG

To me, lack of sleep affects recovery some, resulting in more fatigue and slower recovery between workouts. To me it seems to affect alertness and motivation most, and that has an affect on effort in cardio work. It doesn't affect strength work much except after a few days of poorer recovery.

I never really paid attention to the timing of protein intake as much as the amount per day. My thought is you can't really time your of. Digestive system all that well so best to keep it primed with some protein in the pipe, as long as you're not ovrdoing it and gaining bad weight.

The Lost

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1:22p, 12/13/23

Intensity of the workout matters a ton too. If you're just doing some accessory's vs over doing a CrossFit workout, the recovery is different.

I struggle with scaling as well as I should at times with CrossFit, and that definitely effects my recovery/workouts the rest of the week.

7yrplan

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5:53p, 12/13/23

AG

My $.02 is to try and keep this stuff as simple as possible. I've found in my own life the more I complicate it, the less likely I am in succeeding in the long term.

Try and eat real food, based around solid sources of protein. This helps me hit my protein goals without too much effort.

Lift weights with progressive overload in mind.

Get enough sleep. 7-8 hours is the goal. This has become more important as I get older. Recovery is no joke and is crucial to keeping things going.

If I can nail these things most of the time, for most days; eventually days turn to weeks, which turns to months which turns to lifestyle. Results just sort of naturally follow.

That's the goal.

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neronero

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2:43p, 12/19/23

What you eat on the days leading up to your workout is essential for providing your body with the necessary nutrients for energy and muscle function during the exercise. I just searched for HOLISTIC WELLNESS and this popped up https://radaronline.com/p/harmonizing-wellness-with-wall-pilates-a-holistic-approach-to-fitness/. Even more so, I think that we need to go back to what our grandparents did. My grandma had a home remedy solution for everything. Things like chiropractic care, and taking your vitamins, should probably be important, too. I need to get back on track with taking a multivitamin and drinking enough water everyday.

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