How Important is Sleep Anyway?
You know you’re guilty of it. We all have been at one time or another. With all the best intentions set for a late night and an early morning, we somehow lose the faith and are asleep by 9:30 pm, and up again at 6:00 am, getting a shameful 8+ hours of quality sleep. Skunked again!
Yeah, right, huh? The previous scenario is probably something that many of you – especially if you have little ones or work a schedule that includes nighttime hours – rarely see. And it’s hard to make that good night’s sleep a priority in this day and age of on-demand TV, late-night texts and alarm clocks.
But do you know how important sleep is for you? And not just for everyone, but for you CrossFitters in particular! All that work you do throughout the week tears down your body, and you NEED to take the time to let your body rebuild itself! You may have heard of Human Growth Hormone – it’s been in the news of late – well it’s one of the major hormones your body needs to help rebuild itself after the kinds of workouts we do at Wine Country CrossFit. And do you know when it is secreted? It peaks at 10:00 pm, Midnight and 2:00 am. If you’re not in bed and asleep at those times, your body is not able to produce the hormone at it’s best level, and you will not recover as fast!
So what is the solution? Unfortunately, I don’t have an easy answer. The best idea I have is to make a good-quality night’s sleep as much of a priority as your workouts! Maybe start with one night a week, and work up from there. Here are some techniques to improve your sleep from the Mayo Clinic – click here. Your body will thank you and you will notice the difference in the way you feel and perform at the gym!
-Emilie
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Tuesday’s WOD:
Gymnastics work of coaches choice
1 Minute on, One minute off
30 KB Swings (70/44)
*You have 1 minute to get 30 KB swings. If you do not get 30 KB Swings in 1 minute, count a penalty.
*Perform this workout one minute on and one minute off. Total time is 10 minutes.
For each penalty counted, run or row 400m directly following the WOD
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