Should you exercise if you don’t get enough sleep? A study published earlier this year took a realistic look at this question and concluded that people who routinely got five hours of sleep (just five hours!) saw greater gains from strength training with resistance bands. We’ll dig a bit deeper into this study later, but first, let’s look at the basics.
How much sleep do you need for muscle growth?
A healthy lifestyle requires a healthy amount of sleep. 7 to 9 hours depending on the personHigh levels of physical activity can increase your sleep needs – it’s not uncommon for athletes to sleep 9-10 hours a night.
When it comes to muscle growth, there’s no set timeline. Exercise scientist Brad Schoenfeld says: She posted about her new research on Instagram.states in the caption that there is likely a minimum amount of sleep needed to build muscle, but “exactly how much is unknown and likely varies from person to person.”
In other words, science cannot yet answer this question, but perhaps method You’re getting too little sleep. Seven hours is probably OK. What about five hours? That’s what this study looked at.
Can I build muscle if I only sleep 5 hours a night?
Yes, probably! Recent research, of course, isn’t a perfect answer to this question (research never is), but it does show that 5 hours of sleep can help. probably Are you okay.
you can Read the full study hereThe participants were men who did not normally engage in strength training, and those with diagnosed sleep disorders were excluded from the study. The 36 men were divided into three groups: those who slept an average of seven hours a night, those who slept an average of five hours a night, and a control group whose average sleep time was less than one hour a night. more More than 7 hours per night.
The control group did not exercise in the study; the 7 hour and 5 hour groups did exercise. (You can think of the control group as the “what if I sleep in instead of going to the gym?” group.)
What were the results? In some muscle groups, the 7-hour sleep group gained slightly more muscle mass than the 5-hour sleep group, but in other groups the results were similar. Both groups gained more muscle mass than the sedentary control group. “These findings suggest that the value of a minimum of 7 hours of nightly sleep may be moderated with respect to recovery states related to strength performance,” the authors write.
The study has limitations, including the fact that all of the participants were men, they used resistance bands rather than barbells or dumbbells, and the participants were untrained to begin with (which makes it easier to build muscle), but the findings line up with what nearly every trainer and fitness enthusiast will tell you: getting a full night’s sleep is great, but it’s not essential for making progress in the gym.
Consistency is more important than getting the details right
How can this happen, when rest is so important for muscle growth? First, rest is not a magic spell that will allow you to work without interruption. No complete rest days are necessary Unless, that is, the workload is well managed, which is another story.
But at the end of the day, the big lesson that experienced gym-goers would like to impart to beginners is: largely Things are right, largely It’s much more effective to always train in the same position than to occasionally get everything perfectly aligned. If you only train after a good night’s sleep, you might not get as much in as you’d like. Prioritize consistency and make sure you hit the gym whenever you can, and you’ll be more likely to see results.
