How do sleep and nutrition effect recovery?

So here we are, part 5 and the final segment of the Recovery Series. Having already covered Ice Baths, Massage, Compression Clothing, and Active recovery, we are now left with two of the most important aspects of performance and recovery – Sleep and Nutrition.

Let’s get down to it.

To begin I’m going to talk about hydration. It’s often spoken about how important it is to stay well hydrated, yet people will often let this be the first thing to slip when they start to focus on other things. It often seems to drift into the back of their mind as soon as they have something else to think about.

 

Well hydration is damn important. So drink some water people! It can help aid you in fat loss, keeps performance high both mentally and physically¹, and when recovering it is essential to replace the fluids you lose when sweating – so try to make sure you get a good amount of water in as soon as you can. I know that after a good game of club rugby on a Saturday all you want to do is sink a pint of Irish black gold, and believe me that would be my first thought too, but before you get yours hands on that beautiful well deserved pint get some water in.

(Alcohol in general is obviously not good for performance, or for recovery, but I’m just being realistic here – especially now that “Dry January” is over.)

 

Nutritionally speaking the best way to explain it is through a very cliché quote;

“You wouldn’t put diesel in a petrol car”.

And it’s true, when practicing a sport or exercising, your body is the car. And for that engine of yours to work at its best it needs to be adequately fuelled.

 

Now there is a huge amount of information about nutrition out there on the Internet, and within that there is contrasting advice and endless different diets. Honestly, it’s a bit of a pain in the arse. Wouldn’t it just be amazing if there were one way that fits everyone? In my opinion it would. But that isn’t the case, and there is a reason. Different people react differently. For instance some people have food intolerances, some react better to carbohydrates, some better to fats, some can work well eating the majority of their carbs late at night, others would get fatter by doing the same thing.

 

So it can take a bit of time to find out what works for you. Trial and error, and not just trialing for something for one day and saying it doesn’t work. You have to try it, allow time for adaptation to occur, and then make a decision based upon results. This goes for weight gain, maintenance, and loss.

 

That being said – there is some basic information that can be very transferrable, and that should be put into place when trying to improve recovery.

First off – you need to eat! Even if you were lay in bed doing absolutely nothing but breathing and thinking all day your body would still burn calories. This is called your basal metabolic rate. The amount of calories you would burn doing the absolute minimum. So if you’re not eating, you will gradually lose weight and your everyday bodily functions will start to suffer if not properly fuelled.

What foods do we need? Well the obvious answer first up is to look at your macronutrients – Carbohydrates, Protein and Fats.

When you consume carbohydrates, the body can break it down into glycogen, which then is utilised for energy production (I’m putting it simply – its much more complicated than that in real life, but for that stuff go read a text book).

Protein is made up of amino acids, these are the building blocks for muscle repair. So to make sure you maintain muscle or build muscle, you need to get protein in from somewhere such as meats, eggs or supplements.

Fats – oh here we go! So fats get a lot of stick in the press. Low fat this, low fat that. That’s great, well done, but the body needs fat. Simple. Fat can also be used as fuel for the body, as well as insulation. Different fats that we get through food can also be used to help keep our joints healthy, and keep our brain functioning.

 

So how much of each should you be eating? Unfortunately it all depends on you. Protein should be a mainstay. If you are a sports person, or if you train regularly, you will need more than the average person as your muscles are being used on a regular basis. Carbohydrates can fluctuate, for me personally I feel like crap if I eat loads of carbohydrates, but equally if I eat a low amount I feel rubbish too. So I rotate them so I eat more on hard training days to fuel my workouts and replenish afterwards, but less on off days as I don’t need that fuel. I then rotate fat consumption to balance my carb intake.

 

If you feel like you are always tired, or you’re losing weight or strength, you probably need to eat more. If you’re gaining weight, but are having no performance improvements and just getting fat, you probably need to eat less. But finding something that works for you takes time. My advice would be find a balance, try it for 6-8 weeks, then change if necessary.  Eat more carbohydrates when you’re training hard, plenty of protein every single day no matter whether you’re training hard or resting, and get fats in through good sources such as nuts and fish.

 

One last thing on nutrition – eat your vegetables! ^{(Nutrition references 2-5)}

 

The final section of this article is my personal favourite, and the most important. Sleep. Everyone needs to sleep. It is absolutely fundamental to performance, and to general health. Lack of sleep not only leads to tiredness (obviously), but it can screw up your hormone balance, which will lead to performance changes.

There are plenty of people who aren’t getting where they want to be in sport or business, and they will give an extra 2 hours a day training or working in the office at the expense of sleep, and this will then just pile on top itself to manifest into something bad. If they had an extra hour or two each day, their concentration throughout the day would actually increase, and likely their productivity.

For those of you wanting sporting gains, our muscles repair when they are resting. And we get a boost of naturally occurring growth hormone when we sleep. Combine those two statements and you should realise that you need sleep.

 

So there we go. A little bit longer than my usual articles, but we have covered a lot in this one. I’ve put a few references together at the bottom, including a couple of podcast episodes which are fantastic for understanding the importance of sleep, so have a flick through them if you want.

 

As I mentioned at the start, this was the final part of the Recovery Series. I hope you have enjoyed reading them, and please share them around as much as you can. It would be great if these could reach more people, as a lot of athletes don’t understand the importance of recovery to their performance.

 

Next week we will be looking into something new, so I’ll leave you hanging on to find out.

 

Thanks again for reading, and feel free to get in contact.

 

Rob Nitman. BSc. ASCC.

 

References:

 

1.      Gibson-Moore, H. (2014) Hydration and Health. Nutrition Bulletin, 39 (1).

2.      Dr. Israetel, M. (2014). The Renaissance Diet. E-Book.

3.      Bean, A. (2013). The Complete Guide to Sports Nutrition. Bloomsbury Publishing PLC, London UK. 7^th Edition.

4.      American College of Sports Medicine. (2009). Nutrition and Athletic Performance. Medicine & Science in Sport & Exercise, 49 (3).

5.      McLaren, D. (2008). Protein, Carbohydrates and Muscle Recovery. The Journal of the UK Strength & Conditioning Association, 10.

6.      Barbell Shrugged. 158 - The 1 Thing That Will Make You Better at Everything. 07 January 2015.

7.      Barbell Shrugged. 113 - 1 Quick Way To Naturally Increase Testosterone: Sleep. 16 April 2014.