4 Reasons Why Sleep Deprivation Will Inhibit Your Muscle Gains

4 Reasons Why Sleep Deprivation
Will Inhibit Your Muscle Gains

By Sean NalewanyjNatural Bodybuilding Expert & Best-Selling Fitness Author
MuscleGainTruth.com

It may seem like a trivial issue that could be easily overlooked, but giving your body a proper sleep every night really is an important step in setting the wheels for maximum muscle growth into motion.

If you really want to see the most dramatic changes in your body over the shortest period of time possible, a restful, quality sleep every single night is a must.

What makes a proper sleep so important?

Well, let’s simply take a look at what happens when you DON’T get a proper sleep each night…

1) Mental focus will decline.

One of the biggest problems with sleep deprivation is the effect that it will have on your mental state. Studies have shown that just a single night with insufficient rest will have a significant negative impact on your mental focus and willingness to perform difficult tasks.

Putting forth an all-out effort every time you enter the gym is one of the primary keys to building muscle fast, and in order to do so you must remain mentally sharp at all times.

2) Physical performance will suffer.

Not only will sleep deprivation have a negative impact on your state of mind, but it will also have physical consequences as well. Without a proper sleep, your strength levels will decrease and you'll end up using less weight and/or performing fewer reps than you would normally be capable of.

Your bottom line muscle gains are ultimately determined by the steady increases in poundage that you are able to make on all of your exercises, and keeping your strength at top levels is critical in achieving this as quickly as possible.

3) Recovery will be interrupted.

As you are probably already aware, your muscles do not actually grow while you are IN the gym. Rather, they grow while you are OUT of the gym eating and resting.

The time that you spend sleeping is one of the primary periods where the recovery and remodeling of damaged muscle tissue takes place. Not only do your muscles require recovery time, but your central nervous system, joints and immune system need rest too.
4) Hormone levels will be compromised.

Depriving your body of sleep will have a negative impact on some of the most important muscle building and fat burning hormones circulating in your body. I’m talking specifically about cortisol, testosterone, growth hormone and insulin.

Simply put, sleep deprivation has a negative impact on every single one of them...

a) Cortisol - A catabolic stress hormone that increases abdominal fat storage and stimulates the breakdown of muscle tissue for use as energy.

Studies have shown that insufficient sleep will cause the body to release higher amounts of this hormone.

b) Testosterone - The most important hormone when it comes to building muscle. The higher your levels of testosterone, the more muscle you can build.

Sleep deprivation measurably lowers testosterone levels.

c) Growth Hormone - Regenerates the body and plays a large role in building and maintaining muscle.

The time that you sleep is also the time when your body experiences a natural surge in growth hormone levels. If you fail to get a proper rest at night this hormonal surge will be compromised.

d) Insulin - Responsible for the uptake of important nutrients into your body cells.

Sleep deprivation can result in an increase in your body's insulin resistance levels. This means that your body will have to release higher-than-normal amounts of this hormone to compensate. This can lead to excess fat storage, diabetes or heart disease.

So, just how much sleep is enough?

As with most things, it’s certainly an individual factor and varies from person to person. As a general guideline though, I would recommend that everyone out there strive to get a minimum of 8 hours of sleep every single night. If you feel that you require more than that, sleep for 9 hours or for even longer if you need to.

The bottom line is to get enough sleep each night so that you feel 100% rested and energized throughout the day. If you regularly feel fatigued and sluggish, then increasing your sleeping time is a must.

In terms of building muscle size and strength, proper amounts of sleep will:

- Increase your mental focus and energy
- Improve your strength
- Allow for proper recovery in between workouts
- Lower cortisol levels
- Increase testosterone
- Raise growth hormone levels
- Decrease insulin resistance

That should be plenty of incentive right there to start paying close attention to how much sleep you’re getting each night.

See you in the morning!

Make sure to visit MuscleGainTruth.com for more winning muscle-building and fat loss strategies that you can begin incorporating into your program right away. You'll have the chance to instantly access my award-winning natural bodybuilding program, "The Muscle Gain Truth No-Fail System", and sign up for my free 8-part muscle building email course.

About The Author
Once an awkward, pencil-necked "social reject", Sean Nalewanyj is now a renowned natural bodybuilding and fat loss expert, best-selling fitness author, and creator of the wildly popular online muscle building program, "The Muscle Gain Truth No-Fail System". Learn how to build muscle and gain weight in just 24 minutes a day by visiting: MuscleGainTruth.com.

Sean is also the owner and operator of the web's premier muscle building and fat loss support community, currently accepting new members at FitnessInnerCircle.com.

Note to the reader: You are free to reprint and redistribute this article as long as the content is not altered in any way, the links remain live and the author resource box (including this message) is left intact.

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Do you look good and fit? Motto of new Kiefit Journal

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The new issue of KieFit Journal March 09 is online for FREE download.
Within KieFit Journal you will find tips about workout and training,
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Top 3 Reasons WHY More Moms are NOT “into” Resistance Training

Top 3 Reasons WHY More Moms are NOT “into” Resistance Training
By Holly Rigsby, CPT
FitYummyMummy.com

Moms have mistakenly believed that resistance training shouldn’t be the foundation of their fat loss program. Here are the three most common myths about resistance training and the “truth” about each.

1. Moms believe the answer to Fat Loss lies in CARDIO
Can't blame you, Mom! The fact that we are being bombarded with misleading ads and articles on a daily basis boasting that the best way to burn fat is to simply DO more cardio.

From a Popular Beauty Magazine:
“The formula for great abs is crunches + cardio = results. Cardio burns fat, uncovering the incredible abs you’ll have thanks to those crunches. So hop on that exercise bike, elliptical or treadmill for 30 to 45 minutes at least three times a week…”
The “cardio burns fat” myth is so rampant, that the very support groups and forums women turn to for answers are littered with faulty advice.
From a Forum:
“We do 15 mins on the bike, 15 on the elliptical, 15 on the treadmill, 1000 metres on the rowing machine (we're building that up slowly because we hate it).”

Who has time for this? We are Moms, we are busy, we do not have the time, energy or patience to attempt a fat loss program that is solely based on cardio. And if you “hate” something – how much longer are you going to keep up with it – especially if you are no longer seeing results?!

Cardio is only ONE piece of the Fat Loss puzzle. When it comes to Fat Loss cardio’s role is much less important than resistance training. More is simply not better. Cardio does very little to boost your metabolism and extended sessions not only eat up your precious time with little to show for it, but also eat up your lean muscle, slowing your metabolism to a crawl.

2. Moms are scared of "Bulking Up"
Just the mention of the word muscle makes a lot of women cringe. Images of huge bodybuilder-type bodies make them run in the opposite direction. Yet amidst this protest, Moms want to look lean and toned. Well without muscle, it is impossible to attain this desirable physique.

Women simply do not have the ability to bulk up. Men, however, are able to add lots of muscle because:

One - they have the hormones to do so (we do not, well not naturally)
Two - they lift weights in an entirely different fashion
Three - they must eat a tremendous amount of food - muscle need a LOT of calories to grow and get bigger.

So Moms, unless you are taking Testosterone boosting supplements, lifting VERY heavy weights and eating an upwards of 5,000 calories a day - you will NOT bulk up.

3. Moms think Resistance Training is just TOO Complicated!
“It's so much easier.” “It is less intimidating.” “It’s less complicated.” These are the very attitudes that lead busy moms to jump on a treadmill and walk or run for 45-60 minutes. The thought of picking up some weights seems complicated and undesirable especially when there are more “mindless” options from which to choose.

Sure, if you are new to the concept of Resistance Training, an introduction to this type of workout can make you throw your hands up in frustration.....what exercise, what weight, set, super sets, repetitions, rests....Oh My!

The best way to begin a resistance training program is to use your own body as weight. No gym membership, no fancy equipment....just a small space and a few minutes of your time.

Movements such as squats, lunges and assisted push ups are great examples of effective bodyweight exercises that any Busy Mom can do. Establishing a place to begin builds confidence, boosts energy levels and in turn increases metabolism. Moms naturally want to do more!

From there it is quite simple to keep your workouts challenging by using equipment many moms already have at home; a stability ball, dumbbells and a medicine ball.

When you have an effective resistance training workout plan, that not only fits your fitness goals, but your lifestyle, your plan becomes a priority and you achieve a lean, fit body before you know it!

Now you understand not only the importance resistance training plays in your fat loss efforts, but also how easily it can be integrated into your routine. It is time to adjust your mindset and your priorities. When you put your time, energy and effort into a resistance training regimen you guarantee yourself a faster metabolism and a toned, tight, energetic body.

Holly Rigsby, CPT, MAT America’s #1 Fat Loss Expert for Busy Moms and the author of FitYummyMummy.com. Holly has worked with over 300 Mom's to help them lose the stubborn baby fat, get their pre-baby body back and reclaim their yummy-ness. Don't miss her Free Report: Top 5 Busy Mom Metabolism Boosters.

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Heidi

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5 More Fat Burning Tips for You

5 More Fat Burning Tips for You
By: Craig Ballantyne, CSCS, MS
TurbulenceTraining.com


At this time of year, we can use every last tip to help avoid
holiday weight gain.

So here are 5 more fat loss tips for beginner & advanced readers.

1) No liquid calories (with the exception of a post-workout drink).

Get rid of all the juices, the sodas, and the sports drinks. Liquid
sugar is the last thing you need when you are trying to lose fat.

You must also limit your alcohol intake - especially if you are
adding mix to drinks...that is a double calorie bomb! A single "Jackand Coke"
is over 200 calories (100 calories from booze and 100 calories from mix).


2) No fast food.

Do not eat at fast food restaurants. Even if you choose what you
think is healthy, remember this:

Fast food restaurants are all about profit.

And in order to profit while giving you cheap, quick, and easy to
prepare foods, the quality of the food ingredients will be poor -
especially the protein.

Now you might have read that you can still make healthy choices at fast food restaurants. But you know what, that's just
politically-correct opinion. If it's fast food, it's poor food.

Walking into a burger joint and grabbing a chicken breast on a
white bread bun with a piece of old lettuce and a half-green,
half-pink tomato is "barely" healthy eating.

The politically-incorrect truth is that it's going to take time and
effort to eat properly. You will have to plan, shop, and prepare
healthy meals. You will have to spend time cleaning, cutting, and
cooking your food. That's the truth.

But believe me, it will taste so much better than fast food, and
healthy eating will make you more alert. Eating fast food will make you feel terrible, and will make you want to have an afternoon nap at your desk.

Make one small improvement to your nutrition everyday for the rest of your life.

3) Eat more fruits and vegetables.

If you are eating 2 servings per day, then go up to 4 servings per day by the end of the week. And even if you think you are doing great by having 5 servings per day, you still need to double that (take 2-3 weeks to work your way up to 10 servings per day).

Stick with fiber-rich fruits and vegetables - organic if possible.

4) Eat 1oz of almonds or walnuts per day (1/2 oz in the AM, and the other half in the afternoon).

Most nuts are roasted in oils (possible source of trans fats), so
stick to natural or dry-roasted nuts.

Don't panic...this small amount of nuts won't make you fat, but will fill you up and help you lose weight.

5) Be consistent with your workouts.

And make sure the workouts are efficient and effective. To make it easy for you to follow, stick with the Turbulence Training fat burning workout system.

It doesn't matter if you train in the morning before or after
breakfast, or at night before or after dinner, or at 1pm on days
when the moon is in line with Saturn...don't worry about the
details, just train consistently.

Click here to get Turbulence Training
==> turbulencetraining.com

6) BONUS TIP: Go for a walk after lunch or dinner (or anytime you eat a big meal). Research shows this will help you control your cholesterol and triglycerides, plus any movement is better than sitting around watching the TV and snacking.

Improve your lifestyle everyday,
Craig Ballantyne, CSCS, MS
Author, Turbulence Training

PS - Change your workouts to beat a fat loss plateau.

"The constant shakeup is amazing. I look forward to my workouts. I feel so much better than I did 6 weeks ago. I had almost given up on fitness as I was becoming very frustrated with my plateaus. I started out at 233 lbs and am already heading for 225 in only a few short weeks. Thank you for developing this truly amazing program and for sharing with the rest of us. It's very refreshing to enjoy working out again!"
Dave Heffernan

"Turbulence Training is AWESOME! I started working out in 2004 first time in gym at 39 yrs. Then I discovered T.T. in 2006 and started receiving unbelievable info on xercises/nutrition. Immediately I started incorporating T.T. in my busy schedule which is improving my strength, definition, flexibility and nutrition. Craig is quick to reply to questions and supportive. My confidence and strength has definitely improved. If I only knew of Turbulence Training in 2004. The gym crowd is really checking me out now."
Kimmie Clark

"I lost 14 pounds this month and the weight is just falling off me.
My wife says I now look like when we first met and I still have
more to go. I can fit into my old jeans again which is a big deal
for me. I just cut back on starches and bread and do your routine 2-3 times a week. I never thought in a million years that just 10-20 minutes of weight training followed by some cardio would get me such steady results. I even cheat a bit on the weekends."
Billy Williams

Turn your health around with Turbulence Training:
==> turbulencetraining.com


About the Author
Craig Ballantyne is a Certified Strength & Conditioning Specialist and writes for Men's Health, Men's Fitness, Maximum Fitness, Muscle and Fitness Hers, and Oxygen magazines. His trademarked Turbulence Training fat loss workouts have been featured multiple times in Men’s Fitness and Maximum Fitness magazines, and have helped thousands of men and women around the world lose fat, gain muscle, and get lean in less than 45 minutes three times per week. For more information on the Turbulence Training workouts that will help you burn fat without long, slow cardio sessions or fancy equipment, visit turbulencetraining.com