When you think about ways you might be sabotaging yourself, keeping yourself from fulfilling your potential, what comes to mind?
I spend a lot of time thinking about this, both in my reflections on my own actions and because it’s a primary area of my coaching practice.
One of the most common complaints clients bring to me is “I know what I need to do, but I’m not doing it.”
When it comes to self-sabotaging behaviors, the usual suspects focus on why we’re not taking action: procrastination, lack of clarity, falling victim to distractions, emotional dysregulation, quitting too soon, not finishing what you start.
But what if you are taking action?
A couple of months ago, after 2 years of at-home workouts and solo yoga practice, I started going back to a gym and yoga studio regularly.
I’ve been showing up and putting in the work, lifting weights heavier than my home set of dumbbells, working on my mobility and my form and movement patterns. And yet I’m not seeing results. After initially increasing my load, I’ve had to regress back.
I did some research and hit on an obvious — and not-obvious — culprit:
Sleep.
Here’s an explanation from article on mistakes that lead you to not build muscle:
You Don’t Rest Or Sleep Enough
What you do in the gym causes your muscles to grow, but change doesn’t happen until you’re resting or sleeping. One major hormone responsible for this change is human growth hormone (HGH). Our HGH levels are highest when we sleep.
Moreover, many studies suggest an association between a lack of sleep and high cortisol levels. Cortisol is a catabolic hormone that can break down muscle tissue. It’s exactly what you don’t want if you’re trying to build mass. Cortisol is also linked with stress, which often occurs when you don’t get enough shut-eye.
Sleep is essential. But it’s not just sleep at night. It’s also about carving out periods of intentional rest during the day. Periods where we can come back into balance and regulate the nervous system.
This doesn’t just help the muscles in the body. It also is essential for cognitive work. The brain uses more energy than any other muscle in the body.
A New Area of Focus
I’m not going to claim to be an expert on how to get to sleep better. Sleep has never been my strongest area, even though I’ve read the research and know how important it is.
I used to be able to get away with 3-hour sleep nights, but that is no longer realistic for me. So I must find new strategies to get the sleep I need in order to sustain the activities and level of performance I want to sustain.
This is a new area of experimentation for me. I invite you along for the journey. And if you’ve got some tips … please drop them in the comments. Let’s learn together how to improve our sleep to improve our performance.
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