Sleep Better, Run Better

If you’re one of those exercises who plunges himself into a new habit with full force, you know what sore muscles feel like. There’s a good chance you also know what it feels like to wake up in the morning, stiff, but still try to go out and take a run. While your determination should be applauded, we can’t say for sure whether or not you’re tackling your new habit with the greatest amount of efficiency. In order to run better, you’ve got to set aside some solid rest time: this means you’ll have to sleep.

There are two ways in which sleep helps you: physical recovery and mental preparation. When you’re sleeping, two things are usually happening, and they usually are based on the kind of days you’ve been living. First, you will experience dreams, often based on recent events or a combination of recent events and events from your past. Second, your physical body will recover from the damage you’ve undertaken through physical exercise, building up muscle and making itself stronger.

But how can you use these two principles to work for you? First, let’s tackle the mental aspect of sleep. Dreams are a great visualization tool that often act like a barometer for how in-tune you are with your goals. If you run a lot but think about other things, it’s safe to say that you won’t necessarily stick with your running habit forever. Why is this? Because to fully ingrain yourself with a new habit, you’ve got to change your mental picture of yourself, as well. New dreams of yourself running are a great indicator that you’ve accomplished this.

When it comes to the physical aspect of sleep, it is of critical importance that you allow yourself plenty of rest. Your body might even force this upon you if you tackle a particularly grueling run – some runners will sleep up to twelve hours after they’ve really pushed themselves! This is normal; it’s your body’s way of restoring itself to the balance it had before your run. In fact, this “rest” actually contains the work that improves your body. Fat is carried away, muscles are re-built.

If you over exert yourself or get too much rest, you lose this balance of rest to work and while your body will still improve, your improvements will not be as efficient. If you’re interested in running better, you’ll have to listen to your body, take an occasional day off, and make sure you get plenty of shut-eye. And pay attention to your dreams when you do!

Photo Credits: Pensiero

Originally posted 2009-08-03 05:33:13.

This post involves:

barometer, critical importance, efficiency, exercises, full force, good chance, habit, mental aspect, mental picture, new dreams, physical aspect, physical exercise, rest time, runners, sleep, sore muscles, twelve hours, two ways, visualization tool

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Health, Running

Posted by Bike Swim Run on October 26, 2009 in Health, Running. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.