Originally posted on MuscleTech.com

Well, it turns out, getting adequate sleep each night can lead to increased productivity throughout the day. A study found that participants who regularly slept the recommended seven to eight hours per night were almost 20% more productive than individuals who slept five to six hours per night. And participants who slept less than five hours per night experienced a 29% drop in productivity.

Sleep also plays a major role in muscle growth and recovery. One study found that good sleep quality is associated with greater muscle strength, while short sleep duration may be a risk factor for decreased muscle strength. So, if you’re truly committed to maximizing your muscle gains, you better start prioritizing your sleep. 

How Does Muscle Growth (Or Loss) Happen?

Muscle growth is achieved through a combination of resistance training and protein intake. After you work out, muscle protein breakdown occurs, leading to a loss of protein. That’s why athletes often increase their protein intake immediately after they lift weights in order to enhance muscle protein synthesis, which is a natural process in which protein is produced to repair muscle damage. 

The ratio of muscle protein synthesis to muscle protein breakdown ultimately determines whether muscle tissues are built or lost. So, if muscle protein synthesis occurs faster than muscle protein breakdown, then muscle growth is achieved. However, if muscle protein breakdown outpaces muscle protein synthesis, then the opposite occurs.

One way to make sure that your system doesn’t break down more muscle than it builds is to eat 30 grams of protein half an hour before bed. Your body will then have adequate amino acids for your muscles to use for their repair work.  

Why Is Sleep Crucial For Muscle Recovery?

Sleep enhances muscle recovery through protein synthesis and human growth hormone release. Muscle protein synthesis produces protein to repair damaged muscles, while sleep and your circadian rhythm (aka your body’s internal clock) play a vital role in regulating the production of numerous hormones, such as melatonin, growth hormone, cortisol, and leptin and ghrelin.

Melatonin helps to promote sleep. Growth hormone supports bone and muscle development. Cortisol is part of your body’s stress response system. And leptin and ghrelin help to control your appetite. Your hormone levels will also fluctuate during different sleep stages, and the quality of your sleep may also affect daytime hormone production.

How Do Different Sleep Stages Impact Muscle Recovery?

The sleep stages are divided into two main categories – non-rapid eye movement (non-REM) and rapid eye movement (REM).

Non-REM Sleep

Non-rapid eye movement sleep has three stages. The first stage of non-REM sleep occurs right after you fall asleep and usually lasts for less than 10 minutes. The second stage lasts for about 30 to 60 minutes and your muscles start to become more relaxed. The third stage is deep sleep, which lasts about 20 to 40 minutes. During this deep sleep stage, crucial muscle-building growth hormone is typically secreted. Your body repairs and grows tissues, builds bone and muscle, and strengthens your immune system, as well.

REM Sleep

As you sleep, you typically progress through the three stages of non-REM sleep first before entering REM sleep, which is deeper than non-REM sleep. During REM sleep, most of your muscles are paralyzed in a condition known as atonia. Your brain paralyzes your muscles so you don’t act out your dreams since you do most of your dreaming during REM sleep. However, your respiratory and eye muscles stay active during REM sleep and your eyes and eyelids will flutter.

REM sleep is extremely important because it stimulates the areas of your brain that help with learning. REM sleep is also associated with increased production of proteins. Your non-REM and REM sleep cycle usually repeats three to four times each night.

What Happens If You Don’t Get Sufficient Sleep?

Without sufficient sleep, the production of growth hormone is impaired, which may lead to tense muscles and muscle soreness when you wake up. Growth hormone deficiency is also associated with loss of muscle mass and reduced exercise capacity.

A lack of sleep may also lower your sensitivity to insulin, which can result in the muscle fuel source glycogen not being replenished adequately. Without a regular restoration of glycogen, athletes are less likely to be able to train as strenuously or as frequently as they could have otherwise. In general, sleep-deprived athletes may experience a reduction in cognitive and motor performance, reaction times, and mood state/emotional stability, according to Strength and Conditioning Journal. Long-term inadequate sleep can also lead to the development of chronic pain.

As you can see, adequate sleep is crucial for muscle recovery and growth. So, if you want to change your body composition, increase your muscle mass, and/or improve your athletic performance, you need to let your body rest, recover, and work its magic every night while you sleep.

Creatine has been extensively researched and found to be a safe and useful supplement for building muscle size and strength. Like protein shakes, you won’t see results right away from supplementing with creatine. But a study published in The Journal of Sports Medicine and Physical Fitness suggests you could notice increased strength within 2 weeks.

If you’ve noticed that you’re putting on a little weight, it might not be that you’re eating more food. After you reach the age of 25, your metabolism slows by about 5% every ten years. A slower metabolism burns fewer calories. Use these tips from the American Council on Exercise to make the most of your calorie-burning potential.

Not being adequately hydrated can decrease the number of calories you’re burning by around 2%, so keep pace with your hydration needs especially during and after exercise. Drinking milk and consuming other dairy products provides calcium, which is involved in fat metabolism. The protein from dairy products also helps maintain muscle mass which is important to metabolism.

Then there’s meal planning. Eating at the same times each day helps train your body not to slow the metabolic rate to preserve energy. Crash dieters often make the mistake of greatly reducing their caloric intake, triggering a starvation mode response where your body slows metabolism to conserve energy

Vertical jump performance is important for basketball players and other athletes. There are a couple of ways to develop this ability, and a study published in The Journal of Sports Medicine and Physical Fitness suggests some approaches might be better suited to different age groups.

Researchers divided 59 male basketball players into 3 age groups and assigned subjects from each group to 16-week training programs. Some performed hang cleans and also jumped rope. Others practiced half squats and speed ladder training.

Compared to measurements taken before the program began, subjects aged 18 and older improved vertical jump performance with either of these different workouts, but subjects under the age of 17 only improved with the half squat protocol.

A pre-conditioning exercise can provide performance improvements for athletes in certain competitive situations. The effect is known as post-activation potentiation. Can caffeine enhance this improvement? A study published in the Journal of the International Society of Sports Nutrition put the world’s most popular stimulant to the test.

Researchers had 12 professional male soccer players perform plyometric exercises and sled pulls an hour after consuming 5 mg of caffeine per kilogram of body weight. On another occasion, they received a placebo. Caffeine improved countermovement jump performance 5.07%, 5.75% and 5.40% one, three and five minutes after the pre-conditioning exercise. Jump height only increased at the 3-minute mark (4.95%) with placebo.

In an interesting study of adolescent Canadian hockey players published in the Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research, scientists tested the grip strength of 690 male and female athletes between the ages of 10 and 16 years to see if there was a correlation to on-ice performance.

For males and females, grip strength increased with age at about the same rate until age 12 where males began to show greater strength. In terms of performance, grip strength in the non-dominant hand was associated with competition at more elite levels of the sport.

During a workout, you’re taking the final set to failure. How accurate is your estimate of the reps it will take to get there? An interesting study published in the Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research analyzes estimate accuracy on different exercises with male and female subjects with varying levels of weight room experience.

Eighty-one volunteers performed 10 sets of 10 reps using 70% and 80% of their one rep max. They did both chest presses and leg presses. After a set of each exercise with each load they estimated reps to failure on the next set.

Subjects were better at estimating reps to failure on the chest press compared to the leg press, where the estimates of males were generally more accurate than those of female subjects. Weight room experience wasn’t much of a factor in estimating reps to failure.

Via optimumnutrition.com

#firstnutrition #optimumnutrition #strength #reps #programmingstrength #lebanon #jordan #middleeast #on

The phrase ‘working up an appetite’ can apply to manual labor as well as physical exercise. Overweight people wanting to get into shape and lose weight might worry that the work they put in at the gym might increase food cravings. A study published in the journal Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise compares the effects of steady state and interval training on obese subjects.
 

Researchers assigned 46 inactive obese subjects (30 women and 16 men) to 12 weeks of moderate intensity continuous training or high intensity interval training. Both groups trained 3 times a week. Feelings of appetite and hunger hormones were measured before and after the exercise intervention, and also before and after a standard breakfast. Although feelings of hunger increased with exercise, there was no difference between steady state and HIIT groups. 

You’ve been told to eat your fruits and vegetables since childhood. That hasn’t stopped many adults from at least partially ignoring the advice. A Stanford University study published in the journal JAMA Internal Medicine suggests that when vegetables are described in exciting terms consumption increases.
 

On different days, beets, green beans and carrots were described in different ways at the university cafeteria. They were always prepared the same way. Indulgent phrases like “Sweet Sizzlin’ Green Beans” and “Twisted Citrus Glazed Carrots” had 25% more people choosing that vegetable compared to basic descriptions like beans and carrots. Indulgent descriptions also increased the amount of vegetables consumed by 23%.

By Ibrahim Farrukh – Fitness and Nutrition Advisor [First Nutrition]

“Help me! I can’t get more fit despite the fact that I eat healthy food and workout daily. A large portion of my dinners incorporate lean meats and loads of veggies. Alternate foods I eat are organic products, low fat dairy, nuts, beans, and entire grains. Once in a while eat food that contains sugar or a cheat meal. Why can’t I make any progress and get more fit?

A few things come into the scene when we tackle this:

First of all, you should track the quantity you eat and drink and not only the quality. 
Every person has a BMR (Basal Metabolic Rate) which is the number of calories your body metabolizes while sedentary (in rest). This BMR decreases with age, and therefore the number of calories you consume should decrease respectively.
Women: BMR = 655 + (9.6 x weight in kg) + (1.8 x height in cm) – (4.7 x age in years)
Men: BMR = 66 + (13.7 x weight in kg) + (5 x height in cm) – (6.8 x age in years)
Calculating the BMR allows you to know the right amount of calories to consumer per day, and according to your goal (lose weight or gain weight) you decide how much calories to add or take out.
Using the BMR above, and depending on the activity level, we can calculate the caloric need:
To determine your total daily calorie needs, multiply your BMR by the appropriate activity factor, as follows:
If you are sedentary (little or no exercise) : Calorie-Calculation = BMR x 1.2

If you are lightly active (light exercise/sports 1-3 days/week) : Calorie-Calculation = BMR x 1.375

If you are moderatetely active (moderate exercise/sports 3-5 days/week) : Calorie-Calculation = BMR x 1.55

If you are very active (hard exercise/sports 6-7 days a week) : Calorie-Calculation = BMR x 1.725

If you are extra active (very hard exercise/sports & physical job or 2x training) : Calorie-Calculation = BMR x 1.9
For example, if your BMR is 1745, and you are sedentary, multiply your BMR (1745) by 1.2 = 2094. This is the total number of calories you need in order to maintain your current weight.
Once you know the number of calories needed to maintain your weight, you can easily calculate the number of calories you need to eat in order to gain or lose weight:
Another important factor is selecting your macros. Always try to get enough protein. Fabricate your dinners and snacks around a decent wellspring of protein, and go for 0.7 to 1 gram of protein for every pound of body weight every day. For example, if you weigh 90 kgs and need to get to 85 kgs, utilize 85 kgs to figure the 0.7-1 gram rule.
Depending on your goal, take a look at your calorie intake and mark it by 500 kcal less. For example, if you burn 2000 kcal per day, plan your meals to target 1500 kcal per day. This deficiency in calories will keep you feeling lighter and help you maintain your weight and body composition through the years.
Remember every 1g protein = 4 kcal, 1g carbohydrates = 4 kcal, 1g fat = 9 kcal. 
Calculate all your food to meet the desired intake of calories daily.
Finally, try to have five to six small meals a day, making sure you eat properly but not till fullness. 
​References:

Wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Basal_metabolic_rate

http://www.bmi-calculator.net/bmr-calculator/harris-benedict-equation/​

All water that has been exposed to oxygen is oxygenated, but some water bottlers have increased the levels of oxygenation with oxygen gas. There are athletes who consume this type of water with the idea that it might improve athletic performance. A study published in the Journal of the International Society of Sports Nutrition looks into the subject.

Experienced male runners drank 3 bottles of oxygenated water during a 30-minute rest period, another bottle while running a 5,000 meter time trial and 2 more bottles during 30 minutes of passive recovery. Compared to runners who got a placebo, runners who drank oxygenated water experienced faster lactate clearance during recovery. There were no differences in time trial performance or muscle tissue oxygen saturation.

 Around the world, many adults consume less than the recommended amount of fruits and vegetables. This can increase the risk of becoming overweight or obese. A study published in the European Journal of Clinical Nutrition looks into whether people increase their consumption of fruits and vegetables when trying to lose weight.
 

Analyzing results from 100 participants in the Australian Eating Survey, researchers found little change in fruit and vegetable consumption while subjects were on a weight loss diet. Men tended to increase fruit consumption, and the amount of fruits and vegetables men ate tended to predict their success with weight loss. It didn’t quite work the same way with female subjects.

Weight loss is primarily accomplished in the kitchen and the gym. The idea is to burn more energy than you consume over a period of time. But it’s always interesting to read the latest peer-reviewed research on this topic, and a study published in The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition put two common supplements to work in cool temperatures.
To investigate the thermogenic effects of green tea catechin and caffeine, researchers determined the brown fat activity levels of 15 healthy male subjects. Brown fat is generally activated at around 66 degrees. They were given a placebo or a beverage containing 615 mg of catechin with 77 mg of caffeine twice daily for 5 weeks in this cool environment. Caffeine slightly increased energy expenditure, but the combination significantly increased calorie burning for the 9 subjects with metabolically active brown fat.