Instead of dropping back to square one, start off right by insuring your body is not only fueled properly but is adequately rested. You should aim to get 7 to 8 hours of shut-eye every night. That gives your body the time it needs for sleep to take care of you.

Rest is a main element to be factored into every workout plan, and here’s why:

Aids Recovery

While you sleep, your brain triggers the release of hormones that encourage tissue growth. This can help you recover from injuries such as cuts or even sore muscles from your last workout.

Keeps You Healthy 

Getting at least 8 hours of sleep can improve immune function and help your body fight off any common ailment (cold & flu etc). Quality ZZZs also helps your body defend itself. During sleep, you make more white blood cells that attack viruses and bacteria, says Sunita Kumar, MD. (Co-Director at the Center for Sleep Disorders at Loyola University Medical Center.)

Lowers Stress

Your blood pressure dips as you snooze. That may give your heart a break. There may be other heart health benefits, too. Your body tweaks your stress hormones during sleep. This, in turn, may curb inflammation, which is linked to heart disease, diabetes, and many other conditions.

Better Weight Control

Getting enough sleep could help you maintain your weight — and conversely, sleep loss goes along with an increased risk of weight gain. Why? Part of the problem is behavioral. If you’re overtired, you might be less likely to have the energy to go for that jog or cook a healthy dinner after work. The other part is physiological. The hormone leptin plays a key role in making you feel full. When you don’t get enough sleep, leptin levels drop. Result: people who are tired are just plain hungrier — and they seem to crave high-fat and high-calorie foods specifically.

More Energy

It keeps you in top form at the gym. Quality sleep is like nature’s sports supplement, improving your speed, hand-eye coordination, reaction time and muscle recovery. Thing is, even short-term sleep deprivation messes with these, throwing off your performance at the gym. A 2013 study in the Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research found that sleep deprivation reduced muscle strength and power the next day, particularly if your workout was later in the afternoon.

Boosts Brain Function

Stumped about something? Then hit the hay; and you may wake up to a new way of looking at it. It’s true what they say, you should sleep on big decisions. You need to get enough sleep for clear thinking. It’s the difference between firing on four and all six cylinders. Good sleep has been shown to improve problem solving skills and enhance memory performance of both children and adults.

Improves Mood & Positivity

Poor sleeping patterns are strongly linked to depression. Researchers believe that poor sleep affects our ability to recognize important social cues and process emotional information.

Take Home Message

Along with nutrition and exercise, good sleep is one of the pillars of health.

You simply can not achieve optimal health without taking care of your sleep.

 Ciaran

Athletic Performance

For those of us who are involved in sports, the consumption of alcohol can impair reaction time, balance and hand-eye coordination. Hydration is also affected as alcohol acts as a diuretic, thereby promoting the loss of fluids and electrolytes that your body requires for proper hydration. Marry this with increased dehydration and you’ve got a recipe for poor performance.

Weight Gain

Alcohol contains approximately 7 calories per gram.  Consider most pints of larger and ale range from 180 to 210 calories per pint.  6 plus pints on a night out and you have consumed more than 1000 additional calories which is definitely going to lead to fat gain, primarily around the stomach region.

Reduced Muscle Growth & Recovery

I order for muscles to recover and grow, we require protein for maintenance and development.  Alcohol tends to impair protein synthesis in the body, thereby interfering with the ability to grow, maintain and repair muscle. Drinking also causes a drop in testosterone levels while increasing cortisol, a hormone that destroys muscle.

All the issues mentioned above generally are the beginning of larger and more serious issues.  Additional weight (fat) gain along with reduced muscle tissue can make the body more susceptible to high cholesterol which can lead onto diabetes, heart disease and so on…

Ciaran

• Stay strong and active

Incorporating a weekly strength program for developing the muscles around the knee is a great way to keep your knees healthy and injury free.  Strong and healthy leg muscles provide a good structure for your knees and help in preventing injuries.

• Stay mobile

A lot of knee pain or injuries are usually not caused by a particular movement but rather due to stiffness or weakness around the knee capsule.  Due so specific activities such as jogging, certain muscles such as the IT band may become overly stiff or tight and can tend to pull on the knee capsule, thereby creating pain.  Incorporating a 10-15 minute mobility program into your lifestyle twice per week will help counteract this.

• Drink more water

Water is vital to knee maintenance. All knees contain cartilage: soft spongy tissue that lines the ends of our joints and enables pain-free motion. Cartilage is comprised mostly of water — up to 80 per cent when we’re properly hydrated. But the older we get, the lower the water content gets (to as low as 70 per cent), which can result in unhealthy cartilage, hastening the onset of degenerative joint disease.

• Take glucosamine and turmeric

Both glucosamine  and turmeric have anti-inflammatory properties. The National Institutes of Health state that glucosamine sulfate is “likely effective” for treating osteoarthritis. Turmeric is a well-studied and historic natural remedy, and recent research found it eases pain as effectively as ibuprofren.

• Check your posture

A lot of people have poor posture due to their occupation or in many cases, since birth.  When it comes to your knees, large muscle imbalances can create a number of issues including knocked or bowed knees.   Over a period of time these imbalances can put a lot of pressure on your knees and could eventually lead to permanent damage to the knee capsule.  The next time you need to visit a physio maybe have them take a quick look at your knees to make sure there are no major issues….

To you Health & Fitness

Ciaran