Exercise and Sleep

Ask any trainer, and they'll say that the key to recovering from exercise is sleep and rest. The only problem, is that the amount of time my body will be at rest during the day will only be 2-3 hours, as appose to the 6-8 hours that people normally get. This was an issue brought up by Steve Pavlina in his blog, which is something that I'm going to have to figure out how to handle. (The blog linked is his resulting decision)



I used to do P90X everyday, in addition to running a couple times a week, but have since stopped due to my lack of free time during the last few weeks of classes. With all the free time this summer, I would really like to get back into shape, as I do enjoy the confidence it gives me to know I'm in top shape. My problem will be balancing my exercises with my sleeping patterns to make sure that I get enough rest between my exercise sessions so that I don't end up hurting myself.

Right now, I'm trying to get a little bit of a head start with stretches every night before I turn in for bed. I would really like to loosen up my body before trying to build muscle, as I find it much easier to do, than to make your large muscle mass more flexible. Obviously, they should also be done at the same time to maximize results, but it just seems logical that building flexible muscle would be easier. I'm not sure, so feel free to correct me if I'm wrong.

I'll have to touch back on this topic later, once I've adapted to the sleep schedule and start working out again, but for now, I just want it known that I do use stretching as a mental cool down before heading off to bed. Also, I can work on my blog while doing it, such as this entire post. Obviously, not all stretches allow me to use my thumbs to type, but I've adapted most to free up my hands and still achieve the desired stretch.