Optimal Sleep

The importance of sleep as a means of recovery from training cannot be understated.  Outside of a drastic change in nutrition or injury, nothing can have as big an immediate impact on performance as poor sleep the night before an important training session…as the father of a newborn this has recently hit home in more ways than one.

In my experience, optimal sleep really comes down to two main areas which need to be accounted for every night: Environment and Routine


Environment refers to your bedroom and how it is set-up to ensure a good night’s sleep.  Your room should be cool, dark, quiet, and without distraction (i.e. television, computer, smartphone). Your bedroom should be quiet and relaxing and anything out of the ordinary can prevent you from getting the sleep you need, so take the steps necessary to improve the sleep environment; black out curtains, ear plugs, AC unit or fan, etc. A unique tip I picked up from my friend Dutch Lowy of BlackBox FW is to avoid overhead light and instead use lamps in the bedroom prior to going to sleep.  The overhead light is similar to that experienced with sunlight, and actually signals the body to wake up, opposite of what we are trying to accomplish.

Routine refers to your actions around falling to or waking from sleep.  The time immediately before going to sleep is crucial in that even insignificant actions can have a serious effect on your quality of sleep. Try to do the same things each night before you go to bed.  The more regular the routine the better, as eventually your body will begin to recognize that it's time to get ready for sleep each night. Try to go to bed at the same time each night and wake up at the same time each morning.  The more consistent you can be about your sleep and wake time, weekends too, the easier it will be to stay in your routine.

Another potential part of the routine that I have used over the years is the “brain dump” prior to bed.  Throughout grad school and during the early part of my academic career, stress over deadlines and assignments would keep me up at night.  The worry of what needs to happen first thing in the morning led to many semi-sleepless nights.  The “brain dump” help fix this problem. 30 minutes before I began my sleep routine I would make a list of everything that need to happen the next day or that was currently on my mind.  I would just write it down in a notebook and not think about it until the next day. Some nights the list was 2 pages of important info, and other nights it was a partial grocery list, but whatever was on my mind went on the list and theoretically left my mind temporarily to help in falling asleep.

Maximize your sleep environment and routine and you will improve recovery from training. (Disclaimer-- these tips may not work when in the presence of a newborn baby)

Overtraining vs Under Recovery

Missed Lift: OT or UR?

I was asked a question on the Pendlay forum over the weekend regarding my thoughts on Overtraining vs Under Recovery.  I have spent the past 10+ years researching the theory of overtraining, Grad School (MS and PhD), the Olympic Training Center, and through trial and error on myself and my athletes, and I can honestly say we; coaches, athletes, and researchers collectively, are just now scratching the surface on the topic.  I have reposted my comments here as I'd like to get other opinions on this topic.

“What are your thoughts on under-recovery vs overtraining? Any key indicators to be aware of to distinguish between the two?”

Great question for discussion and I am very interested in hearing other opinions on this as well.  For the most part, overtraining and under recovery can be lumped together.  They both can lead to the development of the other.  I tend to define them separately, just for consistency and explanation purposes.  Overtraining is fatigue and a decrement in performance due to too much training...or training stress.  Under recovery is the accumulation of fatigue and a decrement in performance due to inadequacy of recovery outside of the gym, which includes restoration, nutrition, sleep, etc. I tend to think of under recovery as life stress.  So, overtraining is strictly from training, and under recovery is everything else.

Overtraining is real, but it is very misunderstood and grossly overstated by most people. 99% of people will never experience overtraining, and maybe only 5-10% of athletes. Now, fatigue is common and a normal response to training. For full blown overtraining to occur that fatigue would have to accumulate over a period of months. Most people will take a few days off, or an overuse injury limits their training, before overtraining develops. If tendonitis flairs up in your knee and reduces your ability to squat, that is not overtraining.  Two separate issue, overtraining and overuse (possibly a future post).  Overtraining is a whole system issue which has effects on the endocrine, neuromuscular, and cardiorespiratory systems.

Competitive athletes are more susceptible because of the demands of competition, desire to win, etc., but mostly the inability to take time off due to their sport.  Think about a post-collegiate athlete who gave up his day job to move to the OTC to train for the next Olympics, which also means lifting well at Nationals in May, Team Trials in August, Worlds in November, and other competitions throughout the year to keep their resident spot and monthly stipend.

Under recovery is a separate and possibly much bigger issue.  Under recovery can effect all trainees regardless of training stress or training status and is caused by things outside of training; lack of sleep, inadequate nutrition, emotional stress, etc. Your life outside the gym has to support what you want to accomplish inside the gym.  Things get tricky because of how we ultimately define or diagnose both conditions...a decrease in performance.  We all know people that training like crap, eat like crap, and still make improvements.  Whereas other people have everything "perfect" and continue to stall in progress.  So, if performance does not drop off is an athlete really overtrained or under recovered? Performance can increase or decrease inspite of many things which makes it all the more complicated.