Author: Jujimufu
Published: Winter 2003
Your level of performance can depend on three variables, they include: Training, Nutrition, and Lifestyle.
Tricking is just like any other sport or athletic activity; It requires commitment and a strategy to improve and take your level higher. By manipulating any of the above variables you can alter your progress for the better or worse. None is more important than the other, and each should be taken seriously if you strongly desire to achieve any goal you set for yourself in tricking. For example - if you train like a champion and have your diet in check you could still be short changing your results if you don't get an adequate amount of sleep. Lacking in any of these three factors will reflect direct consequences on the other two variables.
So what are the symptoms of sleep deprivation?
Now add all these up together and imagine trying to break a tricking plateau.
But what is the worst part about sleep deprivation?
After the first 3-4 hours of sleep your body releases 60-90% of your daily GH (Growth Hormone) amount. So short cutting sleep obviously spells your doom. Bwhahaahaha! Read on my pet, Erhh... I mean my spool!
Growth Hormone is responsible for the growth of your bones and muscles. It also prepares fat for energy use and spares lean body mass. In regards to muscle growth it causes muscle cells to increase protein synthesis, decrease protein breakdown, increase amino acid uptake in muscular tissue, and divide. Basically it causes growth of muscle and bone tissue. So what does growth of muscle and bone tissue mean?? IT MEANS YOU JUST LANDED A NEW TRICK! HAHA!
Is that it? No, decreased levels of GH indicate a drop in your body's ability to metabolize glucose, this means fat is not metabolized at it's peak rate; Your exercise capability is reduced as well as your muscle mass.
Another negative effect of decreased GH levels is a weakened immune system. GH stimulates bone marrow growth which boosts the immune system function. A lack of sleep will slow the growth and repair of this tissue; Studies have also indicated that a lack of sleep will reduce your white blood cell count down a good margin.
Finally sleep deprivation increases levels of cortisol in the body the next day. But what the hell is cortisol? It's the 'Stress Hormone', it's your opponent on the road to increased gains in your physical endeavors. Med definition is - The major adrenal glucocorticoid, stimulates conversion of proteins to carbohydrates, raises blood sugar levels and promotes glycogen storage in the liver. To make it simple for you cortisol causes hyper tension, stress, and synthesizes the amino acids in your muscles to fuel more vital organs (like lungs, heart, brain). In excessive amounts it can cause memory impairments, restrict tissue repair, and increase insulin resistance. It's nasty! Furthermore, elevated cortisol levels have been identified in patients with adrenal tumors. Cancer is not the sex.
I hope this channel so far has established for you that sleep is important and that you should strive to get as much as you can. If you're tricking and improving through brilliant training sessions combined with an awesome diet, imagine how much better it can get if you fixed your sleeping habits for optimal rest! There is always something you can be doing better, sleep is an easy one to start with. So how much sleep do you need? On average, younger people between the ages of 12-25 need more than adults. We need between 8.5 and 9.25 hours of sleep per night. Harder working athletes will require more than that! It's easy to figure out exactly how much sleep you need. Go to bed, and wake up! Figure out how many hours passed while you were asleep and voila, you now know how much sleep you should be getting each night.
We have now covered the consequences of not getting healthy amounts of sleep each night, now I'd like to HELP you get more sleep. I'm an insomniac and thus I've had my share of restless nights; I'm going to rate many tips you've seen before and give my own tips for beating insomnia.
I have actually found this helpful. After soaking in a hot bath and passing out, I drown to death in the tub.
*Serious head banging taking place* THIS DOESN'T WORK! METAL IS LORD! MOVE ON!
More helpful if it's free of lyrics. I recommend the Chrono Cross soundtrack, a Yasunori Mitsuda master piece; However, it still doesn't work for me very well. HAHAHAHAHA! ;)
Oh my god no, it's just sickening...
Instead of eating anything though, eat the Sleep Stack! It's easier sleeping with something on your stomach.
Stay away from stimulants before you sleep. Some people don't have problems with them, but you might! Just avoid them in general.
It's difficult to sleep in a sweaty, hot room! Lower the room temperature. Do you know how? Good, now go lower it to 35° F (That's 20° C for my Canadian and Euro friends). I promise you the electric bill will be fatal - I mean... Yeah nevermind...
I got this clock in my room that's really loud. In fact, it's so loud I started sleeping in the other room... I still do. You want to minimize sharp sounds in your sleeping environment. If it's a living animal kill it, eat it, and then go to sleep.
Yeah this one gets a negative score. It doesn't work, it's just garbage! If I think about sheep I think about flesh, and when I think about flesh I think about killing people with spears in the wilderness. And when I think about killing people with spears in the wilderness I think about blood. And when I think ... zzzzzzzzz ... zzzzzzzzz
This can work sometimes. It like confuses your head or something. I'm not presenting breakthrough scientific data but it's got something to do with the earth's magnetic poles and your body's positioning? I dunno, just try and you'll see.
I do this every night, but it really doesn't help me to fall asleep; It just quenches my thirst and gets my mind to stop thinking about how thirsty I am. So in essence, I guess it does help!
Yeah, get off the thing at least 30 minutes before you go to bed. Seriously, same with television. The stimulation has a lasting effect on your brain or something, just knock it off!
This one really works. It can take awhile for you to get used to it but it's worth it. The idea is restricting bed usage to two activities: Sex and sleep. Do not watch T. V. in bed, do not eat in bed, stay away from your bed! Do not lie awake in bed when you awake in the morning. The minute you wake up on the weekend and feel happy knowing you can sleep longer, get up out of the bed and grab your fucking spear comrade! The enemy approaches, open the blinds and take a look for yourself! Oh holy crap, the tribe is moving out! We gotta catch up to them and kill all our foes!!! QUICK!!! HURRY UP GET THE FUCK OUT OF BED!! OUT / GET THE FUCK OUT!
DIEEEEE!!!! *Juji impales you with a spear and starts ripping out your organs* GAHHHH!!! FLESH!!!!
This one really works too. If you want to go to bed at 1 AM every morning and wake up a little after 10 AM that's cool brother, just stick with it. If you want more time in the morning go to bed around 9 PM or 10 PM and wake up a little after 7 AM or earlier. So say you got your time set, go for it and don't stay awake an extra hour, ever. Try not to sleep in on the weekends too much, sometimes it takes over a week to get your bedtime goal set, so you might ruin it after working towards that time the first 5 days of the week. Be a predictable killing machine and go to bed at your set time, so you can awake and kill and.... BLOOD ON MY PILLOW - BLOOD ON MY SKIN! Am I goin mad - or was this a dream??
DON'T SMILE WHEN YOU DO IT!
Yeah this one is gay max but maybe you're desperate? Crawl in your bed and wiggle your toes up and down a dozen times, wiggle the toes of both feet simultaneously. It's supposed to relax you? I find it doesn't work unless you do it for a long time.
DRUGS! AND LOTS OF THEM! No seriously, sleeping drugs are for middle age business men and Taegashi. Avoid them or you'll become like Taegashi, the drug addict. Stupid sleeping aid shit...
A major problem with some individuals suffering from insomnia is the fact they can't shut off their brain. They lie awake in bed getting cool ideas or thinking about their dreams and goals. Before you go to bed grab a sheet of paper and write down these thoughts in your head; The ideas you have, your goals and plans, your will so when you die Juji gets half the shit in your bed room. Then toss it aside and jump in bed. Don't think about these things any further; But, if you do, write the next thing keeping you awake down on the scrap. Snooze bro, the endless sea of slumber...
I haven't tried the teas, but I have tried Valerian root in dosage over 1000 mg. I've also tried Melatonin in the 3 mg dose region. Valerian root and Melatonin are so called natural sleeping aids sold in health stores. Simply put, the shit doesn't work. Valerian root gives you a head ache, and Melatonin doesn't do anything at all. As for herbal teas, that's not my cup of tea. Try it if you want though, maybe it'll help you.
This is an obvious one. Minimize light in your sleeping area, embrace the end.
If your insomnia hasn't been remedied yet and it's been awhile since you've gotten some sleep - maybe you should see a doctor? Or, you can do like me - Kill all your enemies so you can sleep at night without worry of assassination. Seriously though, if it is a serious problem you need to seek professional help.
Now let's connect this all together. You want to first make sure your sleeping environment is in check. The room needs to be cool with plenty of airflow; It needs to be dark and quiet. Nextly, you need to start working on getting a pattern formed. You need to go to bed at a certain time and wake up at a certain time each day; Your biological clock will take care of the rest.
Here is a method to get the most out of your sleep. This stack reduces cortisol release and catabolism, increases anabolism, increases the effects of GH, and gives you more energy to do what needs to be done. I have gotten this stack from abcbodybuilding.com / an awesome website with plenty of good information. Thanks guys!
1) Take a ZMA supplement on an empty stomach (so intake this 1-2 hours after your last meal). ZMA has been shown to aid sleep and increase hormone levels during sleep.
2) After the ZMA has been totally digested (30-60 minutes later) eat something with complex and fibrous starchy carbohydrates such as oatmeal or a mix of fibrous green vegetables. The point is to consume a slow burning carbohydrate source here.
3) Consume 20-60 grams of casein protein. One of the the best sources of casein protein is cottage cheese. Caseinate based proteins are generally slow digesting and release aminos over a long period of time.
4) Intake 1 tablespoon of flax oil, 500-1000 mg of vitamin C, and 5-10 grams of glutamine.
5) Go to sleep for 8-10 hours.
This combination will digest slowly in your stomach giving you a steady supply of muscle building nutrients as the GH is released. The vitamin C and Glutamine will aid in tissue repair and help the body strengthen the immune system. This stack essentially doubles up the benefits as sleep already does both of these.
What about cost/safety concerns? ZMA is nothing more than a combination of the minerals zinc and magnesium. Athletes need more than the standard person, so this will benefit you if you are deficient in either of these two minerals. Most people don't realize if they are deficient or not; Moreover, ZMA is cheap and easy on your wallet. Flax oil is high in omega 3,6, and 9 acids which have a whole slew of benefits. You can buy flax oil in the gel capsules if you wish, this is a cheaper alternative to buying it in liquid form. Glutamine is one of the conditionally essential amino acids. If you can't afford glutamine or are apt to not using it at all don't worry, casein protein is rich in glutamine; You can skip using glutamine and get small amounts from your caseinate protein source.
Now you ask me have I tried this? Hell yah I have! As of writing this article I've been doing this for 3 months and it's been awesome! For myself I have been intaking half recommended dosage of ZMA (Zinc : 15 mg / Magnesium : 225 mg); As for the meal, I've been eating a bowl of oatmeal and 1/3 of a container of cottage cheese. Then I take 1 gram of vitamin C, 10 grams glutamine peptides, 3 grams of flax seed oil, and 1 gram of vitamin E. Ever since it's been easier to fall asleep cause I've got something on my stomach and I'll wake up sometimes feeling like I just walked out of the gym as my muscles feel fuller.
Sleep is important, getting the maximum amount without a doubt will help you break training plateaus that once existed. Getting enough sleep is impossible everyday on a consistent basis but we should strive to get all we can! Insomnia and sleepless nights can catch up to you, but you don't have to let it. Beat the insomnia down and train your mind to pass off into the endless sea of slumber. I find the best way to think of sleep is a small break; Don't think of going to sleep as ending today and starting tomorrow. Don't think of it as getting enough sleep tonight so you can wake up tomorrow morning with enough rest. There is no yesterday, today, or tomorrow; It's just one long experience, and sleeping is just taking a quick rest so you can continue your work a few hours later. You earned the rest after being conscious for 14 + hours. Goodnight and sweet dreams!
