Bodybuilding is an activity that millions of people partake in, whether it’s for fitness or to compete on stage. While the vast majority of people indulge in bodybuilding to improve their strength and fitness, recovery is not often discussed. However, that’s changing thanks to the social media fitness community. Bodybuilders and respected influencers have been speaking about the importance of sleep and how it translates into bodybuilding performance.

Several bodybuilding icons like Arnold Schwarzenegger, Phil Heath, Jay Cutler, and others have spoken about sleep. Renowned social media influencers like Derek from More Plates More Dates, exercise scientist Dr. Mike Israetel, Andrew Huberman, and others have also highlighted the importance of sleep duration and quality. So why is sleep so important to bodybuilding?

Sleep is the ultimate tool for recovery

Bodybuilding training focuses on hypertrophy. Muscle building is the goal of bodybuilding training, whether through volume or intensity. No matter which approach you take, training is incredibly taxing for the body. So, if you want your next workout to be as effective as your previous one, you must recover. Unfortunately, people often ignore the recovery part.

As Arnold Schwarzenegger said, sleep is the first thing many people sacrifice. However, sleep duration and especially sleep quality are paramount to recovering properly. In his newsletter, Arnold’s Pump Club, Arnie explained that even people who train often, sacrifice sleep and believe they’ll catch up on sleep during the weekend. However, not sleeping enough accumulates “sleep debt.”

Unfortunately, you can’t pay off sleep debt by sleeping for 12 hours on weekends. Chronically under-slept individuals need to gradually increase their sleep duration and quality. During bodybuilding training, our muscles break down, and those muscles get repaired during sleep. Hence, interruption during sleep and lower sleep duration seriously hurts recovery.

The human body produces growth hormones during sleep. However, if your sleep quality is inadequate, the quantity of growth hormone produced by the body gets affected. Hence, despite training hard, a person who doesn’t sleep well robs themselves of gains.

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However, since younger people can function on less sleep, they often ignore it. Unbeknownst to them, they harm their muscle-building prospects during bodybuilding training. A prime example of this would be Mark Wahlberg. Recently, Wahlberg appeared in a Men’s Health interview, where he regretted ignoring recovery for decades and only learning about its importance at 40. So, how do you get enough sleep?

Optimizing sleep for bodybuilding

Exercise scientist Dr. Mike Israetel also spoke about the importance of sleep quality and duration. During his recent appearance on the Chris Williamson podcast, Israetel said, “You have to sleep, it’s crucial. It’s a cornerstone of everything.” So, how long do you need to sleep, and how do you improve your sleep quality?

Experts recommend that you need seven to nine hours of sleep to recover from bodybuilding training. However, for the average person, most experts recommend eight hours of uninterrupted sleep for adequate recovery. Israetel touched on the topic of bodybuilding legends like Ronnie Coleman and Arnold Schwarzenegger functioning optimally on six hours of sleep. However, he explained that they have elite genetics.

While people with gifted genetics might recover faster with six hours of sleep, few possess such genetic potential. Hence, those who train for bodybuilding should be sleeping for eight hours ideally. There are many things you can do to improve sleep quality for maximum growth hormone release. One of the easiest is to limit screen exposure.

We are exposed to our TVs, computers, and smartphone screens for hours at a stretch. However, most people also stare at their smartphone screens while even in bed. This light exposure has the potential to mess up your circadian rhythm and delay quality sleep. Hence, limiting screen exposure for at least an hour before sleep is crucial to optimizing your sleep environment.

Another mistake many people make is consuming caffeine too close to bedtime. Caffeine-based pre-workouts help boost bodybuilding training. However, you need to consume caffeine eight to nine hours before sleep to flush it out of your system. Since caffeine stimulates the nervous system, it also interrupts sleep. Other substances like alcohol also ruin sleep quality.

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These simple adjustments can drastically improve your sleep quality and your bodybuilding performance. A properly recovered body can work harder and result in better gains. So whether you’re bodybuilding for the stage or to get fitter, sleep is something that you cannot ignore.