Build Muscle and Lose Weight by Getting Enough Rest

Many people have taken to joining the gym in droves. The goals of each individual may be different when it comes to exercise. Some may be looking to build muscles for the sake of appearance, others might want to lose weight and still others may be their for overall health and fitness enhancement reasons. But regardless of the reason or reasons why you are at the gym or have started to exercise with regularity, you need to ensure that you are getting enough rest to be able to properly recuperate from your exercise.

Studies have shown that even without regular physical exertion, sleep is crucial in maintaining your health. Without proper rest your immune system can be greatly compromised. For those that are partaking in muscle building efforts, without proper rest, your muscles cannot recover and the effects of your weight training could turn out to be negative instead of positive.

With an hour of strenuous activity, for example, an excess amount of lactic acid can be built up within your muscles. Among other things, a sufficient amount of rest along with proper diet can help remove the lactic acid from your system at a far faster rate than when compared to the sleep deprived. The sleep allows the hormones that your body naturally produces to do their job. Without this rest, a catabolic effect -- a break down of muscle tissue -- can occur.

How much rest is the right amount of rest? Most studies agree that somewhere between 8 hours and 8 ½ hours of solid sleep allows the average human body to maintain a kind of state of equilibrium that keeps it operating at its most efficient.

Furthermore, additional studies show that it is nearly impossible to recover lost sleep. What that means basically is that if your body is deprived of sleep during over a month or even a week, no amount of extra sleep later will allow you to prevent the damage that has been done to your body in terms of loss of muscle mass, weaker tissues, compromised joints, ligaments and the like.

It is possible to recover from sleep deprivation, but the recovery period is considerably longer than the period of time over which the damage occurred. Scientific studies have show that people who go through a prolonged period of time without substantial exercise and sleep deprivation lose muscle mass at more than twice the rate of people who do very little exercise, but who do get a sufficient amount of sleep.

The ideal mix for keeping your body functioning on all cylinders is a combination of exercise, proper diet and enough rest. Don't fall into the bad habit of pushing yourself into exhaustion in an effort to build your body or lose weight. Make sure you are getting a good night's sleep night after night.