“My neck hurts from the workout.” “My back is killing me, must be the deadlifts we did.” I hear this all the time. As a personal trainer, we have to listen to our client’s needs. Yes, the workouts can affect how the body feels. However, its usually only for about an hour. If you slept wrong and let’s say you average anywhere from 5-7 hours, that usually has a bigger impact on the body. Let’s analyze the effects.
First, is your mattress. Did you know that in our lifetime, we spend half of it in bed? So if your mattress is old and beat up, then your body does not get the rest it needs. A mattress lifespan is around 7-10 years. So let’s make sure you are sleeping on something that supports your body.
Secondly, your posture during sleep. Do you sleep on your back, side, or stomach? Based on the answer, certain areas of the body is affected more. Having the right type of pillow to support your position (side sleepers need a thicker one compared to back sleepers) is crucial. The key is to make sure your neck doesn’t have any angles, meaning it’s not bending in any way (up, down, or side). I’ve written about how sleeping affects certain areas of the body in previous blogs (links below).
Is sleeping making you worse? Ankle
Is sleeping making you worse? Knees
Is sleeping making you worse? Shoulders
Lastly, is the amount of sleep you actually get. Sleeping 8 hours is optimal, but most of us don’t get that much. I average around 5-7 hours. In addition, do you sleep throughout the whole night? We’ve all had days where we couldn’t sleep. How did the body feel? Like crap, right? So ask yourself, how many hours are you actually sleeping? Hope you enjoyed this week’s blog. Stay tuned for more next Wed……………..Kei