Challenges; resting on rest day, caffeine and sleep

A quick summary about what is to follow: I can exercise consecutive days when I feel like it. Sleep is important and I must set a sleep schedule plus keep caffeine to two cups a day. I will drink decaf tea. It’s very important I maintain a regular sleep schedule to slip into a new work schedule, which is imminent.

Details

I am amped up from my strength training yesterday and the day before. I have a good, simple program with regularly scheduled rest days and a small set of compound exercises. However it’s hard to restrain myself from doing some exercises today.

Some science behind it can be seen in the following video by Jeff Nippard. Concerning over-training: “Most people who are worried about it probably shouldn’t be”. Still, I want to develop a habit now that’s moderate and sustainable, something I haven’t bothered to do in the past.

I enjoy the handstand and will go ahead and do it, but clearly skip it tomorrow. I’m skipping the squat today because I’m not ready for that intensity right now.

I have to say I found a lack of information regarding how much rest is optimal for hypertrophy, or strength. In other words, I’m looking for any scientific analysis behind how to build sets for optimal training. The science behind bodybuilding seems to focus on the weight, reps and sets per week that are optimal for hypertrophy, regardless of how they are broken up in multiple days and how far apart those days are.

Some information infers that it might be possible to lose gains, however slowly and little, after more than 3 days without exercising a muscle group. It just so happens I have a 3 day schedule for all my muscle groups. In the end, it may matter little. The key is doing it consistently, and having progress, with increased weight or other measures of difficulty on a regular basis.

Sleep and muscle building

Apparently, sleep is a big deal for bodybuilders, and I get decent sleep but if I take it seriously I need to cut back caffeine and ensure I drink caffeine maybe twice a day and early, as in before noon. A lot of these habits need reminders. The following videos reference some information I trust and value regarding sleep and muscle building:

NIH studies can be very useful guides to proper training. Here’s an example but I didn’t review all the details. NIH – Pubmed – Inadequate sleep and muscle strength: Implications for resistance training, Knowles OE et al Summary: Inadequate sleep impairs maximal muscle strength in compound movements when performed without specific interventions designed to increase motivation.

Another NIH – Yanbo Chen etl al – Relationship between sleep and muscle strength among Chinese university students: a cross-sectional study. An interesting comment from this study: “Muscle weakness has consistently been reported as an independent risk factor for falls[1], hip fractures[2], and adverse physiological changes, such as glucose intolerance[3] and a loss of bone mineral density[4]”. There are clear health benefits to sleep unrelated to hypertrophy.