As days get longer and warm, summer night beckon, you may find yourself staying up later than usual. While hanging out for that extra round of drinks might be fun, the lack of sleep could be compromising your training.
Guest blogger Sarah, editor of sleepydeep.com, tells us how a lack of ZZZ’s can hurt your boxing. Enjoy!
How Healthy Sleep Promotes Better Training 
Has your training been slowing down? Do you struggle to find endurance? Here’s one reason you might have overlooked: sleep.
What Happens To Your Muscles When You Train?
As a boxer, you’re constantly flexing your intrinsic muscles (those at your fingers and palm), biceps, and a slew of other muscles to coordinate a simple jab cross.
Your blood vessels and nerves work in harmony with your muscular system, for smooth training.
For this reason, you need to take care of your body after training to help it build up more stamina for the next day.
Sometimes you might also get hurt while training. The damaged cells die to give room for new cells. But your ligaments don’t die, they heal with time.
What Happens To Your Muscles When You Sleep?
Having a good sleep routine is extremely important for you as a boxer because your body has to endure extreme training. When you sleep, all your energy is used to pump more blood to your cells. The increased oxygen replenishes and facilitates the growth of new cells.
At the same time, the increased oxygen supply helps in the natural healing of your wounded ligaments and muscles. Your muscles also get to relax which is important when you need to continue training the following day.
Finally, while you sleep, your body releases growth hormones. These promote your muscle growth, giving you a more muscular body.
What Happens To The Rest Of Your Body When You Sleep?
Remember that I mentioned how your nerves and blood vessels play a great role as a boxer? According to National Institute of Health, when you sleep your brain clears toxins in your blood. At the same time, your brain produces a complex stimulus, used to make critical decisions the following day. If you’ve been getting hit by punches you could’ve dodged, then it’s likely your brain has not had enough sleep.
Decision making is an important part of your training as a boxer. You need to know when and where to hit, and be able to make split-second decisions.
When you get adequate sleep, your brain can store away old memories, creating room for new ones. This is how you avoid overworking your brain, which could easily lead to anxiety as you train.
The Bottom Line
Healthy sleep is mandatory as a boxer, if you wish to see excellent results every time you train. A poor sleeper will hardly make it past round one. With the fatigue and lack of focus that comes as a result of insomnia, you are better off when you sleep well.
Sarah is the editor of sleepydeep.com. Feeling the repercussions of being an irregular sleeper for far too long, she decided to do something about it. She learned why sleep is so important and how to maximize it, and is now helping others who are struggling to find their right sleep routine.
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