Issue 032

December 2007

Rest is an important component of any athlete’s training regime. Without it, the body is not able to adequately repair itself, and a fighter may start to find himself becoming increasingly tired and run down. Many of us also lead busy lives, and rest and sleep can be the first things we cut back on when there’s too much to do.

How much sleep we need each night varies from one person to another. Hard training will increase the amount we need. The effect lack of sleep has on physical and mental performance depends on many different factors. Finding it hard to sleep the night before a big fight is common, and is probably nothing to worry about. Relatively mild, short-term sleep deprivation may hit some people harder than others, but studies have found only minor effects on performance.  

Sleep hard, fight easy

Sleep loss over an extended period of time might be more worrying, though. Amongst other things, it can affect your mood, reaction time, coordination and power. But it’s not just your performance in the short term that suffers; it’s also your ability to train and improve. Fitness isn’t built by exercise alone. You need rest following the exercise to allow your body to rebuild and become stronger. Growth hormone is a crucial player in this process, and its release is at its greatest during sleep. 

We all know that improving a physical skill takes practice – but recent studies have shown that it also takes sleep. If you don’t get enough sleep the night after you train, you lose that performance improvement. And you don’t get it back, even after you catch up on the lost sleep.

Some studies have suggested that most of us are sleep deprived to some extent. In one, researchers found that asking college basketball players to get “as much sleep as possible” noticeably improved their physical performance. How’s that as an excuse for a lie in?  

For some people, intense training in the evening can make it hard to get to sleep. Altering your training schedule is not always possible, but sometimes relaxation or breathing exercises can help to counter this effect. A quick internet search brings up dozens of other suggestions for ways to sleep better; if you’re having trouble, experiment with a few and see what works best for you.  

Getting enough rest is about more than just sleep, though. It’s important to balance your training so that your body is able to adapt to the demands you’re putting on it. There are no hard and fast rules as to how much training is too much, but as a general guide:  

·      Take one complete day off from training each week.

·      Pay attention to your body, and if you start to feel run down consider cutting back on your training. For a more scientific approach, monitor your heart rate first thing in the morning. If you notice a big increase in your resting heart rate, it could be a sign that you are doing too much and need to take it easy for a bit.

·      Try to control or minimise stress in other areas of your life, especially during periods of hard training.

·      Pay attention to your nutrition; make sure you are eating well and drinking enough fluids.

·      Massage and stretching may help to improve your recovery.

Jet lag

When competing abroad, fighters are faced with an additional problem – jet lag. Often, those hit hardest are those just beginning their international career. They may have only a few days to acclimatise to the new time zone before their fight, during which time they are also coping with the stress of travel, an unfamiliar environment and routine, and all the pressures of preparing for a fight. Sometimes jet lag can seem like the last of their worries. After all, nobody feels sleepy when they’re about to fight, right?  

It’s not as simple as just staying awake though. The body operates on a cycle called the circadian rhythm. This is controlled by your ‘body clock’, a small cluster of brain cells that tells your body when it should be awake or asleep. It does more than just that though. It affects many different functions of your body, including your hormones, temperature and your physical and mental performance.  

Your body is at its best at a specific time of day. Most people have their best performance in the early evening. It’s not so good during the morning, better in the afternoon, peaks somewhere around 6pm, tapers off during the evening and plummets at night. Trying to fight at your best when your body thinks it’s 4am can be a demoralising experience.

So, what can fighters do to improve their performance under these conditions?

Ideally, you’d get enough time in the country to adjust to the time difference. It is said that for most people, the body clock can adjust by around one hour a day following eastwards travel and about 90 minutes a day following westward travel.  

This isn’t always possible, but there are other strategies to improve your chances. The body clock is strongly affected by light. Being in bright light at certain times of day, and avoiding it at others helps to reset your circadian rhythm. A rough rule of thumb is that it is best to be out in the sun in the morning following an eastwards trip and the evening after a westwards one. The same applies to the best times for exercise – mornings going east and late afternoon or evening going west.  

Eating, socialising and going to bed at normal times (according to your new time zone) will also help. Sleeping during the day is best avoided as far as possible.

There are a number of other strategies that can also be used, such as trying to sleep, eat and train on ‘fight’ time while still at home. For fighters travelling abroad with little time to adjust, it is well worth researching the subject yourself, or consulting a professional, to ensure the best results.