Power Napping For Powerlifters (and Bodybuilders Too!)
Look at everything you do in the gym right now. Think about the tough, brutal and long workouts you endure on a daily basis. Then, look at the foods you shovel down the hatch on a daily basis. Now, look at your results. Think about the gains you’ve made in the gym in the last year. Are they satisfactory? Now, consider what kind of rest you would have seen if you had given your body a separate and individual ‘growth period’ each day in which new muscle was formed!
Plan your next year. Will you continue plodding along at the same slow rate? Are you intrigued to see what kind of powerlifting or bodybuilding gains you can make with a daily ‘power nap’? Naps are a great way to provide your body energy for the second half of the day, as well as to give your body a brief ‘growth period’ in which new muscle growth can occur outside of the normal 8-hour sleep window at night. Bodybuilders grow when we rest, and a mid-day rest is awesome for delivering more new muscle growth.
Before of after? Which time is the best time to nap? Do you wish to sleep before your workout, providing a fresh and well-rested body for the gym? Or is it better to complete your workout and immediately enjoy a big meal rich in intelligent carbs and slow-digesting carbohydrates, and then hit the hay? This question may be answered based upon your available options with work, school, family, etc. However, if you do have the ability to sleep at either time, then you should give both of them a shot. Record your results and decide which time period delivers the best results in the gym!
Making time for a nap may be difficult. If you’re a stay-at-home parent, this should be fairly simple. When the kid sleeps, YOU SLEEP! Granted, you might already be sleeping at the same time out of exhaustion. Use this time to grow, because as you know, your child is already using this time to grow! Just don’t forget to eat before crashing. If you run your own business, as many young bodybuilders do (must be something about that Type-A personality and work ethic), then you should be able to schedule a ‘meeting’ each day around 12:30 and give yourself adequate time to recover from the morning’s
Length of nap-time will depend upon the individual. Some lifters will benefit from 20 minutes, and some will enjoy a full 90 minutes. If you use anabolic steroids, you already recover faster from your workouts, so you may be under the impression that a nap will not do you all that much good. However, you grow more when using steroids, and another growth period during the day can be ideal for this!
Whether you are a natural or a steroid user, a bodybuilder or a powerlifter, the use of power naps will make you bigger and stronger faster than you can imagine!
Power Napping For Powerlifters (and Bodybuilders Too!) by Dane C. Fletcher
