I just read an article by Gary Mathews called “How To Use Rest To Gain More Muscle” by Gary Matthews.

[Read Article]

The title intrigued me because I agree that good rest is important to muscle growth and general well being, and I was going to write great stuff about it in my blog. But I was very surprised when I read the article. I am very rarely controversial with articles, I tend to post factual info, and some points in Gary’s article are good but they don’t really focus on what you really need to do.

Gary writes, “if you want to gain more muscle, you will have to try to get more sleep. Go to bed early whenever possible and sleep late whenever you can.” Rest – it is important you get good rest but the right amount is also important. This does not mean 12 hours of sleep or just sitting on the couch all day, it means organising your training schedule to allow the muscles rest time for maximal growth, in other words don’t do Bench Press 3 days in a row every week. I have read many times that a good amount to sleep is between 6-10 hours a day anything less or more is not recommended, the amount really varies from person to person. Too much sleep is not good. Dr. Shawn Youngstedt says, “many epidemiological studies show that people who sleep more than eight hours have higher mortality rates than those who get six or seven hours”.

Gary states, “Remember that your body adapts best to a stimulus when it only has to adapt to a single stimulus, and the main priority here is strength training so please keep all incidental activity low. In a sense you have to become “Lazy” By this I mean:
Instead of running “walk”.
Instead of walking “sit”.
Instead of sitting “lay down”… Get my point?”
No, I don’t get your point Gary. Some of the biggest (muscle, not fat) guys I know are professional sprinters…yes, they do a lot of running. And I have two female friends that will be competing for a female body building title May this year, they too do a lot of cardio, one of them is an aerobics instructor too…cardio is a great fatburner. And when we talk about incidental activity, most people keep it low anyway; it is a natural trait, which is why you don’t see people running for the bus unless they have to! (This doesn’t apply to people from some African countries, the countries where great runners are born.)
I do agree with Gary about the Carbohydrate intake. It is very important to have complex carbohydrates in your day to gain lean muscle.

Reference:
USC study: Too much sleep might be hazardous to your health

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