It has been vouched time and time again that static stretching is terrible when it comes to both hypertrophy and athletic performance.
“It will make you weaker”
“It puts the muscle at an increased risk of injury”
While these are both true statements, it really depends on both the application, execution and timing of stretching.

By no means is static or passive stretching bad, but in a performance based setting there are number of cons we quickly approach.

Negatives of Static Stretching

– Perceived improvement of flexibility as opposed to mobility

– Static stretching improves your body’s ability to sit into that given stretch, not improve whole bodily movement

– Stretching can temporarily decrease the strength, endurance and force potential of given muscle.

With this being said, these negatives only really arise when passive stretching is all pre-training. Save those static stretches for post workout to calm yourself, drop the heart rate and bring you in to that para-sympathetic state.

Now seeing how detrimental passive stretching can be on our performance, here is where loaded stretching really takes the cake. Once applied, I guarantee you’ll be left asking yourself why you haven’t been doing this all along!

The premise behind loaded stretching is that our muscle is constricted by fascia, if that fascia is not gliding well over the muscle, movement will be restricted, optimal mobility is harder to achieve and we cannot optimize given muscles’ performance potential.  Loaded stretching itself aims to loosen the grip fascia has, allowing the muscle more room to glide, lengthen and contract forcefully.

But why does this work in making us bigger, stronger and more mobile?

Benefits of Loaded Stretching

Occlusion Effect:

When muscles are contracted blood is restricted within, the same thing occurs when the muscle is stretched out in the fully lengthened position. So, during a loaded stretch, you are contracting as hard as you can, in the fully stretched position, you’re trapping all the blood inside the muscle and causing 2 incredibly positive outcomes.

1) It prevents the clearance and disposal of metabolites in lactate and hydrogen ions,

2) Deprives the muscle of oxygen.

Both conditions lead to the release of local growth factors (IGF-1), which can increase potential for local muscle hypertrophy.

Increased Recovery:

Due to the blood flow restriction nature of loaded stretches, once we release the stretch, the muscle is supplied, very quickly, with a fresh source of blood, delivering nutrients directly to the muscle as the body works to clear the build up of metabolites.

Increase Muscle Size:
When in that fully lengthened position and we are contracting incredibly hard, the body is recruiting all potential muscle fibers it has in that local area, hitting both fast and slow twitch muscle fibers (Type I & Type II), with the potential of increasing both density and size of given muscle

The method of Loaded Stretching has been tried and test by many coaches originating with Chuck Sipes hanging from a bar to grow his lats in the 60’s, Bodybuilding programing “DC Training” from Dante Trudel and Hypertrophy experts like Dr. Scott Stevenson and Jordan Peters being major advocates of loaded stretching for maximal results.

Personally, seen in myself and clients, loaded stretching rapidly improves recovery and mobility. In a matter of a single training cycle you will begin to notice significant improvements with how your body can move in lifts as well as building your neural connection (mind-muscle) to areas you apply these techniques. Then applied across the course of 3,6 and 12 months of solid, progressive training and we see the growth benefits.

It’s all well and good having this knowledge but now the application.

What we want to do is focus on isolating a single muscle group, getting it into it’s fully lengthened position, under load ,in a safe manner and both stretch and contract simultaniously. We want to think, where is the origin and insertion of the muscle and how do I put them as far apart as possible and squeeze it like it owes me money!

Chest (Pectoralis Major/Minor)

My preferred go to is a cable stretch on these. Strap up to a D-Handle, walk out and brace against something, from here, pull your shoulder blades back and down allowing your humerus to pull away from sternum

Front Shoulder (Anterior head of Deltoid)

Set a barbell up at chest height in a rack, spin around and place both hands as close together as you’re able to WITHOUT PAIN. Don’t over-crank this one as you walk your feet forward

Side Shoulder (Lateral head of Deltoid)
Put a cable down to the bottom attachment, grab it so the cable is running behind you and walk out slightly. Maintain the shoulder blades back and shunted down

Vertical Back (Latissimus Dorsi)
Grab a single D-Grip handle and attach that to the lat-pulldown machine. We want to slightly supinate, as the lat is an internal rotator, tuck the pelvis underneath you and reach up, leaning back slightly. Think reaching and contracting.

Horizontal Back (Rhomboids, Posterior Delts)
Prop a bench up on a 45º and we’re going chest supported by the bench. Grab a dumbbell in either hand, internally rotate and allow the dumbbells to “spread out” your back

Glutes (Gluteus Maximus/Medius/Minimus)
If you don’t have access to a 45º extension you can hang over the edge of a bench, but we want to think about dragging the heels down and pushing your ass to the roof the whole time

Hamstrings (Biceps Femoris/Semitendinosis/Semimembranosus)
Knees locked and come down by shifting your weight back as you come into the bottom position. Your foot placement will dictate where about in your hamstrings you feel this most, so play around with it based on your needs/wants

Quads (Vastus Lateralis/Medialis/Intermedius & Rectus Femoris)
Best bet is doing these in a smith machine setting the bar at hip height, walk your feet slightly forwards and swing your hips under. Focus on trying to keep the hips extended. These are nasty.

Calves (Gastrocnemius & Soleus)
Hopefully you are training your calves properly, if you are doing so, bodyweight will suffice for these. Elevate the feet on something lean over like we’re in a Donkey Raise position and then drive the heels down while pulling the toes up.

We want to hit these stretches when we’re done training that group while there’s lots of blood within the muscle and we can “feel” the area.
1-3 Sets, 30-60seconds – Accruing a total time of 2-3minutes in that loaded stretch position. Overload the movement by small increments in time or weight. By nailing these stretches once finished training a muscle group, we’re in a primed state to reap all the benefits surrounding loaded stretches.

From here, work these into your sessions next time you train and make them a staple in your programming, the potential benefits you will be awarded with far outweigh the brief period of discomforted that arises from the loaded stretch.

So, coaching out of a gym and even online, I get talking with a lot of people. Often when I speak with others, both guys and girls, we get onto the topic of what they’re trying to achieve and discuss what they’re doing to get there.

They want to be bigger, fitter and stronger

They want their ass to look like (insert instagram fitspo’s) ass

They’re prepping for a comp, event or holiday

Or they want to progress themselves because they loving pushing themselves, gain fulfilment through the health and fitness life-style and it makes them a better person.

These are all awesome, achievable and common goals that I’m sure you reading this can relate somewhat to.

We want our goals badly, often those I speak to vouch that they’re doing “everything they can to get results”. They’re training incredibly “hard” 6-7 days per week, getting their cardio in, eating all the “right” foods, eating 1 “cheat meal” per week. But the results are not coming quite as quickly as they’d like.

Dig a little bit deeper, in only a couple of questions, and it turns out they’re really missing a lot of the very low hanging fruit that pay off massively when tracked, monitored and then progressed!

Training Sessions & Log Booking

Are you progressing week to week across your lifts, adding load, gaining reps. If yes, keep going, if not why? Something isn’t working, so it may be time to rotate an exercise out, drop or increase volume, change your weekly set-up, look at your exercise execution, push bodyweight up, if dieting introduce a refeed and the list goes on.

If we are not measuring this, via a logbook, each session you train you don’t really know if you are progressing from the session prior.

You’ll be standing at the rack thinking, “oh I hit the 30’s last week, or was it the 32’s. Not sure but my warm-ups felt hard, I’ll go with the 30’s”.

We want to eliminate that doubt and go in with a plan of attack to push forwards from the last time, as the body needs that stimulus to grow.

Yes, you’ll look at your book and think “fuck last week was hard, how am I meant to beat that” but you can. You push and you challenge your body to respond!

Programming

Many either do one of two things, they go in and go by “feel” or they run the same session they’ve always done that they learnt from a magazine, an intro session from a gym attendant or what they did at football training.

Think of this; they don’t build Lamborghini’s by just throwing the pieces together, they have a plan and execute upon that. So how can we expect the build our greatest body without a direction to go.

This is where programming comes in. This is our blueprint to ensure you progress, we start where you are now and progress over time to where you want/need to be, it takes us from A to B then right through to Z and then onwards to every other potential.

Following a plan and progressing it will also show us how you’re responding and then adjustments can be made accordingly so you continue to progress.

Exercise Execution & Technique

If we’re not performing a movement pattern properly, we’re not going to reap the benefits the exercise is meant to give. If some reps we sling the weight up, others we control and some we just go through the motions, how can we be for certain, that we are progress? We can’t, plain and simple.

We want and need precision in every single set and with every single rep so we know, with 100% conviction that we’re gaining what we’re after from a given movement.

It then becomes a simple matter of gradually adding weight to the bar over time.

Intensity

The aforementioned Programming and Exercise Execution are absolutely nothing, without intensity. If you want really, really good results, and I’ll assume you do because you’re here, we need to really get after it within our sessions. It’s all well and good to check “train” off the to do list but to progress yourself forwards and get to where you want to be you must apply yourself.
Imagine you were only able to do one rep for a movement and then weren’t allowed to do anything else until the next session, one single rep…

How much effort would you put into that?

You would contract as hard as you can, squeeze it senseless and lower, resisting against it with all your might to make sure you made it count.

Now do that.

Do that for every single rep of every set, for every movement, for every training session. That is how you get stronger and that is how you get results. Don’t come in and half ass your sets and then put your hand out and complain.

Earn it.

Nutrition

Whether you’re working to gain muscle, lose fat or improve performance, going by feel and eating intuitively doesn’t really cut it if you’re looking to really improve. Start by logging everything you eat in a food tracker app over the next 7 days. Now we have a baseline and from this point we can make adjustments up or down, backwards or forwards based upon what you really need, if you’re at your perceived maintenance. It’s quite a simple formula to work this out based on you Bodyweight (BW):

BW x 30 to 35 – This is your total calories
BW x 1.8g to 2.5g – This is your protein intake, multiply by 4 for calories

BW x 0.5g to 1g – This is your fat intake, multiply by 9 for calories
Take your total calories minus protein calories minus fat calories and divide that number by 4 and you have your carbohydrate intake

e.g – 100kg Male

100kg x 32 – 3,200 calories
100kg x 2.2 – 220g protein, 880 calories

100kg x 1 – 100g fat, 900 calories

3,200 – 880 – 900 = 1,420 calories divide by 4, 355g carbohydrate

There is your intake sorted so we have targets to hit. From here we want to get protein in from a variety of sources, same thing with fats and the same with carbohydrates. Avoid things that upset your digestion or do not sit with you, eat whole foods, eat your fruits and vegetables and drink your water.
That’s quite a simple breakdown, but using that information you can get yourself quite far, especially now that we have some numbers to work from.

Sleep, Recovery & Stress Management

Now this one is a massive one, many monitor their training and nutrition but falter here. This is where we grow, get lean and restore our body to attack the sessions, along with our daily life ahead.

If your sleep and recovery isn’t at the forefront of your mind and being pushed to progress, just as hard as you push in the gym, you’ll find yourself spinning your wheels.

Sleep – With your sleep we want to aim for an average of 8 hours per night high quality sleep and there are a few things we can do to ensure we’re getting that.
Get your bedroom to a cool temperature 16º C or below and get it as dark in there as possible.
Turn your Wi-Fi off and mobile phone to flight mode so we’re not exposing ourselves to the Electro-Magnetic Fields (EMF) that they emit, which have adverse effects on our health.

Finally, the hour before you go to bed, spend time winding down in low light, reading, meditating, playing with your dog or watching a TV show.

Whatever it is you do, do so in a way that soothes your whole body and is preparing it for a restful sleep

Recovery – This is a broad brush that’s going to cover several things, but we want to think of stress management as our main factor here. We have so many stressors already going on in our life, then we add training on top of that, we must balance that out.
Going for walks with your dog, spending time with loved ones, favourite TV shows or comics, meditating, massage, float tanks and the rest, all these things benefit our recovery.
You don’t miss your gym sessions and you put effort into those, so do the same with the things that are going to improve your life and recovery!

These are all things that are very do-able and really make a world of difference. Put a bit more effort into tracking, progressing/regressing training, ensuring your sleep and recovery and you’ll start to notice incredible improvements, not just in your training pursuits but wholly your life experience.

If you’re heavily, or even moderately, into fitness, the chances are, you’ve likely heard the word ‘creatine’ floating around the gym, right? Yet, like many people, you probably steer clear of using it because you don’t quite know what on earth it does, who should use it, how to take it, or why it even exists?!

Don’t worry, you’re certainly not alone. But, what if I told you that adding creatine to your daily supplement regime could make a world of difference to your performance, endurance, strength, muscle mass and general health? Sounds too good to be true, but luckily for you, it’s not. As the world’s most widely researched and clinically studied supplement, creatine is among the most effective, and severely underrated, supplements for enhancing all areas of your performance, and contrary to popular belief, you don’t even have to be a strength or power athlete to reap the benefits of it. Curious to find out more? Let’s get started!

First things first, what is Creatine?

Creatine is an amino acid located predominantly in your muscles in the form of phosphocreatine (95%), as well as your brain, kidneys and liver (5%). Creatine’s core responsibility is to help increase your stores of phosphocreatine, which is a form of stored energy in your cells that subsequently helps you to increase the production of a high-energy molecule known as Adenosine Triphosphate (ATP).  In simpler terms – Creatine plays an important role in providing the body with the essential fuel it needs to function at full capacity.

What’s ATP and why do I need it? Simply put, ATP is stored energy. For your muscles and every other cell in your body, ATP is the primary energy carrier in all living organisms and is the source of energy that essentially keeps everything functioning. Without ATP, cells would not be able to transfer energy from one location to another, subsequently prohibiting the growth and reproduction of organisms.

How can Creatine assist my training?

Whether you choose to increase your creatine levels by consuming protein-rich foods, such as chicken, steak and fish, or opt for the easier and more convenient option of adding a creatine supplement to your daily regime, the outcome will still be the same – it will increase your muscles’ phosphocreatine stores. Phosphocreatine assists in the formation of new ATP, and let’s not forget, more ATP equals more energy.

During a workout, ATP breaks down to produce energy, which is used for muscular contraction. As a result of the ATP being broken down into ADP (Adenosine Diphosphate), the amount of energy available to your muscle cells is limited due to the rate at which your body can effectively re-synthesise or reproduce ATP.

To quickly recap – The higher the levels of creatine in the body, the higher the levels of phosphocreatine stores in the muscle cells. Therefore, the higher your phosphocreatine store levels are in the muscle, the more energy you have readily available for your muscle cells. When you have higher levels of energy available to the cells, you are more likely to experience better workouts, strong muscle contraction, and reduced fatigue while training. Who wouldn’t want these benefits while training?

To put this into the context of exercise, here’s how you can benefit from creatine in the gym:

• Promotes enhanced strength & performance – Creatine is suggested to help improve your overall strength and performance due to your body’s increased capacity to produce ATP. Generally, ATP is depleted after approximately 8-10 seconds of high-intensity exercise. However, by supplementing with creatine, your body can effectively produce more ATP, allowing you to train at peak performance for a few additional seconds.
• Supports muscle growth – As creatine plays an important role in helping you to train harder and for longer, the long-term result of this benefit is generally muscle growth as your body is primed to push harder.
• Helps increase Bone Mineral Density – Strength training has long been recommended for increasing bone mineral density and preventing osteoporosis. However, if you’re already lifting weights but haven’t added creatine to your daily routine, your bones are likely not reaching their full potential. An increase in bone mineral content is suggested to be related to an increase in muscle mass. As such, an increase in muscle puts a strain on your bones, which in turn provides the ideal stimulus for your bones to strengthen. While bone health may not be at the top of your list right now, you’ll thank yourself for it later!
• Enhances brain performance – Anyone who is into fitness knows that results are based 50% on your physical output and 50% on your mindset and cognitive performance. In the same way creatine affects your muscles, it also improves your brain performance. Your brain uses creatine phosphate as a source of energy, and if not replenished, these stores will decrease during intense activity. Just as your muscles begin to fatigue after a certain number of reps, so too does your brain fatigue during intense mental activity. As such, a creatine supplement will not only improve your workout capacity but also your brain capacity!

Who would benefit from supplementing creatine?

If exercise is an important part of your daily routine and you’re serious about your results, you’ll certainly benefit from creatine supplementation. Let’s break it down:

• Bodybuilders – Creatine plays an important role in improving the size and shape of your muscles, which ultimately impacts your entire physique. As such, if you’re a bodybuilder trying to increase muscle mass, creatine may be just what you need to up the ante on your results.
• Fitness enthusiasts – As creatine is suggested to enhance muscular energy and decrease fatigue, it will be highly beneficial for regular fitness enthusiasts who are wanting to train harder and get more from their workouts.
• Athletes – Much like fitness enthusiasts, athletes who are training for a competition can also greatly benefit from creatine supplementation as it may increase energy and decrease fatigue, allowing athletes to train harder and for longer before exhaustion sets in.
• Vegans and vegetarians – If you’re serious about your fitness and results but don’t want to compromise your dietary requirements or preferences, creatine might be a great addition to your supplement stack. Since it’s considerably hard to source creatine from a vegan/vegetarian diet, a creatine supplement will ensure your body has adequate levels of the amino acid required to increase muscle mass, without bulking you up.

So, what’s the point of taking creatine supplementation when I can source it from food?

The short answer: You will receive a higher dosage in a more convenient and efficient manner with supplementation.

Eating a large volume of food doesn’t necessarily mean you’re eating the right food in the right quantity to get the levels of creatine that a supplement would deliver. Without adequate creatine levels, you will not be able to effectively maximise the benefits. While you can certainly source your creatine from your food if you’re committed to eating large volumes of the right food, creatine supplementation simply offers a faster and more convenient route to achieving the same results.

The average creatine supplement would generally supply 5g of creatine per serve. Let’s compare this to a few high-creatine food sources:

• Steak – 5g of creatine per kg of uncooked beef
• Chicken – 3.4g of creatine per kg
• Rabbit – 3.4g of creatine per kg

Note: These figures generally differ between sources.

For vegetarians and vegans, it’s extremely difficult to source enough creatine from your diet alone. Cranberries are suggested to contain a generous source of creatine, however, you would be required to consume a large, and somewhat unrealistic, portion of cranberries to experience the same benefits you would from a creatine supplement.

So, how do I choose the right creatine supplement?

When it comes to choosing the right creatine supplement, it’s important to consider form, flavour and combination. The most recommended form of creatine is creatine monohydrate, which has been the focus of thousands of studies over time and is proven to be safe and effective. The next most important component is taste. Many athletes and fitness enthusiasts alike recommend opting for an unflavoured creatine product as it has no taste and can be easily added to your favourite drink – whether that be water, juice, your BCAAs or protein shake!

Our go-to creatine supplement is Evolve Creatine Monohydrate. As the name suggests, this

product contains 99.9% pure pharmaceutical-grade, micronised creatine monohydrate in an unflavoured powder form to promote fast absorption and utilisation, as well as the option to pair it with your favourite flavour. Not to mention, Evolve Creatine Monohydrate contains no artificial sweeteners, artificial flavours or colours!

Injuries are inevitable, whether in the Gym or in any sporting activity. People often become unmotivated, scared and quite reluctant to set foot back into the gym as they are worried about  reaggravating it again or they simply become inactive and lazy. Most people fall into the mindset that they must cease all exercise in order to heal and recover. Recovery is the priority but how long should you rest for until it becomes a habit and you’re too lazy to exercise again?

Injuries happen

Everyone gets injured and it is unavoidable at times. Whether it’s a minor or major injury, you should refrain from being sedentary as there are many alternatives that could still allow you to be active – depending on the injury and its severity. Frequent and low impact exercises such as walking, or cycling can help maintain your fitness levels without affecting your overall recovery. By doing some physical activity, you will not fall into the trap and overtime become a victim to laziness. Being lazy is a choice but choosing to make that choice becomes a habit and before you know it, you’ve lost all motivation to be the best version of yourself again. To overcome an injury, you must work around it and find ways to adapt.

The key to managing injurie

The first thing you should do when encountering an injury is seek professional advice. They will be able to provide you with a parameter to how much you can and should exercise. A key factor to dealing with injuries is to work around it by finding variations and alternatives that will not affect the injured site. This will avoid falling into the trap of being sedentary. Lifting weights is one of the best methods. What? Weights! You must be thinking how am I supposed to do weights if I’m injured? Well, continuing to do strength training will be beneficial for both preserving your muscle mass and fitness levels.

For example, you have injured your shoulder and cannot train upper body for a while. Instead of sitting at home and watching Netflix, you should take this opportunity to focus on your lower body. Whether its light intensity with resistance bands or kettle bells, you are still allowing your injury to recover but you are not allowing your mind to adapt to being sedentary.

Not only is your physical health important but so is your mental health. When working out, your body releases endorphins and other chemicals which work together to make you feel good. Most of you go to the gym to destress from a long day at work but once that outlet is taken away due to this injury, you will become frustrated. The key to recovering effectively and efficiently is to not rush the process. Staying positive will provide you with the motivation and determination to overcome this setback.

What are the key points to consider?

The first step to take is to redesign your current program to suit your needs and work around the injury. By implementing alternative exercises, you are still able to continue your progress in the gym and not become a victim to laziness. Seek medical help to know what you can and cannot do in order to nurse your injury back to full strength.

The most important take home message is to take your rehab and prevention very seriously. Most of you will jump back into the intense training you’re use to, once you feel that the pain has gone away. This is the most common mistake that people make as it will increase the risk of re-injury. Like with anything you do in the gym, the best course of action is to follow the plan. Research has shown that those who stay positive throughout their rehabilitation will increase the rate of recovery. Therefore, instead of using it as an excuse or as an obstacle, use this time to focus on any weaknesses you may have. Happy training 😊

Tired of training hard with little to no results to show for it? Perhaps it’s time to rethink your approach to sleep!

When it comes to rest, it’s no secret that most of us simply aren’t getting the quality of sleep our bodies require to grow, repair and function at their best. So, what’s the big issue? From work-related stress to caffeine loaded diets, sleep – or rather, the lack thereof – is a leading contributor to adverse mental health problems and a lack of progression in the gym. Believe it or not, a lack of quality sleep not only stunts your body’s ability to recover and subsequently to grow after a training session, but it also plays a pretty serious role in impacting energy levels, mental wellbeing, immune health, motivation, cognitive function, weight loss, digestive health, libido and fertility…just to name a few!

If you’re keen to up-the-ante on your sleep and recovery game, check out Australian Sports Nutrition’s top five strategies to improve your quality of sleep in order to optimise your recovery and productivity, in and out of the gym.

1. Cut down on caffeine

We just heard a thousand hearts shatter as they read the words “cut down on caffeine”. However, like all things in life, moderation is key…particularly when it comes to caffeine. While caffeine is a hugely beneficial ingredient for enhancing energy levels, cognitive function and ultimately, workout performance, it can have a negative effect when it comes to getting a good night’s sleep.

As a general rule, we recommend cutting your caffeine intake at least 4-6 hours before bedtime. Wondering why? Caffeine has a half-life of roughly five to six hours, which means it will continue to circulate in your body long after you feel the immediate effects. Simply put, a half-life refers to the time required for the amount of any specified property to decrease by half.

But, what does this actually mean?

Let’s say you take a pre-workout supplement loaded with 300mg of caffeine at 5:30 pm to get you feeling mentally alert and ready to take on an intense workout. Believe it or not, by 10:30 pm, as you’re winding down or already in bed, you will still have approximately 150mg of caffeine in your system. While you may not necessarily feel the energy-boosting and focus-enhancing benefits, the caffeine is likely to prevent you from having the highest quality sleep that’s required for optimal recovery. To put this into perspective, you can expect around 95 mg of caffeine in your average cup of coffee!

Trying to cut out caffeine but struggling to keep motivated and focussed in the gym? Try Evolve’s stimulant-free pre-workout formula designed to assist with weight loss and performance, while simultaneously boosting cognitive function. Introducing: Carnitine Rx!

2. Control your exposure to light

Did you know that your brain secretes more melatonin when it’s dark, as opposed to when it’s light?

Melatonin is a naturally occurring hormone influenced by light exposure that plays an important role in regulating your sleep-wake cycle. Simply put, your brain produces more melatonin when it’s dark, which makes you feel more tired, and less melatonin when it’s light, which makes you feel more alert. While this seems like a flawless system, the reality is that many aspects of modern day life can easily alter the body’s production of melatonin, which ultimately impacts how our body regulates our natural waking and sleeping times.

The solution? Minimise your exposure to artificial lights at least one hour prior to bed. You may have heard about the benefits of switching off all electronics in your room while you sleep, and there is certainly some truth behind it. In this day and age, the artificial light emitted from our smartphones, TVs, laptops, light bulbs and iPads is disrupting our body’s natural cyclical release of melatonin, which impacts our ability to switch off, unwind and relax (three core requirements for a good night’s sleep). If, for whatever reason, you are required to use electronics at nighttime, try the following tips for minimising your exposure to artificial light:

• Opt for a device with a smaller screen
• Turn down the brightness on your devices
• Try not to read with backlit devices
• Avoid late-night television

3. Get your carbs in at night

Consuming carbohydrates prior to bed helps to increase the production of the neurotransmitter, serotonin. The result? High levels of serotonin at night helps to soothe your brain into a calm, tranquil and relaxed state, which in turn helps you to enjoy a restful night’s sleep.  All in all, the higher the amount of serotonin in your bloodstream at night time, the better quality sleep you’re likely to experience.

We know what you’re thinking…”won’t carbs at night make me fat!?”

Short answer: Nope!

Carbohydrates alone will not make you fat, just like any other food group. However, consuming an excessive amount of calories that exceeds your body’s daily requirements over an extended period of time certainly will. Just like we said earlier, it’s all about moderation!

Let’s elaborate on this point further…

With regards to your carbohydrate consumption, the best way to ensure it fits into your dietary requirements is to plan your intake across the day in accordance with your personal needs. As a rule of thumb, aim to consume 40-50% of your daily carbohydrate intake in the last meal you eat before bed to maximise the benefits of elevated serotonin levels.

4. Find your routine

Thought set bedtimes were only for kids? Think again!

Believe it or not, having a set sleep schedule in place may be the difference between you tossing and turning all night long or you feeling well rested and recovered in the morning.

Can it really make that much of a difference? The answer is YES!

Going to bed and waking up at a similar time each day sets your body’s ‘internal clock’, which essentially alerts your brain when it’s time to rest and when it’s time to rise. Sticking to the same sleep schedule every night allows your body to find its natural rhythm and to settle into a regular sleep-wake cycle. It’s as simple as this – If you have an inconsistent sleep schedule that throws off your internal clock, you won’t feel or function your best. In fact, an inconsistent bedtime routine is known to cause irritability, drowsiness, mood swings, memory loss, headaches, and a decline in cognitive ability. Additionally, people with irregular sleeping patterns are more susceptible to experiencing a restless night’s sleep, which means your body isn’t able to enter the deep REM sleep required to restore and repair your brain and body. This poses a very real threat to those who work out regularly, but aren’t getting the consistent sleep they need to repair their muscles overnight!

Top tips for scheduling in a set bedtime:

• Plan out your week ahead and incorporate a set bedtime each night
• Set daily and weekly goals i.e. how many hours of sleep would you like to achieve each week?
• Switch off the TV and turn your phone to flight mode at least 1-2 hours prior to jumping into bed
• Limit your social media time – Scrolling through Instagram can be a serious time waster and an ineffective way to wind down at night

5. Supplement with Hyper Sleep

Tired of waking up feeling tired?

Struggling to have a restful night’s sleep?

Sick of seeing your gym results fade away?

Hyper Sleep may be just what you need!

Whether you’re short on time, struggle to change your schedule to incorporate more effective sleeping patterns, or are simply tired of watching the hard work you put in at the gym fade away due to a lack of sleep, Hyper Sleep is a potent sleep aid designed to induce a deep anabolic sleep to enhance muscular recovery through protein synthesis and human growth hormone release.

Why is sleep so important for muscle recovery? A lack of sleep makes it much harder for your muscles to recover, repair and grow post-workout as it slows down the production of growth hormone. Additionally, it also impacts your body and brains ability to function optimally to get the most out of your workouts!