There’s only so many hours in a day. I’ve actually increased my sleep a lot, to about 7.5 hours/night. Recently, I started getting up 1/2 hour early to do some a little yoga/stretching. I like the feel of the stretch and know it’s important, but is it more important than sleep? I’m already bordering on not enough sleep…
If it matters, I’m training for IMLP and don’t have any other strength or stretching workouts in my week. Just sbr.
So, which is more important, 1/2 hour of stretch or 1/2 hour of sleep?
my personal opinion is to sleep and work in through the day and night several blocks of stretching time. get up at work, and stretch for 5 or 10 minutes, and stretch at night while watching tv or instead of it. put your yoga mat in the living room and get one to put in your office (if you work in an office). stretch while coffee is brewing, while your eggs are frying, in the hot shower, etc.
I was in the same position last year training for IMLP. I decided to do 20 minutes or so of yoga/stretching before going to sleep. Your first few minutes of sleep are usually restless anyway. Take the time at the end of the day to relax your body and mind and then get in bed, you will sleep better and feel great. Then do a few quick stretches in the hot shower in the morning, that always helps me. Good luck.
10 hours at work, 2+ hours commuting, 2 hours working out, an hour in the morning to get ready/study, an hour at night to cook/eat dinner and study/read, 7.5 hours sleep, 1/2 hour ‘personal’. I don’t own a tv, no computer at home. I’m almost down to bone… not much to cut out and retain sanity.
Now that’s a schedule! My condolences. I hope this is a transitory phase of your life, because it doesn’t sound too healthy.
In the short term, I would advise you to get that 7.5-8.0 hours of sleep. Try to stretch at work.
In the long term, have you thought of scaling down your triathlon ambitions to give yourself a break? Become a 5K racer. Run/lift/yoga on a regular basis is all you need for health. Sometimes our ego can drive us insane.
put your book on the floor with your mat and stretch while you read. i do this myself. you can be in alot of poses and read and it encourages you to be in the pose longer, really targetting deep tissue.
and, don’t forget to stretch while your food is cooking. i do this alot and it’s amazing how much stretching you can get in. it’s automatic for me now, i’m stretching all the time.
and no one is effective at work for 10 hours. studies show that people are only effective for 6 hours, some less. if you’re there 10 hours, you need to stretch to keep yourself fresh. look seriously, there is time there when you can stretch. if you are sitting that much time, you NEED to do it. office chairs are going to kill us all i swear.
You can search medline for the “current” thought on stretching and excercise/injury prevention. Bascially - there is no correlation. I’m not saying stretching isn’t important to some, but scientific evidence of such is lacking. Post injury, sure, I have my patients do lots of PT, stretching. Anecdotal evidence is abound (and certainly on this board). Sleep evidence is pretty firm - I’d get the sleep if for some reason you just can’t do both.
Question here…I’m thinking of doing yoga for the first time ever, this Sunday evening…if I do like the full 90 minutes - or however long it is…is it likely that I’ll be sore that I won’t want to work out for a couple days? Just curious as to what sort of pain to expect.
I have no idea FooMan. I don’t do Yoga nor have enough info about it to let you know. I would say, however, that if you are into long distance tri training, I would think 90 mins an awfully large block of time to do something other than swimming, biking or running. I’m sure some people need this for core strengthening or mental state of mind - I don’t. The “extra” 90 mins that I may have would be better spent with my kids kicking a soccer ball …
Go for it FFF. Shut your brain down and enjoy the class. Don’t anticipate the end of the class, don’t think how sore you’ll be tomorrow, stay in the moment and enjoy. Yoga is quality time with yourself. I wouldn’t trade it for the world.
Foo–you can expect to be sore, particularlly if you do the standing tree poses, and if you really push your stretches. since you run (right?) you might not be as sore as some people who are inactive in comparison. you should be able to work out, it’s not going to take you out of commission by any means, unless your ankles are very sore…then just do recovery workout. however i think the running may have your ankles in good shape already.
90 minutes is the general time for a class or session in the yoga world. i, however, get very impatient after 45 or 50 minutes, so the 60 minute classes are better for me (i find these at the health club as opposed to yoga studios).
anyway, there is more benefits from yoga by doing 15 minutes a day as opposed to one 90 minute class a week. it is the consistency that really makes your deep muscle tissue change, not necessarily the length of time you practice. you will see great change when you do poses (stretches) everyday, again, this can be in little blocks throughout the day as opposed to one longer block of time…whatever works best for you. so, if you like it and want to keep going, you’ll see good changes from class and daily practice. (might sound like alot, but once you start it’s so enjoyable…)
yoga is very healing…enjoy it, and let us know how it goes! (be excited, not concerned…it’s great!)
do you have to attend meetings at work ? I stretch during meetings… there are regular 1-hour Tuesday and Thursday meetings, so I get at least an hour’s stretching in per week. Calf, hamstring, and quads can all be stretched fairly unobtrusively. My co-workers are mostly used to me by now.
Sleep is #1. You can’t train if you’re not recovering. Take 10-15min out of the run session for a stretch afterward.
Go for it FFF. Shut your brain down and enjoy the class. Don’t anticipate the end of the class, don’t think how sore you’ll be tomorrow, stay in the moment and enjoy. Yoga is quality time with yourself. I wouldn’t trade it for the world.
Actually, the main reason I’m going is a friend want me to meet a single friend of hers that’s at the class…so there’s an extra benefit! I have heard yoga is a great thing to supplement in with training.
Foo–you can expect to be sore, particularlly if you do the standing tree poses, and if you really push your stretches. since you run (right?) you might not be as sore as some people who are inactive in comparison. you should be able to work out, it’s not going to take you out of commission by any means, unless your ankles are very sore…then just do recovery workout. however i think the running may have your ankles in good shape already.
90 minutes is the general time for a class or session in the yoga world. i, however, get very impatient after 45 or 50 minutes, so the 60 minute classes are better for me (i find these at the health club as opposed to yoga studios).
anyway, there is more benefits from yoga by doing 15 minutes a day as opposed to one 90 minute class a week. it is the consistency that really makes your deep muscle tissue change, not necessarily the length of time you practice. you will see great change when you do poses (stretches) everyday, again, this can be in little blocks throughout the day as opposed to one longer block of time…whatever works best for you. so, if you like it and want to keep going, you’ll see good changes from class and daily practice. (might sound like alot, but once you start it’s so enjoyable…)
yoga is very healing…enjoy it, and let us know how it goes! (be excited, not concerned…it’s great!)
Thanks for letting me know what to expect
