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The way you sleep can have a direct impact on the muscle gains you will ultimately see from your workouts. I’m going to show you how 8 popular sleeping habits are possibly interfering with your ability to build muscle and remain injury free. Don’t be embarrassed if you wind up finding out that you are doing at least a few of these. The important thing is that I’m here to help.
The first thing that you want to do before you even get into bed is stretch. Now I’m sure you’ve heard that it is not good to do static stretching before working out but do you know why? The reason is twofold. When you stretch before lifting you are interrupting the stored motor patterns that your body has to make movement efficient and memorable. This means, with the new muscle length provided by the stretching your bench press movement will not match up with the one that is stored. This leads to awkward pressing and an increase likelihood of injury.
The second thing that occurs is that the increased length disrupts the overlap of muscle fibers and interferes with the strength of contraction. If this happens, you can expect to see a decline in your strength levels and force output at the exact worst time that you would want that to happen, just before your workout.
Next, you want to be sure you adjust the sheets at the end of the bed before you even get in it. Why? This is because the tightness of your sheets will directly impact the tightness of your ankles in the long run. When you lay in bed your ankles will be pulled down into plantarflexion because of the sheets that are tucked in to the end of your bed. If you stay in this position for say 8 to 10 hours, you can guarantee that your calves will get tight and your ankle will lose mobility over time. Try squatting with bad ankle mobility and you will quickly see your leg gains go down as you no longer can descend low enough in the squat.
The health of your shoulders is paramount to a big upper body. Just ask anyone who has ever injured their shoulder what it meant to their ability to lift and make gains in their chest, arms and back not to mention their delts. The key is to limit the tightness that is likely to happen just by avoiding common but bad sleeping postures.
If you lay on your side with your hand under your head, make sure you don’t do this on top of the pillow. You can see instantly how this internally rotates your shoulder and leads to tight posterior shoulder capsules. If you place the hand under the pillow however you can dramatically change the situation and actually help to restore some lost external rotation.
The same can happen when you lay on your stomach. Your arms get internally rotated at the shoulder to support your head on the pillow. Even worse however, your low back takes a beating as you compress your lumbar spine and adaptively shorten your lumber paraspinal muscles. This leads to the all too common low back pain.
The best way to sleep is either on your back with the sheets loosened at the end of the bed or on your side with your legs straight and a pillow between your knees. Either way, you are minimizing the damage that you are doing to your body for extensive periods of time every night and giving your body a better chance of making pain free gains in the gym.
Finally, upon waking make sure you immediately start the rehydration process by drinking two 12-16 ounce glasses of water. You have just gone a long period of time without drinking any water so you will want to get this in you to provide the environment for muscle gains. And of course, never underestimate the value of good sleep. Cortisol will be released by your body the less sleep you get. This will directly counteract the benefits of testosterone and lead to less muscle. Sleep as much as you can.
If you are looking for a program that prioritizes muscle recovery as one of the main ways it helps you to build muscle much faster, head to and get one of the ATHLEAN-X Training Systems that best suits your goals. Start training like an athlete and start seeing better muscle gains more quickly.
For more videos on how to build more muscle and the best way to sleep to improve hormones and recovery, be sure to subscribe to our channel here on youtube at
48 comments
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Ya'll need a Purple bed
Jeff the type of cavalier who sets a timer for turning sides while sleeping to prevent muscle imbalancement
what shoes are those???
Me watching this at 3am
Not everybody keeps their bedsheets tight…. however you have described about the issues very strongly. I think a bit lighter would be good. Also, thanks for the suggestion about the pillows.
Jeff: Wakes you up from deep sleep to tell you that you're doing it wrong 🤨
This guy loves external rotation
9:01
Most people dont realise what there doing while their asleep lmao
i know this man didn't just drink tap water lol
Wetting the bed is killin your gains
little did Jeff know, he's actually in sleep paralysis and a creeper was watching him sleep the whole time. XP
I do all these things correctly but still have shoulder issues and anterior pelvic tilt.
I even do sleeping wrong
Next video how breathing out your nose is killing your gains
Sleeping flat on your back does have an issue … studies have shown that sleeping on your side is more favorable for the movement of fluids in the brain and clearing of plaques that eventually cause dementia and Alzheimer's. I am one of those that starts off on my back and rolls over to the side during the night … and I've had real problems with my shoulders over the years (almost 60yo now) because I was sleeping with my arms crossed in that position … with the upper arm's hand on the bed in front of my head and my lower arm's hand down around waist level. After years of that, I developed lingering problems in that upper shoulder … which would move to the other shoulder when I swapped sides of the bed with my wife. Eventually, I trained myself not to cross my arms and the problems subsided. So, great video … ergonomics is a lot more important than most people realize and extra important when it comes to sleep!
Now I dont sleep on proper form
Even sleep is too hard for me to be an athlete.
ahhahahah wtf is this
Jeff: Your gains are killing your gains
i sleep on stomach without pillow tho and head to the side (my head is getting a lot of strain but i fell asleep like that the easiest
Jeff sleeps with his hair done
How breathing oxygen is killing your gains
Beans⁷
what if we're using a memory foam pillow ?
I've been sleeping flat on my back, arms down, loose sheets and no pillow for a long time before seeing this video.
Hi obama
Well ig i cant even sleep right
?
This intro LOOOOL
How sleep apnea is killing your gains
Here for the comments
This is most Important as I always gets up with a shoulder or neck pain
I know I Am Watchinh it after a long time since it was posted but can you please tell me that Is day sleeping good for completing the sleep that we didn't get at night
6:45 cmon Jeff, we all saw you flex your abs there. Natural sleeping state? Engage the core?
Jeff drinks from the sink !!!
when jeff bends over to pickup his towel, he sits down on the ground fully before picking it up to avoid imbalance in the neck muscles.
I click the video
To watch and learn somsomething
To see the comments ✅😏
Me who automatucally moves during sleep and do various forms without knowing this b like :- interesting 🙂
When Jeff brushes his teeth, he does it with both hands to avoid muscular imbalance
for this man anything kills your gains
Is there any way to avoid rounding your shoulders while sleeping on your back?
I'm using wedge pillow(incline pillow) for gerd. Would this be bad for the posture?
I know I’m probably not going to get a response but I’ve been so discouraged to try working out again. I seem to always find myself in pain especially after a workout no matter the preventative measures I take. I’ve been to the chiropractor and he says I have amazing joints and great flexibility within them so it confuses me why I always have something going on within my hips and lower back. If I take a step weird off of a stair after being fine all day I’ll instantly start to feel it and have to move to avoid further pain. I sleep straight on my back and I don’t even use a pillow anymore but I still wake up all feeling like my body is rusted metal. I described my pain as sciatica but the recommendations for sciatica only make a short term difference. I want to be healthy and feel fit so bad . Help:( is this SI joint pain?
Me : what is killing my gains , I don’t understand.
Jeff : your sleep.
6:46 Jeffs contracts pecs and abs for the filming when he's supposed to pretend sleeping 😀
Jeff: “NOT SLEEPING WHILE SUCKING ON A BIG ‘OL BINKIE IS KILLING YOUR GAINS”
When I try the arm under the pillow, I always wake up with my hand asleep, pins and needles. Any fix?