Author Topic: The way you sleep might affect your athleticism  (Read 7173 times)

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Raptor

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The way you sleep might affect your athleticism
« on: May 05, 2011, 01:21:59 pm »
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I've been thinking a lot about this and I came to the conclusion it's true. Not only that, but it never gets talked about, nobody mentions it. Probably everybody thinks it's not important.

But really - you spend in bed say ~8 hours EVERY day (night), and you think that doesn't affect you?

Where I'm coming with this is something I realized soon enough: I always sleep on my back. Always always. Rarely, if ever, I get on my belly. Now the question was "why?". And you'll probably say "who cares?".

Well, staying on my belly I always feel like I suffocate, like I'm "trapped", my face is being pressed on the bed sheet and I need to twist my head around to breathe properly, my back feels weird, and all kinds of distressing stuff happens. So I stay on my belly 5 minutes at the most and then need to turn on my back to actually sleep.

So why is all this important and how is this related in actually helping you?

Well let's think about it - why would that happen? And I've came to the conclusion that all this stuff is actually a lack of flexibility in certain areas. In my case, I'm in anterior tilt and the hip flexors are very tight. They pull to "shorten" the angle between the legs and the upperbody, thus pressing my face onto the bed sheet.

Also, the shoulders are not flexible and they make me feel all kinds of pressure on my upperback/neck/head while on my belly.

If you'll actually pay attention to the way you sleep you could find potential valuable info about your flexibility (or lackthereof) for YOU.

A guy who likes to sleep on his belly a lot will probably have very flexible hip flexors yet tight hamstrings, while a guy who prefers to sleep on his back will be the opposite: tight hip flexors and flexible hams (not a rule, but you get the idea).

Now obviously there are tons of positions you can sleep into, but just think about this stuff if you care to.
Current PR status:

All time squat: 165 kg/Old age squat: 130 kg
All time deadlift: 184 kg/Old age deadlift: 140 kg
All time bench: 85 kg/Old age bench: 70kgx5reps
All time hip thrust (same as old age hip thrust): 160kgx5reps

gukl

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Re: The way you sleep might affect your athleticism
« Reply #1 on: May 05, 2011, 04:22:34 pm »
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sleep on side, legs bent with pillow between knees = win

or on your back with pillows under knees

Raptor

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Re: The way you sleep might affect your athleticism
« Reply #2 on: May 05, 2011, 05:14:16 pm »
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On your back with pillow under knees would resemble sitting... I think that would stretch the glutes and really shorten the hip flexors.
Current PR status:

All time squat: 165 kg/Old age squat: 130 kg
All time deadlift: 184 kg/Old age deadlift: 140 kg
All time bench: 85 kg/Old age bench: 70kgx5reps
All time hip thrust (same as old age hip thrust): 160kgx5reps

Daballa100

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Re: The way you sleep might affect your athleticism
« Reply #3 on: May 05, 2011, 07:28:40 pm »
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I think this definitely holds some water, it's nice to know someone else is concerned about sleep positions too.  The hip angles definitely play a role, but I don't think it will make or break your athleticism unless your tightness is very bad.  If anything it'll change the way you'll have to warm up and cool down, with different emphasis on flexibility.

I would like to add though that you could look at your hip/waist position from a different point of view, literally.  I usually sleep on my left side (on my hip), and it seems this causes lateral flexion of my waist, which in turn seems to make my right side more tight, and more prone to contract during movements, or in maintenance of posture.

--This is just a hypothesis however, it may be just due to the fact my right leg is my fast leg(and dominant), and that portion of the waist/hip would naturally be tighter.

What I'm more concerned about is sitting in school all day, my glute activity is horrible, my god.  It sucks, I try to find an excuse during my classes to stand up a lot so I can squeeze them butt cheeks lol.

gukl

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Re: The way you sleep might affect your athleticism
« Reply #4 on: May 07, 2011, 06:31:47 pm »
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On your back with pillow under knees would resemble sitting... I think that would stretch the glutes and really shorten the hip flexors.

they are only raised buy a few inches, i started doing it when i had a stress fracture in my spine cos it relieved the pain and never stopped it...

but what you say might be right, my hip flexors/glute activation is causing me problems.

what about the pillows vs no pillows argument? (yeah i used to browse that terrible growtaller forum haha, tonnes of threads on stuff like this)

TheSituation

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Re: The way you sleep might affect your athleticism
« Reply #5 on: May 07, 2011, 06:47:22 pm »
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DamienZ

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Re: The way you sleep might affect your athleticism
« Reply #6 on: May 07, 2011, 07:20:03 pm »
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tychver

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swans05

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Re: The way you sleep might affect your athleticism
« Reply #8 on: May 07, 2011, 08:05:22 pm »
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sleeping on your back while in excessive anterior tilt is the worse thing you can do raptor - it seems you suffer from extension based back pain which this just makes worse

pop a pillow under your hamstrings and/or sleep on your side with a pillow btw your thighs

that's what i do

Raptor

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Re: The way you sleep might affect your athleticism
« Reply #9 on: May 08, 2011, 06:08:09 am »
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I think it gets even worse since my bed has been "broken into" over time so I get even more flexion than in a new bed.
Current PR status:

All time squat: 165 kg/Old age squat: 130 kg
All time deadlift: 184 kg/Old age deadlift: 140 kg
All time bench: 85 kg/Old age bench: 70kgx5reps
All time hip thrust (same as old age hip thrust): 160kgx5reps