Better, Best, Rest!

We know sleep has a massive impact on our performance and when it comes to sports, there is certainly no denying it. There is ample research demonstrating disturbances in sleep may lead to decline in aerobic performance, maximum strength, and fine motor skills (Fullagar et al., 2015; Lastella et al., 2014; Vitale et al. 2019; Walsh et al., 2020). Additionally, good sleep quality is associated with decreases in perceived exhaustion and pain perception and higher motivation attention and concentration (Erlacher et al., 2012; Vitale et al., 2019). In sports with a high cognitive load along with the intense physical demands, the effects may be compounded. 

CrossFit (CF) is one such sport that challenges athletes in vigorous and complex exercises. A study recently published looked at sleep quality and some benchmark CF workouts. They found high sleep quality can be a performance-enhancing factor in especially in the gymnastics and Hero/Girl-WOD (p = 0.003 and p = 0.002 respectively) (Klier, K, Dorr, S., & Schmidt, A, 2021).

Research such as this is timely and very valuable is given the current popularity of CF and the range of experience in the athletes that participate. Novice athletes are potentially at great risk of injury if they haven’t mastered the proper movement patterns. More experienced athletes may know the appropriate movements yet push their limits too far. 

What can you glean from this? If you have the luxury of timing your workouts according to your system’s readiness, including only attempting neurally taxing workouts after reporting high sleep quality, you will likely lessen your injury risk, perform better and do so with less effort. Sometimes rest is best!