Nap for my Back

There was a time in my life when I thought sleeping was a huge waste of time. I had so much to do, so much to fit in, and sleeping just ate into that. 


I have since learned (a long time ago) that sleep and rest are just as important to building muscle as the actual lifting, in fact, without proper sleep, your efforts in the gym may actually be more detrimental.


In a world of "bigger is better, more is better" this is often forgotten- people go to the gym and train and train and neglect the other half that is necessary- the rest and rebuilding.


I needed to change my training split, I have to add a second Back day in since I have a competition coming up. I have found adding a second Back day gives me the wide back, impressive shoulders, and well developed rear delts and biceps that all help me place well.


I was discussing it with Roy and told him the only thing I think I can do is eliminate my second hamstring morning on Thursday and add in the Back. I hated to do it as we have been working on legs and really making progress, but I have to get that second day in.  


Then I had an idea and I sent him a private message on Facebook. "What if I trained back on Wednesday morning instead of doing my conditioning? I would still see you in the evening for my quad training. It's not unheard of in the Bodybuilding world to lift twice in one day - it's done all the time." 


He messaged back: "Yes, but in the Bodybuilding world Jay Cutler goes home and naps for a few hours before training again at night, I don't think you can do that."


I thought about it and decided I could easily do that. I cannot sleep a few hours, but I can get a good 30 minutes in. We decided to try it and see how I did.


Wednesday morning I trained back and biceps, my usual session. It felt good to add a second day in. Off I went to work and plotted my day.


I have my own office, complete with a door.  At 11:15 I shut the door, closed the blinds and everyone knows that means "stay away" (I change in my office to run stairs at lunch, so the closed blinds is nothing new).

I have a big, long body pillow that I laid out under my window, and although laying in the sunny window would feel great, sort of like a cat, I decided I needed to close the blind and make it dark.

I slipped the pillow under my desk, it would make it a bit darker and cozier; I had my light wool blanket too.

I set the alarm on my phone for 30 minutes, that is all I would really need, and all I could fit in. Much to my surprise, I fell asleep almost immediately (I did notice the wall clock is very loud though). 


I awoke suddenly- I had forgotten one key thing- turn my office phone off! Damn, someone called and needed to talk to me. Luckily my alarm would sound in only 5 minutes, so I didn't lose too much rest time.

I folded my pillow in half, tucked it under my desk out of sight and got back to work. I left at 5:00 and headed off to meet Roy. I told him I napped and felt great- I was ready for a brutal quad day. He seemed intrigued.

I killed it. I felt rested, I felt strong, and excited. I love new things, and this would allow me to fit all my training in and develop the legs and back simultaneously.

The only question now is how many days a week do I nap? I could really get used to this!