Man, I’m glad y’all set it off,
Used to lift hard, now your body’s just soft,
First you were down with the chocolate whey,
Now I see you eating fast food like every day.
– Ice Cube (probably)
If you wish, you can grab the N.W.A. Newsletter Playlist on Spotify here, all of the songs that have been featured in the newsletter are on the playlist.
Happy Friday, Coach J here from Anyman Fitness – and welcome to the latest edition of The N.W.A. Newsletter.
Each week with the N.W.A. Newsletter, I give you the best Nutrition, Weightlifting, and/or Attitude advice for you to start to use in your life today.
Tens of thousands of people have used this exact newsletter to gain muscle, lose fat, and become a better version of themselves…
Without any further ado, let’s get started..
N.W.A. Tip Of The Week
Hopefully you know how important sleep is to your health.
Sleeping improves a number of important health markers, and makes it a million times easier to maintain a healthy body weight.
It’s often suggested to get 7 hours of sleep, minimum, every night.
It’s also suggested to get to bed and rise at the same hour each day.
But does the time you go to bed and rise really matter that much?
Or is it simply the fact that you want to get consistent, steady sleep?
What about self proclaimed “night owls”?
You know the type – the kind who want to stay up until 2 am or later each night, and sleep until noon?
Is this sort of a sleeping schedule healthy?
Or is it better from a health perspective to adhere to the old “early to bed and early to rise” schedule?
I recently came across an impressive, 8 year study on sleep schedules (you can read about it here if you’d like).
The study was massive and had 433,268 subjects they studied.
They first asked the subjects to define if they were a “definite morning” person, a “more morning than evening” person, a “more evening than morning” person, or a “definite evening” person.
And then, the study closely compared those who categorized themselves as “definite morning” versus “definite evening”.
They wanted to compare the true early risers with the true night owls.
After weeding out factors like age, sex, obesity, smoking rates, etc – here’s what they found…
Night owls had an increased all-cause mortality rate of 10%.
Simply staying up later increased your chance of dying for any reason.
Night owls had a 94% higher risk for psychological orders.
This includes depression and anxiety.
Night owls had a 30% higher risk of diabetes.
Night owls had a 25% higher risk of neurological disorders.
Night owls had a 23% higher risk of gastrointestinal disorders.
Night owls had a 22% higher risk of respiratory disorders.
Night owls had a 10% higher risk of cardiovascular disease.
These findings are wild to think about.
Our natural, circadian rhythms seem to be more important than we’ve ever realized.
Night owls attempt to delay that natural rhythm, and in essence, give themselves a permanent case of “jet lag”.
Anyone who has traveled a few time zones over know how badly that can mess with your sleep cycle.
Imagine living feeling that way permanently – in a constant, groggy, brain fog sort of an existence.
If you’re a “night owl” and you struggle to get to bed on time, here are a few key takeaways that may help:
Exercise as many days as possible.
Want to know a secret hack to getting to bed on time?
Lift weights and walk 10,000 steps per day.
It’s hard to get to bed at a normal hour if your body isn’t tired, and your mind isn’t calm; exercise ensures both of those things happens.
Begin going to sleep at the same hour each night.
Somewhere in the 10 pm – 11 pm time frame seems to be the sweet spot.
This ensures you’ll get a solid 7 hours of sleep (unless you have to wake up very early).
Begin waking up at the same time each morning.
Yes, this includes weekends… yeah, I know… that’s not fun.
If you’d like to add an extra hour on the weekends, that isn’t a big deal.
But avoid sleeping until 10 am or later – that will just make it more difficult to fall asleep that night.
Get sunlight into your eyes as soon as you can upon waking.
This seems to “reset” your biological circadian rhythm.
It alerts your body that the sun is out, and it’s time to wake your body up.
This will naturally make you tired at the right time in the evening.
Avoid caffeine past 2 pm, and avoid drinking alcohol.
Caffeine is a stimulant, and alcohol disrupts restorative, REM sleep.
Keep both of these to a minimum to improve your sleep quality.
Optimize your sleep environment.
Use black out curtains, eye masks, and ear plugs.
Make your room as cool as possible (aim for 66 degrees Farenheit).
Only use your bed for sleep and sex – do not lay in your bed for hours before it’s time to sleep.
If you are a “night owl”, it IS possible to change.
It will take some time, but it’s certainly worth it.
Especially after learning about all the health disadvantages having a “late to bed, late to rise” sleeping schedule.
I currently have a few spots open on my personal, 1:1 roster for coaching.
I team up closely with my 1:1 clients and we work together on an individualized approach for success.
Here’s an example from a recent 1:1 client who lost 68 pounds in my program:
To learn more about this unique, “All In” experience, tap here and fill out this quick form – it will go directly to my email inbox.
Looking forward to speaking with you.
More AF Content From Around the Web:
The biggest reason “low carb” dieting works is because it eliminates 95% of junk food.
The same thing would happen if you went “low fat”, too, for the same reason.
Either approach can work, but neither approach is special in any way, other than eliminating unnecessary calories.
I hope you enjoyed this edition of the Anyman Fitness N.W.A. Newsletter.
I’ll be back next week.
Hope you have a wonderful weekend.
Best, Coach J
Anyman Fitness
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