NY Mag has a new interview with advice from a personal trainer who works with Kelly Ripa, Shakira and Karlie Kloss, a woman named Anna Kaiser (whom I will be calling Anna so as not to confuse her with my favorite person who goes by Kaiser). I found this story through The Huffington Post, which has been writing about the importance of sleep for some time. Their founder, Ariana Huffington, wrote a book earlier this year called The Sleep Revolution. Huffington writes that we are a nation in a chronic state of sleep deprivation and that by getting more and enough sleep we can improve many aspects of our lives. Kloss’s trainer agrees, and tells NY Mag that she will advise her clients to sleep in if they are tired rather than get up to exercise.
What wellness means to her
What wellness means to me: It means balancing my energy, lifestyle, and nutrition from an 80/20 perspective. That means 80 percent of the time staying on track, and enjoying and treating myself the other 20 percent. It’s balancing enough fitness without overdoing it and getting enough sleep. It’s about finding that perfect balance where I’m enjoying the day, and not racing through it. It’s also about feeding myself well and seeing people who I love. As I get older, I think about the quality of my life and a balanced way to enjoy that. That’s true wellness — being well from inside out.She recommends not to overdo it with exercise
You can tell if you feel like you are unable to recover from the workout you had. It’s still hard to breathe. You don’t have energy. You are sore instantly. You just can’t seem to get enough water. Then it’s too hard. I don’t think that anyone should be working out more than 60 to 90 minutes, four to five days a week.She advocates sleep over working out harder or eating less
Sleep more. I don’t think anyone understands how important it is. If you have a choice where you’ve only been sleeping five or six hours and can sleep an extra hour or work out, sleep an extra hour. You’re running your body down, which will affect your energy and hold onto excess water and weight. It will make you hungrier. Five to six hours for a week really prohibits your cognitive and hormones functions. You really need seven to eight hours. Working out harder or better or eating less isn’t the answer. It’s about getting enough sleep.She drinks alkaline water and believes her blood type influences the acid in her stomach
On staying fit while traveling: It’s so hard. There’s almost no way not to have any jet lag. I try and stay hydrated. Alkaline water gives me more energy than regular water. I have an acidic stomach, as most O-blood types do.
[From NY Mag via Huffington Post]
I have a solution where you can both get up early to work out and still get enough sleep if you are tired – take a nap. I take a nap every afternoon if I can, but I realize that most people don’t work at home and can’t do this. Napping can seem indulgent in our culture, but in some countries they get time off to take naps every day after lunch. As for the exercise vs. sleep in debate, as Huffington Post reports, it’s kind of a wash science-wise as to what you should do. Sometimes I work out in the mornings and it always makes me feel better, although it can be harder to get going in the mornings. There’s also a sense of accomplishment if you work out early, like you kicked butt and are going to have a great day.
Sleep is definitely important but I don’t know if I would follow Anna’s advice in general. She also spouted all that nonsense about blood type and alkaline water, which is total crap. At least she seems like a decent person, judging by her Instagram posts and this interview. Some of these celebrity trainers are total a-holes.
Also I want to give a shout out to my current favorite YouTube trainer, Jessica Smith. Her workouts are fun, they range from easy to very hard, and she’s positive and upbeat without being fake. Jessica agrees with Anna and gives similar advice that sleep trumps diet and exercise because lack of sleep can derail your progress.
Anna was on My Diet is Better than Yours with my man, Shaun T (I only do T25 occasionally, I’m not an Insanity person), but I haven’t seen that show yet.
Damn girl.
Chritine salus workouts on youtube are amazing too.
Will check her out Steph thanks for the recommendation!
My dad used to train a lot from karate to bodybuilding and I remember when I was in highschool and was too tired to go to my dance class he’d tell me to just rather sleep than go training. And he was right. I also have this habit of sleeping in the adternoon for at least an hour and then I get back to work. I work from home and late hours so this helps alot. Not everyday but I rather go for a walk or take a power nap if I can’t focus. Same as training. Sorry for typos I’m on my phone and too lazy to spell check
Couldn’t agree with her more about sleep. For me, sleep is the key to everything–my health and both my emotion and physical well-being. And the reason why I’m committed to staying active is because it helps me sleep better.
Sleep is huge for me, too. I have finally stopped fighting it and realized I need about 9 hours per night for optimal functioning.
I think it’s ok to skip the occasional workout in favor of sleep but that’s assuming you aren’t doing that more than once in while or pretty soon you’ve gone off the rails with your workouts. So I tend to choose to work out over sleep — the endorphins from exercise are pretty important, too — and try to catch up on the sleep later.
You can usually tell when you’ve hit the point where the sleep will do you way more good than the workout. You’re SUPER tired and can barely get out of bed, you oversleep, you’re super grumpy for the rest of the day, or it affects your performance in other areas. When it’s that bad, sleep is the best thing for you! But it’s a balance, because otherwise you’re usually better off getting up and working out 🙂
I see it a lot with other moms, it’s like it turns into a contest of who’s getting the least sleep. “I only slept X hours” and then “oh, I only got Y”. It’s like the most hard core mom is the one with the least sleep, but the truth is that we’re making ourselves miserable!
Naps are my best friend. With fibromyalgia – naps are especially handy. I only get to have them on the weekends though, because the earliest I get home is about 4pm and I’m not the kind of person who can stay up past 10 on a work night. We’re totally the kind of people who eat supper between 4:30 and 6 on any given night. #smalltownlife
Now that I’m starting to get my pain levels under control (at least for most days), I need to start easing back into workouts. Just the idea of it exhausts me. But being more active and losing some weight is only going to benefit my pain levels in the long run. I think I’m going to start out just doing some free weights or something so I can do them at home whenever I feel like it. Then, probably jump back into cardio once I’ve gotten a bit of a routine down.
I can’t nap in the afternoon. 🙁 If I do, I am all weird when I wake up and can’t get myself to proper work for hours. I either need a long (6-8 hours) sleep or none at all. So in my case it would be better to listen to this trainer.
The way I was taught is, check your heart rate immediately upon waking and before you get out of bed. If it is elevated you are tired and should rest that day.
I’d never heard that but it makes sense. Thanks! 🙂
Sort of. Elevated resting heart rate is a sign of over training (there are other signs too), meaning you’re pushing your body way too hard without sufficient rest. Sleep is an important part there, but so is taking a rest period in general.
It can also be a sign of thyroid issues.
I agree with her. She’s not saying do this everyday, but sometimes your body needs a break. I can’t take a nap, since I work 10 hours everyday in an office. If I took a nap when I got home, I’d never be able to fall asleep.
I can not nap. I am awful at it. I dont know why. I can nap on vacations, but in every day life… it just is impossible, I end up staring at the ceiling.
I have never been able to nap. Even as a kid. We had nap time in kindergarten and I would constantly get in trouble for being active. If I do nap at all during the day, I feel absolutely disgusting afterwards – like drugged and groggy and nauseous with a headache. If it works for you, great, but napping isn’t for everyone.
Lilacflowers!!!!! I feel sick after a nap too!! Dizzy, headache and nauseous…never met someone else that does too! I also feel nauseous (and have been sick!) if I drink a cold glass of water on an empty stomach?
Even before depression, napping made me feel horrible. From 30 to 60 minutes, I tried it and the results were horrible. I don’t understand. I feel much happier when I can run around and do stuff, staying active is much better for me than napping.
When I was working nights, I also refused to nap because it made me even more tired. My body just wanted to sleep, trying to trick it with a nap was stupid 🙂
@Amanduh, if I drink water after a nap, it is coming back up but I don’t have that problem in the morning.
Lol I’m not alone. My grandmother used to get so annoyed with me when she babysat she’d put me down for a nap and I was always just outside staring out the window.
Grumpy, disoriented, and super hungry – that’s me after a nap, if I manage to fall asleep at all. I wish I could experience the restorative nap, but I’ve never have, not even as a kid.
Yes! Super hungry and always for something sugary or carb-y — for that quick energy hit. BLEH.
I can’t exercise in the morning. Heck, I don’t even eat breakfast in the mornig because that means I would need to wake up 20 minutes earlier. And if I sleep in the afternoon I just end up being more tired than before the nap.
Exercising in the evening also tires me out so I can go to sleep earlier ( as in 2am) because usually I fall asleep around 4 or 5, even if I wake up at 7 in the morning. Generally my clock seems to be off because I am the most awake and alert in the night. I had a summer job working night shifts and it was the best time ever.
I’d love to be that person who wakes up at 5 and drinks a smoothie and then goes for a run and goes to sleep before midnight, but I don’t know how to do that
This is me including the no breakfast. Napping also makes me feel even more tired and disoriented. I’ve also never been able to sleep in the day unless I was seriously ill and or on medication.
Haha I wish I could nap even as a little kid in preschool I was the kid with her eyes wide open while everyone else took their nap. It takes extreme exhaustion , hangover,or jet lag for me to get a good doze in. But they really are great when I am able to.
Sometimes sleep is the best workout but of course it depends on the exercise plan. As a marathon runner I can tell you that.
I try to listen to my body. I’ll rest and sleep when I’m tired because I’ve found that pushing myself when I’m genuinely tired, as opposed to being lazy, leaves me feeling depleted and cranky. On the days that I make it to the gym and still feel sluggish I’ll just have a light workout and when I’m feeling energetic I’ll smash it. But these days I only go to the gym three times a week just to unwind and stay healthy, I’m not going six times a week anymore in a bid to look ‘perfect’. Not only would I find that exhausting, I’d also find it incredibly boring.
I was with her until the blood type stuff. Insert eye roll emoji.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3893150/
there’s a lil bit of truth in there but not as much and certainly not as obsessively they are trying to make us believe. But yeah, lets not forget that out body is all about reacting to chemical stimulation. Just think what a little pill of something does to us. It has of course some influence.
No there’s not. The body reacts to a pill because the pill is a substance that is designed to cause a chemical reaction. The whole alkaline/ion stuff is crap. Though there are usually actual scientists on this board that could explain it.
I don’t know this lady, but I like her already. Finally some common sense!
Me too, and I’m not saying that just because she says what I want to hear.
Does she truly believe that no one has an acidic stomach? That one’s a head scratcher.
I suffer from depression so napping would be the death of the rest of my day. It’s hard enough to get out of bed, hell that I’m going back in one in the middle of the day! Also that doesn’t work when you have work that’s 9-5. I rather take a walk while eating something small for lunch and clear my head, that refreshes me much more before returning back to deskwork. It’s my new best habit, I feel like skipping at the end of a brisk walk.
About food, I noticed that when I eat less and very healthy, I’m never lethargic. I believe in eating until you’re 80% full. I’m more concentrated and happy than when I’m eating too much (and sleeping too much). Whatever works best for YOUR body. There is no general advice when it comes to our bodies, moods and how to deal with them.
Oh and I’m not an Insanity person either. I threw up my water the first time. Not my jam!
What u said about food is spot on. I’m always lethargic because I eat until I’m 110% full, then I oversleep and the cycle goes on. 🙁
From experience, it’s a different kind of tired – when your body is approaching a point where it’s chronically deprived of rest and you’re still trying to push it to work out, you can reach a point where the workout only serves to make you MORE tired and push you toward over-training. Under normal circumstances, one of the best things you can do to perk yourself up is to get moving! That brisk walk you mention, some squats at your desk, just get your blood flowing again.
With the exception of the type O stuff, I agree with all she said. Like the anti- Madonna ,healthy workout. I also believe in the sleep part. Maybe beaceause I’m in my forties, but I believe I aged myself prematurely from working out too hard so,I have pulled way back and feel much better. No more than five times a week for an hour, as she says. I see women at my gym ALL THE TIME who really should give themselves a break. They look sixty even though I know they aren’t. And the alkaline water is no joke! I love that stuff. Rant over.
As a chronic insomniac I know what sleep deprivation can do to your mind and body. Unfortunately, there doesn’t seem to be a cure for some of us. (And yes, if you can suggest it, I’ve tried it.)
I know the feeling. Exercise helped me for a while and then my body got used to it. Back to little to no sleep again!
You might check put the Sleep Shepherd. It is a hat that monitors brain waves and uses an audio tone to reduce your brain waves and lull you to sleep. It was invented by an MIT guy whose daughter had insomnia so bad the doc wanted to put her on a roofie. He sells them on Amazon.
I love Jessica Smith! And Peanut is adorable.
I’m CONVINCED that afternoon naps are what keeps me looking somewhat young ( comparing to my younger sibs for example, who are also parents? ) I’m totally big on Naps but nowadays is mostly something i can do on the weekends, but back when I lived closer to work? you could catch me in my dark room napping between 6-6:30 with zero shame
I get up at 5am every morning for running but I go to bed around 9, it actually works out fine.
Probably a stupid question coming: I get that the water stuff is crap but what about the blood type/acid stomach stuff? I am o positive and I think my stomach is a fountain of acid. I googled it but who knows how much of the answers are garbage. Please share medical community commenters!
My body reacts right away if I don’t get enough sleep. If I go more than a few days with less sleep than I need, I pack on the pounds. If I’m tired I try to eat the same as I always do, but I’m also usually famished and have to resist the urge to eat everything in sight. If I get enough good-quality sleep, that weight magically disappears in a few days, no extra exercise required and no hunger pangs. It’s not a lot of weight, maybe five or so pounds, but enough that it is noticeable – if only to me.
Sleep is incredibly important for recovering from hard workouts too. The body’s growth hormone, used to repair muscles, is secreted during REM sleep. Elite athletes get more than 8 hours of sleep and take afternoon naps for this reason.
I agree with this! Sometimes you can power through a workout on little sleep and it’s better for you than sitting around and making yourself more tired. But allowing your body to rest a little more will make you look and feel better, and is so crucial to building muscle and staying strong.
Omg I LOVE jessica smith. Her workouts are great and she is absolutely lovely. Peanut is super cute too. My cats watch me while I do the workouts so it’s like a workout class with pets. I love how she has workouts for all fitness ranges.