Podiatrist · Specialist in Biomechanics · Founder of VOLKAN
"Movement is practiced during the day, but many of its adaptations are built while we sleep."
"I train five days a week... why am I not improving?"
Some time ago, a recreational runner came to consult, worried because he had been accumulating minor discomforts for months.
He wasn't training more than before.
He hadn't changed his shoes.
His planning seemed reasonable.
However, every few weeks a new overload appeared.
While we were talking, an apparently insignificant detail emerged.
He slept about five hours each night.
He worked late.
He checked the phone before going to bed.
On the weekends, he tried to catch up on lost sleep.
His problem was not only how he trained.
It was how he recovered.
Because the body doesn't just need stimuli to improve.
It needs time to transform them into adaptation.
Adapting requires rest.
Throughout this book, we have repeated an idea several times.
The organism adapts to loads.
But there is an equally important detail.
Adaptation does not occur while we are training.
It occurs, above all, during recovery periods.
While we walk, run, or lift weights, the body faces a challenge.
After it needs to reorganize.
Repair tissues.
Regulate hormones.
Consolidate learning.
Prepare to respond better next time.
Rest is not a pause in training.
It is part of training.
The brain also works while we sleep.
When we sleep we do not disconnect.
Our brain continues working.
During the sleep it reorganizes part of the information received during the day.
Consolidates learning.
Reinforces neural connections.
Eliminates less relevant information.
And optimizes movement strategies.
That’s why, after learning a new skill, sleeping usually improves our performance the next day.
Not because we have kept practicing.
But because the nervous system has continued learning while we rested.
Sleeping little changes the way we move.
After a bad night we usually notice something curious.
We are less attentive.
We react more slowly.
We struggle to concentrate.
But it also changes our biomechanics.
Balance can become less precise.
Coordination decreases.
The perception of effort increases.
And the threshold of pain can be reduced.
It does not mean that a bad night will cause an injury.
It would be a simplification.
It means that the body has fewer resources to adapt to the demands of the next day.
And when that situation persists for weeks or months, the problem stops being occasional.
It starts to become a new state of functioning.
What does this have to do with barefoot?
More than it might seem.
Many people attribute any discomfort to the change in footwear.
However, when we analyze the context, we find that they have also increased their training load, are going through a stressful period, or have been sleeping little for weeks.
The body does not adapt the tissues in parts.
It integrates all those variables.
That’s why a good transition to barefoot does not solely depend on the number of kilometers run.
It also depends on whether the body has the energy and time necessary to adapt.
There is no efficient adaptation without recovery.
What I see every day in consultation
There are patients who train with admirable discipline.
They plan their sessions.
They take care of their nutrition.
They choose their footwear carefully.
However, when I ask them how many hours they sleep, many times the true explanation of why the body seems not to respond as they expect appears.
We don’t always need to train more.
Sometimes we need to recover better.
Because an exhausted body does not stop adapting.
Just start doing it more slowly.
And, at times, with less efficient strategies.
What you can do starting today
The next time you plan a training week or want to start a significant change in your physical activity, include one more question.
Not only think about how much you are going to move.
Ask yourself also how much you are going to rest.
Sleeping an extra hour for several nights can provide more capacity for adaptation than adding another training session when the body is already fatigued.
Recovering is also training.
🔬 In a sentence
Rest does not interrupt adaptation. It is the time when much of it occurs.
The most important idea
The body needs movement to improve.
But it needs rest to transform that movement into learning and adaptation.
Every night represents an opportunity to reorganize tissues, consolidate motor strategies, and prepare the body for the loads of the next day.
That’s why sleeping well is not a luxury.
It is a biological necessity for anyone who wants to move better.
A question to reflect on
Think about your last few weeks.
Are you asking your body to adapt... while denying it the time needed to do so?
In the next article…
We already know that sleep influences biomechanics.
But there is another factor capable of modifying movement even when the tissues are perfectly healthy.
The stress.
Why can a time of work pressure increase pain?
Why do we walk differently when we are worried?
And how can a sustained emotion alter muscle tone, breathing and the way the brain interprets signals from the body?
In the next chapter we will discover that stress not only affects the mind. It also silently modifies the way we move.