“It is health that is real wealth and not pieces of gold and silver.” — Mahatma Gandhi
You need to nail down three things in order to reach your ideal body in the shortest amount of time: water intake, stress, and sleep.
Each plays an important part in how quickly you reach the ideal. If you need and/or want to get there as quickly as possible, nail down all three of these.
Water intake
Water is the most essential nutrient for this program. Some of its benefits include—but are not limited to—the bulleted points below:
- Improved muscle growth
- Reduced fatigue
- Faster weight loss
- Healthier tissue, bones, and joints
- Improved digestion
- Regulating body temperature
- Maintaining blood pressure
Our muscles comprise about 79% water [1], meaning that even a slight decrease in hydration levels results in a loss of strength during physical activity [1, 2, 3, 4].
To prevent this decrease in strength, drink more water! Unfortunately, how much you need to drink depends on your diet. For example, you’ll need less water if you drink many soups.
A good rule of thumb is to drink enough water until your pee is light yellowish [1], as seen in numbers 1 through 3. You can use the chart provided to get a general sense of where you are.
The general recommendation for men's daily water intake is 3000ml under normal circumstances of diet, exercise, and climate [1]. For reference, that’s about four 16-oz water bottles (13 cups) per day.
As an aside, if your pee is any color besides shades of yellow at any point, consult your doctor immediately! This is not a joke; your pee color is important.
Sleep
Sleep is vital for keeping your body primed for growing muscle. Poor sleep can lead to a 60% decrease in muscle mass over those who sleep the normal 8 hours [1, 2]! Additionally, in study #1, participants who slept an average of 8.5 hours a night saw an additional 40% increase in muscle mass over the control group that slept 6 hours.
Many people suffer from a lack of sleep [1], and if you are one of those people, here's a condensed review of how to get a good night's sleep:
- Perform your workouts at least 2-3 hours before bed, preferably midday
- Stick to a sleep schedule
- Avoid alcohol, caffeine, and nicotine 6 hours before bedtime
- If you want to have coffee/tea at night, go decaf
- Don’t consume large meals or beverages late at night
- When possible, avoid medicines that delay or disrupt sleep
- Don’t nap after 3 PM (15:00)
- Make sure to relax before bed
- Take a hot bath/shower before bed
- Make sure your room is as dark as possible
- Keep your phone and other electronics away from you
- Make sure the temperature in your room is on the cool side
- Get enough sunlight exposure during the day
- Don’t stay in bed if you really can’t fall asleep. Instead, do something else until you feel tired.
Stress
Besides sleep and hydration, stress has been highly correlated to muscle growth [1, 2]. In the research above, two groups were given the same nutrition and workout routine but were separated by perceived stress levels.
After 12 weeks, the low-stress group recovered from their workouts twice as fast as the high-stress group! Additionally, when the study came to an end, the low-stress group had much higher muscle mass and endurance. Ergo, make sure that you are, as people say nowadays, "chill.”
If you suffer from a lot of stress, here are a few things you can do to reduce it:
- Meditate daily. Studies have shown that just 5 to 10 minutes of daily meditation can dramatically reduce stress levels [1].
- Breathe deeply. Multiple studies have shown that if you’re feeling stressed at any time, a breathing practice can immediately reduce stress levels and increase cognitive abilities [1, 2, 3].
- Move more. Just by moving more, you can reduce overall stress [1, 2]. If you are stressed out, take a walk and see how you feel afterward.
- Reduce your time watching videos. Recent research indicates that watching too much TV, YouTube, or other forms of entertainment correlates with higher rates of depression and stress [1]. If you find yourself in this spot, pick a book you enjoy reading.
If you’re getting tired of reading at this point, take a moment to admire these puppies:
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Now get back to work—you're almost halfway through the guide.
3. Nutrition Prep5. Workout Prep