Isaac Medina

I have a friend who, yesterday while learning the squat, tweaked his back on the last rep of the last set of 5. I had him do the "Superman" drill to help set his back in extension prior to the last set of 5. He squatted 65x5x3.

He has lymphoma and lupus, so I've been starting him off with very light weight.

He's not blaming me for his back tweak, as he said that he gets them all the time. In his own words: "Don't worry. I don't blame you. This has always been a problem. My only worry is that I will keep letting it stop me. As long as I am back in the gym to try again I will be ok. I have always used this as an excuse to not get in shape because this always happens."

He's 6', 230lbs, and super willing to get better. But now he's somewhat apprehensive towards squats.

Again, have you experienced something similar to this and how did you solve this?

Mark Rippetoe

Once again, is he doing situps or back extensions?

Isaac Medina

No sir, he's not. He hadn't done really anything prior to this except maybe go hiking, or on a jog once in a while.

Mark Rippetoe

If the guy has a history of back tweaks, they may well stop by the time you get his deadlift to 225. Hurry.

Isaac Medina

Understood. Thank you Mark.

Sib

Max2018

I have a fitness watch that tells me how much I've slept, seems pretty accurate as the times it notes me being awake match up with the times I remember being awake through the night.

If I go to bed 8 hours before I wake up, I only usually get 6 and a bit hours of sleep. To actually get 8, I need to get into bed 10 hours before I wake up.

When 8 hours of sleep is recommended, do people generally mean getting into bed 8 hours before getting up and having a relatively uninterrupted sleep, or should I actually be GETTING 8 hours?

Mark Rippetoe

Since laying awake in bed is not sleeping, I'm pretty sure they mean the 8 hours spent not awake.

Yngvi

I believe the recommendation for 8 hours of sleep came from Henry Ford's factories when he popularized a work system based on 8 hours of labour, 8 hours of leisure and 8 hours of rest per day. So, technically the recommendation is just 8 hours in bed.

In reality, the amount of sleep you need depends on several factors and may have a large range. You should be able to feel when you are getting insufficient sleep or the time in bed is sufficient, but the quality of sleep is poor.

jfsully

Not sure about the Henry Ford part, but it is definitely true that 8 hours is an estimate based on norms, and not a magic number determined to be the best for everyone. This is an estimate of sleep duration, not time spent in bed, and has been studied, and for most adults, 7-8 seems to work fine, but the normal range is more like 5-9. Some people seem to do fine with 4, and some do best with 10. Most of us know what we need, based on basic observation. If generally you are feeling well, and able to do everything you want to do, then you are probably sleeping enough. If you need to "catch up" on weekends, you're probably not sleeping enough during the week. If you sleep 6 hours, and like to take an hour nap in the afternoon, that's cool. Unless your boss has other ideas.

Basically, to get the full benefit of sleep, you should get enough (whatever that means for you) and get it on a regular schedule. If you sleep 8 hours and don't feel rested, you might just be someone who needs 9 hours, or you may have sleep apnea, another sleep disorder, or a non-sleep-related problem that is causing fatigue.

Sleep remains fairly mysterious to medicine and science in general. We don't really know why it's so important, but you die without it. Since evolution has not found a way to eliminate the need for sleep in prey or marine mammals, where sleeping can be deadly, it must be pretty darn important.

Here's the National Sleep Foundation expert panel review results on sleep duration. They looked at a bunch of studies and did their best to come up with a consensus: National Sleep Foundation’s sleep time duration recommendations: methodology and results summary

Bottom line: don't stress about the 8, use it as a starting point and figure out what you need. If you feel good with 6 or 7, you're not doing anything wrong. "Extra" sleep is not needed or helpful.