Railbob1776

I'm a bit confused about how heavy the “light” day should be in the 4-day heavy/light split.

In a recent YouTube video, Rip told a 52yo guy that the light day in the heavy/light split should be ~65% of the heavy day. But in The Barbell Prescription, Sullivan and Baker suggest light days in the 4 day split should be 80–95% of the heavy day for masters lifters, since they are more volume-sensitive but still respond well to intensity. So which is it? Should light day be ~65% or more of a moderate-intensity of ~80–95%?

Here is the video I saw tonight that prompted the question: How To Group Stressful Workouts

Mark Rippetoe

Obviously, try both approaches and see which work best. There are individual variations that make both approaches useful.

Lost and Found

I like Sullivan's book but over 85% on light days kicks my ass. I would be careful with his focus on intensity especially training 4 days a week.

A comment by Rip or Rusty or Nick stuck with me and warns of not making heavy days heavy enough and light days not light enough. It's helped me ( I'm older than 52).

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 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.