This just in: Sleep is not for that weak. According to Reese Witherspoon’s fitness trainer Ashley Borden, making sure you get those extra Zzs is crucial to tackling your workout.
“I always tell my clients which i prefer to them get sleep rather than working out on 4 hours of sleep,” Borden told mindbodygreen.com. “Studies have shown that between 7.5 and 8 hours of sleep every night helps the body repair itself and regulate inflammation in your body.”
Borden, who has also caused the likes of Christina Aguilera, Mandy Moore, and Ryan Gosling, said sleep may also affect your metabolic rate.
“[Not getting enough sleep] produces a higher quantity of the inflammatory stress hormone, cortisol,” she said in the interview. “Cortisol has its own place and time in our bodies, but not during the night. Cortisol heightens our alertness, the very last thing we want whenever we crave sleep.”
Aside from over sleeping, Borden also recommends that her clients avoid sugar and cargo on greens.
“Sugars are inflammatory and trigger more sugar cravings, together with increasing inflammatory cortisol levels, which cause belly fat,” she said. “Choose vegetables which are all of the colors from the rainbow and focus on dark green veggies, too. These provide us with phytonutrients, that have many antioxidant assets that can stop cell damage, which will help strengthen our immune system, prevents cancer, has a positive effect on our hormones, and improves our overall health and vitality.”
And despite the fact that temperatures are dropping, Borden says it’s important to take your workout outdoors.
“Getting outdoors for even 10 minutes offers the body having a natural dose of vitamin D,” she said. “Being outside also provides amazing mental stimulation.”
One way she’s her clients moving? An outdoor workout that sounds like something Witherspoon’s Wild character, Cheryl Strayed, would agree to.
“I have taken clients out for power walks having a backpack filled with mini bands and bands with handles to create a hillside neighborhood circuit workout,” she said.
