Thursday, November 8, 2007

ZMA = Deep Sleep

Ok. No one is paying me to write this stuff. So here goes...



I have been using ZMA for about a year now. The serving size is 2 to 3 caps a day. But I've been taking more like 2 to 3 caps a week. I was slacking off and, sure enough, I didn't see any noticeable effect in my sleep or recovery from training. I thought that since I was already sleeping in a pitch black room with the air purifier on (to provide white noise), the quality of my sleep cannot get any better. And I was recovering fine from training. Boy, was I wrong? Well, at least when it came to the sleep component, I was wrong.

In the last two weeks, I've been taking 2 to 3 caps of ZMA before bedtime. And I have gone into deeper sleep than I had thought possible. This happens on all nights except Monday nights (which is when my 130 lb neighbor has pretty vocal sex with her 350 lb boyfriend). So...I go to sleep and wake up the next morning completely awake. No grogginess. Nothing. Nada. Its like my Nikon D70. You turn it on and its ready to shoot instantly. To re-iterate: One moment I am asleep. Next moment I am fully awake. Like I had just been pursued by a bear that grudgingly decided I was too fleet-footed and hobbled back to where it crawled out of.

Apparently most people (which, I know, is a rather broad term) are deficient in Zinc and more so in Magnesium. While Zinc levels can be brought back up relatively quickly, things don't happen as quickly with Magnesium.

Charles Poliquin explains this a little better in this article:

http://www.t-nation.com/readArticle.do?id=459745

He explains it again in this one:

http://www.t-nation.com/readArticle.do?id=1257805 (then scroll down to the section "Age, Training, and Dwindling Hormones")

Dave Barr mentions ZMA in his outstanding article on developing a solid sleep routine:

http://www.t-nation.com/readArticle.do?id=1221529

You get the idea.

At 9 bucks, ZMA is a steal:

http://www.t-nation.com/onlineStore.jsp

Try it out.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Gopi, even though you're pushing dietary supplements (yuck!), I have to admire your writing style. Clear, articulate, charming, not even slightly condescending...

Alexa

Hoarse Whisperer said...

Alexa, I am afraid that I have to...totally agree with you :)

Is it better to work out in the morning or the evening?

If you do a web search on this topic, you will get all kinds of studies pointing out why training at one time or another in the day is best ...