A recent study carried out by King’s College London, revealed that nearly two-thirds of adults experienced a decline in sleep quality during the pandemic.
Many of us are now living with a ‘chronic sleep deficit’, with disruption to our daily routines, blurred work-life boundaries and increased stress and anxiety all negatively impacting our sleep.
To combat this, Psycle’s team of expert trainers have created their new ‘Sleep Series’ to help you drift off with ease and optimise your sleep potential. This curated four-week programme combines two strength and two yoga sessions per week. High-intensity strength and conditioning workouts will increase muscular fatigue and reduce sleep onset, whilst calming yoga sessions will release tension and stimulate the peripheral nervous system in order to improve sleep quality.
The On-demand workouts are available via the ‘Psycle at Home’ platform, enabling you to make intuitive decisions about how and when you exercise. You can now take advantage of a 30-day free trial, giving you enough time to complete the four-week programme to see and feel a positive impact on the quality of your sleep.
Introducing Psycle’s new four-week ‘Sleep Series’ programme
Studies have shown that exercise not only helps us fall asleep more quickly but increases the duration of slow wave sleep, considered to be the most restorative stage, enabling our body and mind to recover and rejuvenate. “During strength training we put the muscle tissue under stress, causing micro tears in the fibres. When we rest, the body repairs these damaged fibres, so it’s important to ensure you are getting enough sleep, as without rest, you won’t get the most out of your performance”, explains Maria, Psycle’s Head of Barre.
Exercising late at night can be over-stimulating and it’s therefore best to avoid any vigorous activity up to two hours before you go to bed. The endorphins released when we exercise stimulate the brain, so we need to give time for these chemicals to drop post-workout, allowing our minds to wind down. This is where calming yoga and mindful meditation sessions step in.
“Combining mindful movement with conscious breath helps to regulate the nervous system, slow down our thoughts and raises feelings of relaxation over stress, to get you in the right place for a restful, deep sleep.” explains Gemma, Psycle’s Head of Yoga.
PSYCLE was founded in 2014. Their online and in-studio classes are designed to provide their community with the power to stay strong, healthy and inspired anytime, anywhere, in a way that works for any lifestyle or fitness goal. Their classes are focused around their four pillars of fitness; RIDE (Psycle’s hero cardio class which gives you a mood and endorphin surge), STRENGTH (a range of classes from TUT, MetCon and HIIT, which all have huge metabolic benefits), BARRE (combining muscular strength and conditioning with flexibility and core work) and YOGA (a series of restorative, strengthening and energising classes).