Equinox, a luxury fitness brand, collaborated with UCLA researchers to conduct a study on how sleep affects athletic performance. The results inspired Equinox to incorporate sleep coaching into Tier X, one of its lifestyle management programs.
Equinox fitness clubs separate personal training programs into tiers, beginning with Tier 1 and peaking at Tier X. In addition to increasing fitness goals, the tiers also denote the level of experience that the trainers will have. Equinox says that the following tiers can be used to indicate the trainer’s experience.Tier X program offers the most advanced wellness and health training within all of its classes and clubs, and soon its trainers will become certified in sleep coaching.
The idea that good sleep hygiene helps fuel physical performance may seem intuitive, but every tier within Equinox wellness programs relies on behavioral training influenced by scientific research.Equinox researchers and UCLA’s David Geffen School for Medicine collaborated to conduct a study on sleep coaching to discover how it influences fitness.This was the first clinical study of its kind. The results showed that coaching resulted in improved sleep quality, which in turn led to an increase in athletic performance.
According to the Equinox website, sleep coaching is meant to complement the movement and nutrition training already offered in the program. The trainers believe that harmonizing those three pillars of wellness is the only way to reach an elite state of fitness.
WHAT DOES THIS RESEARCH MEAN FOR FITNESS?
Equinox and UCLA researchers conducted a 12-week-long sleep study with 32 participants. The study involved two groups of participants. During these weeks, one group was coached and instructed to record detailed sleep-logs to be evaluated by researchers. This group had their sleep closely monitored and the researchers made tweaks to any bedtime habits they thought were unhealthy.The group that received sleep coaching exhibited better performance at the gym than the other group; they also experienced a greater reduction in body fat.
The new Tier X sleep coaching appears to be still in developmentTo benefit from this clinical research, sleepers don’t need to be Equinox members.. The study indicated that the group to receivesleep coaching burned considerably more calories and felt more energized than the group that was not coached. So, no matter the fitness routine, making healthy changes to bedtime habits has officially been proven to enhance athletic performance.
The research could encourage people who struggle with the balance between exercise and rest to keep track of their sleep logs to help them identify which habits are hindering their fitness goals. We at Sleepopolis know that proper rest is essential to wellness, so developing a personal sleep schedule can be very beneficial to physical performance.
