Kelsey HigginsonSports Nutrition Coach and Founder at Clutch Day Coaching

Recovery - The Parent Series Video 5

12 Jan 2026 · 1 min

Watch on YouTube

1:00

In this fifth installment of the Parent Series on athlete nutrition and recovery, the speaker emphasizes that sleep is the single most critical factor for youth athletes to achieve performance gains and avoid injury. He explains that during sleep the body releases growth hormone, which acts as an "overnight builder" repairing and building muscle, strengthening tendons, ligaments, and bones, and supporting normal height development. Because growth hormone peaks during sleep, the speaker recommends that teen athletes obtain at least eight hours of sleep each night. He identifies smartphones—particularly stimulating apps like TikTok and Instagram—as the primary barrier to sufficient sleep. To help parents support their athletes, he suggests educating teens on the importance of sleep and implementing restrictions on such apps to improve sleep quality. The video concludes by encouraging viewers to watch any missed earlier videos in the series.

Chapters

This is video number 5 in the series where I teach parents how to fuel their athletes. And today we are covering the most important part of recovery. The number one thing that athletes need to protect if they want to see gains and prevent injury is their sleep. When you're sleeping, this cool thing called growth hormone releases in your body. Growth hormone is your overnight builder. It repairs muscle. It builds new muscle fibers. It strengthens tendons, ligaments, and bones. It supports normal height development in teens. So if protein is the building material, growth hormone is a construction crew that makes everything else happen. Growth hormone is released at its largest in sleep. So the biggest key to help your athlete's recovery and to help them see better gains is getting them to get at least 8 hours of sleep. The number one thing that holds my athletes back from getting enough sleep is usually their phones. So if I were a parent trying to help my teen athlete get more sleep, I would probably help guide your athlete to know why it is they need a lot of sleep and then support them in putting restrictions on stimulating apps such as TikTok and Instagram that makes it harder for them to get to sleep. All right, that was the end of the fifth video. These are all of the ones that we covered. If you've missed any, go back and watch.