Athletes spend the majority of their time in training and participating in their chosen sports or event. The idea is if you want to improve you have to train harder. Because of this, most of them tend to neglect sleep and recovery. What they don’t realize is that skimping on both of those can single-handedly halt your gains, increase your risk for injury in the gym or on the road, and hinder processes in your body that regulate, well, pretty much everything. Here are the reasons why sleep and recovery are also just as important in your routine as an athlete.