@robg I def agree with this guy. If you can start tracking your calorie intake on my fitness pal, I'd be willing to be your eating less calories and protein than what you need
I used to work out at a gym in a rural area. The fitness coordinator and only personal trainer was 20 years old and told me once how people could get so much more done if they just slept an hour or two less.
I'm thinking, get back to me when you're 40 with a career a wife and children, buddy.
@magpie0603 I'm studying to be a personal trainer and one of the biggest things the textbook harps on is HOW NECESSARY SLEEP IS. Lmfao. So funny a PT would say that
@patjc Its so extremely underrated yeah, its partly thanks to all these celebrities that claim to wake up at 3 am to workout like Mark Wahlberg and many other fake natty movie stars
@robg I skimmed the comments and everyone is saying to get more high quality sleep. I will add that it's important you look at your overall recovery. If you're working out hard every week, you won't get any net gains if you only let your body recover what you just used up the previous workout-- a recovery/deload week is standard for strength/hypertrophy programs, once every other month or so but more frequently if stress is involved.
Soreness doesn't mean much. It doesn't mean you've overtrained, overtraining is more complex. Lack of soreness doesn't mean you had a shit workout either.
If your body is telling you that you're exhausted, you should heed it.
Also, if you're female and have a cycle, it could be a hormonal thing.
@ayeesha ^ This is a really good point, and I'd go even further.
My best guess from this post is that you've gone from nothing to 3-4 sessions per week. It's not clear what you're doing in those sessions, but I'm guessing you're doing some high rep strength endurance stuff, because that's what people usually associate with bodyweight exercises. And I understand you're also on a calorie deficit, though not for how long you've been on one?
This is probably too abrupt a change, if I've surmised correctly. I'd provisionally suggest:
Take a few days to a week without anything more intense than walking. Catch up on sleep, recover. If you've only just started calorie restricting then you can keep going with it; if you've been restricting for a long time, then it may be time to take a break from that too.
Come back with a feasible routine planned. I can't make a specific suggestion without more details, but I suspect you're overreaching with your current routine. I wouldn't be surprised if you're doing an hour of high rep burpees, squats, etc. That's just going to exhaust you as a beginner, and even more so if you're calorie restricting.
@robg As everyone will tell you to sleep more, I will try to give you a different tip.
Maybe you can try to improve the quality of food your eating. Try to eat fresh food, cook yourself whenever possible. Increase protein intake. No fast food. Etc.
This helped me immensely to feel more energized. However, this will not replace sleeping enough ofc.
@robg Sounds like either woodquest is correct, you’re overtraining, or like most have said, you need more sleep, or as some have mentioned, you need more food.
Well that’s what recovery is, it’s managing stress, nutrition, hydration, and sleep. So either make the adjustments to these things, or reduce your workload.
@robg If you can’t function in life with working out so much try spacing out your workouts. You get stronger when you recover anyways, so overtraining and running yourself into the ground is not going to do you any favors. You can increase the amount of workouts as you get used to the load, but you need to understand that adequate rest = gains, not more workouts and stress on your body.
@robg If you continue to train like this, you will probably need more sleep. I would try to improve the amount of time AND the quality. Going to bed earlier, using amber lights before bed (instead of standard ones) and trying to get some sun on bareskin during the day to help set your circadian rhythm.
@robg Yeah I plan strength workouts so hopefully the next day I can either nap or not need to be 100% on at work the entire time. Try adding cardio to your routine, I found it helps me increase my overall work capacity and like activity levels to make it easier working and being present while sore after strength training
@average650 How much cardio do you do? I like incorporating cardio at the beginnings my workout for 20mins because it gets my blood pumping & sweating. Then I’ll strength train for almost n hour.
@robg They say you should do cardio after strength training or on a different day. I jog, jump rope or hike 2-3 times a week on top of strength training 3 times a week
@robg Make sure to stay hydrated and eat enough, your body is getting used to it, also 7/7½ hours of sleep is ok~ish but maybe try getting 8-9 hours sleep if you still feel tired, people sleeping hours should be between 7-9 hours
