Can’t wake up after a hard workout

[buzzy204]

@robg Take a few days off and then reduce your workouts to 2x per week and see if that improves things. You're probably outworking your capacity to recover.

Also, do less strenuous workouts. If you're going to failure, stop going to failure. If you're already stopping before failure, stop the set when your rep speed or form changes.

When my life is too busy for my recovery to really handle a larger workout, I change the goal of my workout. I reduce the amount of exercises to 4-6 and do sets of 2. On each set of 2, my only goal is to add 1 rep to each set. I know I could add 2-3 reps if I pushed myself, but I only add one rep to each set. These workouts are effortless and the gains come steadily.

 

[robg]

@buzzy204 I feel guilty if I’m not active on rest days or I feel like damn I should be working out 5x a week at least. It’s different I use to run 5x a week and I could do it.
It’s a huge shift with strength training and I’m trying to adjust and figure my body out again.

 

[buzzy204]

@robg

I’m just frustrated because that means less time on doing things I want to do like hobbies n such.

You'd have more time for hobbies n such and your quality of life would be higher.

 

[dusht]

@robg I had this today. Progressed a lot of my exercises from the RR yesterday so it was a hard session. I find lots of protein and hydration helps, I naturally sleep around 7.5h but sometimes the fatigue is real. I imagine you'll adjust as your body gets stronger.

 

[wowgold3323]

@robg What's your diet like? Are you getting enough water? You can be dehydrated in the mornings. Is your room dark and quiet?

 

[robg]

@wowgold3323 I don’t eat enough but when I do I stick to mostly veggies, avocados, eggs(lots of eggs), cheese, fish, poke, there’s some foods I stay away from because they bloat me up like rice, broccoli, potatoes, so have GERD and digestive issues so I have to be very mindful so it doesn’t trigger it. I use to do keto and it shed some pounds but gained it back. Realized it was making me afraid of any carbs and I don’t want to live that way. Started eating chicken again after being pescatarian for 3 years. I wanted more protein variety. But I’m just very mindful of how my body feels when I eat and when I don’t eat a lot I’m fine I feel good compared to when I eat a lot and feel bloated n gross.
I snack less packaged foods, although I have my moments when I want a candy or bag of chips. I believe in having a balance and not restricting.

 

[wowgold3323]

@robg A balanced diet is important. I also believe in having a balanced diet, I just fast in the mornings and have my first meal at noon.

What does your water intake look like? I noticed from my experience, I am really sluggish in the mornings if I don't drink a glass of water before going to bed, because your body does go through dehydration as you're sleeping, but then I drink 500ml of water once I wake up.

 

[robg]

@wowgold3323 Probably not the best as it should be. I’m gonna change that and work up to drinking at least 3 liters a day eventually up to 4. But yeah drinking water in the mornings is great it’s gets everything moving inside. And I try not to have a meal till 10-11am if I’m super hunger tho I’ve been having an apple to hold me over. Till then. It’s been working for me so far. I don’t like eating breakfast till 10 just have liquids like coffee, tea or water (easy on my stomach) and then when I do eat I won’t want to eat again until 2-3ish but I hate working out on a full stomach. (I workout after work around 3:30, then eat around 5-6. I like fasted workouts instead it helps me not feel sluggish and energetic.

 

[kidteen1]

@robg I dont know your life situation but it sounds like you get out of work pretty early, could you go to sleep at 830/9 instead? My hours suck I wish for the ability to sleep a full night more than anything in this world right now. Sleep is severely underrated.

 

[robg]

@ceh85 How much time do you think is appropriate

 

[ceh85]

@robg I don't know how long you've been working out, you should probably add that to your post btw. But give it 2-3 weeks and see how you are.

But like I said, make sure you're hydrated and eating those good veggies. Not sure if you're hydrated? Drink water. Think you're drinking enough water? Drink more water.

I would put money on this being due to de-hydration. Maybe you are underestimating how much water you really need. "Don't drink when you are thirsty, drink so you aren't thirsty" is my saying aha.

If hydration and diet don't help, maybe try taking a multivitamin everyday. Maybe you are deficient in something and haven't realised it until you started pushing your body.

If all else fails, go see a doctor and just explain. It won't be anything major I presume. At the end of the day, you could just be tired and aren't used to it yet.

Best of luck

 

[samanthadanielle]

@robg I was a in a similar situation when I was lifting every day. Taking an hour nap in the middle of the day (somewhere between lunch and dinner) worked wonders for me.

 

[skypigeon]

@robg If you are working out that often then you should be trying to get 8+ hours of sleep (especially on the days that you workout)! The more energy you burn the more energy you need to refill (both via food and sleep). Best of luck!

 

[dawn16]

@robg Had a PhD sleep expert on the radio yesterday. They said the no electronic devices before bed is not a clear cut rule at all. Some experts would argue no screen time 1h before bed period, others would content that its what you do with the screen that matters. so no anxiety producing or exciting computer activites, but a calm show, or reading a lighthearted story is OK

She also said light exposure overall is what sets our circadian rhythm. So bright light (like go outside and watch the sunrise or early morning sun bright) in the morning and low light levels before bed.

There is little to no evidence that vitamin pills do anything more then a sugar pill, so use them if you find them helpful and don't if you don't.

You might be associating the poor sleep with the workout because the workouts just what stands out.

Exercise usually helps people sleep better so maybe you are experiencing higher stress or increased workload of some sort outside of the workout routine or avoiding something you need to address. Anxiety makes it harder to sleep.

Maybe your mattress has expired, or your pillow? Are you using a new cleaner at home, or essential oils more regularly or something like that?

 

[angelicwind]

@robg Yeah agree! And maybe because you write that you’re kind of new in lifting weights. Maybe you need to eat a little bit more. This may sound weird but 3 years ago when I started training 3-4 times a week I was so hungry and tired all the time. I wasn’t eating enough our the right food. Maybe this will help! Good to hear you’re going to the gym and putting effort in it!

 

[davidwoler]

@robg So this is not complete, but my heuristic undertanding:

When we exercise we are inducing micro damage to our muscles, that has a small inflammatory response (this is a good thing- its part of building that muscle and teaching our bodies not to over-react to every inflammatory stimuli we come across, or trigger and immune-stress reflex). When you push hard (especially with weight training), that inflammatory response is going to to be greater. Inflammatory cytokines are a major factor in sleep drive- so if you have a longer/off circadian spike in IL-1 and IL-6, etc your sleep drive will be stronger, and it will take a bit longer to refract back to your normal circadian rhythm of cytokine release .

Its not a 1:1 thing- like immediately after the work out you will be tired- it takes time to develop the response and get to a point that it is driving sleep (this is a good thing when we are exercising a few hours before bedtime, it can help spike the cytokine spike that happens around 1-3 am, that drives us into deeper more recovery related sleep- not just for body but also brain- that deep sleep is when our microglia clean up our byproducts in our brain- one reason why not sleeping in middle age is a risk for dementia later in life). But basically your will be sleepless and or driven to sleep more depending on how in line with your natural cycle the increase in cytokine spike from exercise happens- but eventually it will drive more sleep in the recovery period.

When we fight against that extra sleep...we are not doing ourself any favors, as the refractory period back to normal cycle will get extended.

 

[alhanson77]

@robg Eat more and sleep more

 

[kpetty16]

@robg It’ll pass as you advance. It means its working. Everytime you break through a plateau this will happen.

 

[lordssoldier1]

@robg This seems obvious but yea your body is doing tons of recovery it wasn’t doing before. You need to sleep and eat. And yes your body will adjust somewhau

 

[frank1991]

@robg Be sure you're having a good recovery meal too!