CrossFit and CNS Fatigue

[catherineone]

UPDATE: I took the advice from the forum, muddled through another few weeks. I began to have some heart palpitations, decreased mood and continued fatigue. It affected my job, my relationships and most of my life. I saw my doctor. I developed a heart condition, most likely due to not listening to my body and continuing to CrossFit in peak heat and humidity 5 days a week when my body was telling me to slow down. Lesson of the day - listen to your body, friends. I’ll be okay, but need to step away from CF for a bit to work things out. I’ll see y’all on the other side.

Hey y’all,

41m, a year and a half into my CF journey. Life long traditional gym guy until CF changed my world.

I’ve been having some severe fatigue lately and trying to check off things it ISNT, and hoping to gather some advice.

I’ve done a few 5 day workouts but most of my time doing CF has been 3-4 days a week. Recently have been consistent with 5 and sometimes 6 day workouts. The rest of my world outside of the box during this time has felt like it’s been in a fog. I wake up tired, can’t think straight til it’s almost time to leave work, Perk up a bit before the WOD and kind of low key til bedtime.

Anyone have experience increasing workout intensity or frequency and these side effects? How did you manage through? How long til you made it to the other side? Iron is forged in the fire, not the couch, so I’d prefer to see this through rather than scale back down.

I’m burning about 3500 calories a day and consuming enough to replace. Hydrating daily with electrolyte drinks at least once a day. Sleep 6-7 hours a night.

 

[anniereborn]

@catherineone If your recovery sucks then no amount of “forging in fire” is gonna pull you through this. You’ll just keep beating yourself into the ground until something gives.

 

[maggiebode]

@catherineone I had the same issue while trying to maintain my CrossFit volume during residency. For me, the bottom line was that a full day’s work (including my workout) exceeded what my body could recover from at the time. Sleeping more helped me a bit, but also scaling workouts when needed (often) and taking an extra rest day here and there tended to help. Performance is the overall goal, not volume. Everyone’s different, but that was my approach.

 

[catherineone]

@maggiebode Thanks, I really appreciate your input! I have a very busy career which is not physically taxing, but mentally taxing. I have a very early alarm to accommodate this. I’m sure this could be adding to it. Ill consider scaling a bit more.

 

[balu111]

@catherineone Totally. I'm a few years older and used to do 6/7 days a week max effort and started dealing with major fatigue. I've had to dial it back a few days a week and put forth moderate effort vs going all out and that's helped. It was difficult as I'm fairly addicted to going hard every day, but I am now a believer that as we get older we simply shouldn't be going max effort on cardio day in and day out, we need the rest.

 

[catherineone]

@balu111 Also fairly addicted to going hard daily lol. Pride a factor as well and in denial of age haha. How did you feel after dialing back a few days a week?

 

[balu111]

@catherineone Honestly better and my performance on the days I go all out has improved, less nags and tweaks as well. Still working out 6-7 days, only going hard 2-3x/wk, mostly technique and zone 2 for the other days.

 

[justsaved05]

@balu111 Smart. You want to be optimal, and optimal changes over time, sometimes day to day and week to week

 

[converedbtbojc]

@catherineone I had a situation that sounds similar to yours. I'm a little younger, but I did Crossfitting for a year 6 days a week and started feeling really fatigued, had trouble falling asleep (tired and wired) couldn't concentrate during the day at work etc.

I eventually realized I needed to cut back on fitness and tried to do "easy" crossfit workouts.....but at a certain point doing a low intensity 10-15 minute workout felt like a waste of time, plus I was about to move and I ended up quitting CF. Things got better as I took a rest and switched to lower intensity cardio and powerlifting/bodybuilding training. At this point unfortunately I do think CF isn't the best in terms of the fitness/fatigue ratio, even though I really enjoyed it.

One thing I'd caution you against is stimulant use....I tried to break through the fatigue with caffeine and nicotine etc and that just made it worse. Definitely look into eating more carbs (contrary to the paleo mindset, high intensity training requires LOTS of carbs), sleeping more as other people have said, but don't dig yourself a deeper hole with stimulants. If your body needs rest, it needs rest.

 

[justsaved05]

@converedbtbojc The first thing I thought of when you said “wired and tired” is caffeine. Don’t ever try to fix fatigue or low energy w caffeine, it will set you back further long term. Sleep is the best recovery (at least for me)

 

[converedbtbojc]

@justsaved05 This is a great reminder — I read Caffeine Blues around when I was dealing with this but kinda lost focus on it and my caffeine use has crept back up. Caffeine is definitely not just free energy — it has consequences! It was crazy learning about the caffeine half life and how even if you limit it to early morning you can still have some caffeine in your system when going to bed.

 

[justsaved05]

@converedbtbojc I was purely speaking from years of fatigue and moodiness etc but I’m definitely gonna check that book out. I believe myself to be a sensitive individual, so maybe caffeine affects me more than your average person. The least I could do is help someone avoid the years of crap I experienced due to ignorance about caffeine’s effects. I still slip up here and there (caffeine is everywhere and delicious) but I’ve found for me total elimination of caffeine works best for my physical energy and sleep.

 

[converedbtbojc]

@justsaved05 Yeah one of the principles of the book is the "caffeine death spiral" in which you drink caffeine and have slightly worse sleep than you would have with no caffeine, which makes you more likely to drink more caffeine the next day(s) which makes your sleep even worse, which makes you likely to drink more caffeine etc etc.

I think one of his practical tips is to not use caffeine on consecutive days, so you stay out of that spiral. Plus, that way you actually get a boost from it when you do use it, rather than just needing it to feel normal.

I know people who seem pretty happy/healthy on multiple cups of coffee a day though, so *shrug*. Worth trying and seeing the results.

 

[catherineone]

@converedbtbojc Thank you. I appreciate the detailed response and the advice. The tired and wired and not being able to concentrate during the day is spot on what I’m experiencing. I would hate to leave CrossFit but can’t live a life always feeling this way. I’m going to try to up my carbs to 50% of daily diet or about 2g per lb of body weight. (460g to carbs ) and improve my sleep hygiene. If that fails, I may consider the route you have taken. I was a life long traditional gyms guy and felt very comfortable there. I just love the mental and physical grind of a CrossFit workout. So much so, I may be putting myself in this position on my own will.

 

[converedbtbojc]

@catherineone Yeah I feel that struggle — I definitely didn't want to quit. I'm in my late 20s (so my recovery should be great), but I just don't think lying on the floor after a workout from fatigue 6 days a week is sustainable..... it seemed like there were people in my gym that could but I just couldn't. There was a post in the sub earlier today about the "fitness in 100 words" or whatever and I guess these days I just doubt the "intensity is king" perspective. I think people who really give it their all and go all out get burned a bit.

 

[justsaved05]

@catherineone Try eliminating caffeine, if you’re even consuming any. I am 33 and was having this fatigue issue for years. I eliminated caffeine completely and prioritized sleeping whenever I felt genuinely sleepy, taking 15-20 min naps sometimes if I had to.

 

[janedoe1986]

@catherineone Have you had COVID? Sometimes long COVID presents as extreme fatigue, and continued exercise makes it worse.

 

[catherineone]

@janedoe1986 I have.. in March.

 

[janedoe1986]

@catherineone Hopefully that’s not it, because it’s not terribly well understood and from what I understand a lot of doctors don’t really know much about it. But still, I recommend reading up on long covid a little to see if any of your symptoms match. Hopefully as others have suggested, tweakjng your eating and sleeping could help.

 

[hevin7th]

@catherineone I’m actually changing my routine bc of this. I was doing 5 days a week, sometimes 4-5 days in a row without a rest day. I now do 2-3days on, 1 day off, and still try to do 5 total in the week. I listen to my body, so if I need more rest days, I take it. It’s hard to not do a wod every weekday, as it was usually the highlight of my day. But I was burning out. I was also becoming obsessive. It’s interesting to now have some downtime after work, and I’m realizing how much crossfit took out of me during the week.