Going to the Gym when tired.

Soldato
Joined
21 Oct 2002
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So the past few weeks I've not been sleeping that well, but not really noticed any ill effects.

Yesterday I went to the Gym and crashed after 15 minutes, it was my legs that went really, just turned to jelly and that was that.

Had this strange sensation of there being no strength in my knees of all things, as if they couldn't keep my legs straight.

I am assuming this is just accumulated fatigue and I need to sort my **** out with getting some proper sleep.
 
That sounds more like a crash in blood sugar than tiredness, as French said what's your diet like?

My sleep is terrible at times, but I only suffer like that when I've not eaten properly.
 
I sometimes have bouts of insomnia - just one of those things. However, whilst the motivation for the gym is hard, if I dig deep, really deep, I often perform better when knackered! It's just a question of state of mind.

In this case, such a dramatic crash would lead me to believe it has more to do with hormones/diet imbalance rather than anything else.
 
Diet has been fine, it's not it's not something that's happened before.
I mentioned sleep because Monday night was a particularly bad night as I couldn't settle because of a big meeting I had yesterday.
Said meeting was a three hour drive each way as well which is why I thought tiredness and fatigue in general.
It could be that I didn't eat and drink as much as I usually would yesterday, so that is probably it.

Thanks guys.
 
Stress can have an impact, but since you release cortisol when lifting anyway I'd doubt that.

You could, if you're knackered, try mixing up a pre-workout, which contains caffeine and wash it down with a banana. That's one of the few times I use a pre-workout, just to help get that focus especially if I'm pushing myself and am feeling run down.

Just for interest:

This is how some of your hormones respond to a work out. Thyroxine (a thyroid hormone) also known as T4, increases the calories you burn when exercising. The response of this is by increasing your body's metabolic rate of many the cells in your body. So as you can imagine this is useful for utilising excess glucose/sugar in your body as well as burning fat for energy. The downside is that it does not discriminate and will convert amino acids for energy - i.e. it can be catabolic.

If you are in this state for an extended period of time (for example length cardio sessions), and lack enough sugar/glycogen to use as energy, you might start lose muscle - if you're not fuelled this will have a more profound effect on energy levels as your body switches energy sources. The less lean muscle you have the lower/slower your metabolism will behave.


During a work out epinephrine also increases your metabolism quickly (think fight or flight) allowing sudden increases in activity levels. It generally scavenges for fat and sugar for energy, however as usual it will also target amino acids (i.e. muscle) if there isn't enough or a sufficient store of sugar or fat in your body. This hormone production is proportional to both exercise intensity as well as how long you're training for. As above the longer you maintain intense training, the bigger the effect and metabolic boost you'll get from it. Epinephrine directly contributes to increasing your metabolic rate after heavy weight lifting.

Lastly, insulin. As we know it regulates your blood/sugar levels. High levels of insulin can cause a sudden decrease in blood sugar since it works by metabolising available sugar. Although this is not always a negative (since high levels of insulin also help shuttle sugar into muscle tissur post workout). However, after a tough workout, your blood/sugar will crash since your insulin levels will be high. Hence why you can feel dizzy and light headed - there is a link to blood pressure, too but that goes beyond my immediate knowledge. You can of course take advantage of this heightened state of insulin to take nutrition or something to give you a boost of energy. Typically I'd recommend an electrolyte based drink, however, a lot of people like to take shakes.

So these hormones can have a compounding effect on you if you're not in the "right" state.

There are of course a lot of other metabolic pathways and hormonal responses which can affect your performance.
 
Echoing everyone else I expect the stress of the meeting burnt more blood sugar than you thought and you crashed - it happens on the bike when suddenly I just can't turn the pedals any more. That's all down to feeding properly - did your six hour drive get you a decent lunch?
 
Did it heck as like, It was with a certain large internet retailer as well, I didnt even gt a cup of coffee when I got there.

It does sound like I hadn't eaten enough, I'll make sure I have something before I go this evening.
 
If you struggle to get food, banana (take another one for your workout), strong coffee with some sugar (I know gross, but there you go) and you should get a little boost.
 
Forget coffee, sports studies use pure caffeine, ie Anhydrous caffeine.

Try Pro-plus - 30 odd tabs for a 2 or 3 quid. try taking 3 or 4 of them and see how that helps.

You can pick up Pro-Plus pretty much anywhere. Use them for my lazy days and they work a treat.
 
Forget coffee, sports studies use pure caffeine, ie Anhydrous caffeine.

Try Pro-plus - 30 odd tabs for a 2 or 3 quid. try taking 3 or 4 of them and see how that helps.

You can pick up Pro-Plus pretty much anywhere. Use them for my lazy days and they work a treat.

Same **** just a different way of taking it, and pro plus are a rip off you can pick up 200 200mg caffeine tabs for about £6 online.
 
Coffee tastes like Satan's bum dipped in the dogs poo after he's eaten something he shouldn't have.
 
Was better last night, I just dropped everything and made sure I had lunch at 12, then had something else at 15.30, got to the gym at 7 and was fine.

I don't want to eat too much as I'm still trying to lose some weight (not a huge amount - half a stone or so).
 
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