drained and lethargic, should I work out?

binarylegit

This week has been tough, but today I'm just feeling drained. I've been stressed with all the holiday ToDo's but otherwise it's been a normal week, two lifting days and I ran on Tuesday. My nutrition has been normal.

I went for a run last night and only made it a mile before my calves wouldn't let me keep going. I rolled my calves on my foam roller and felt better but, today I'm just feeling drained and lethargic. I'm not really sore just a bit tired in all of my muscles, like they just don't want to fire normally.

Anyone have experience with something like this? I really want to swim tonight but I'm wondering if I should take a night off?

holyfenix

It sounds like maybe you aren't getting enough sleep or calories to support your exercise. How long have you been exercising?

Edit* It is really hard for any of us to judge. If yo feel like you might hurt yourself then I would skip the workout. Rest up, eat a hearty meal and get back at it tomorrow.

Sam_I_Am77

It really sounds like you're just worn-down. You should take a few days to just really focus on recovery; make sure you're sleeping and make sure you're eating. I would at last take the weekend off and don't do anything more than normal household / work activities and do a few minutes of foam rolling and stretching each day. Don't worry about not exercising, de-training actually takes a few weeks to really catch-up and cause a decline in progress. Since Christmas is stressing you out and it's next week, you may consider just taking the week off and starting again next Friday. If you do, still do some foam-rolling and stretching every day.

binarylegit

I've been trying to get around 7 hours of sleep a night but I didn't sleep much last weekend. I've been exercising regularly for over a year now. I'm eating around 2100 calories a day and weigh 185 so I should be fine there.

It took an hour after running last night for my legs to let me walk normally again so maybe injury could happen, though swimming is low impact...

Sam_I_Am77

I can tell you that feeling drained and lethargic are signs of over-training. You should really take a few days off. One thing I like to tell people is that there is no such thing as pushing harder to give 110%, that math doesn't work, you have 100% and that's it and it sounds like you're close to 0% right now. Seriously, at least for the weekend don't do anything other than normal activities and try to rest as much as possible. I don't know your height but assuming you're about 5'10" is about a 15% calorie deficit. That's not extreme but it's definitely a deficit and just a little bit will influence recovery potential.

What does your normal exercise routine look like? Type(s)? Frequency? Aside from 2100 calories, what does your nutrition look like macro-wise?

binarylegit

Wow, you are good, I am 5'10". My normal workout is 3 lifting days a week (I alternative two workouts: squat, pendlay row, bench press and deadlift, overhead press, pull up). I try to get in a day of running 3 miles when I'm not lifting and then usually swim for 20-30 minutes after lifting on two days.

Nutrition I generally aim for around 180 grams of protein and < 180 grams of carbs and then around 100 grams of fat (lots of unsaturated). How do you know how many calories someone should be eating? I've still got some "love handles" so I assumed I was eating too much.

Sam_I_Am77

binarylegit wrote: »

Wow, you are good, I am 5'10". My normal workout is 3 lifting days a week (I alternative two workouts: squat, pendlay row, bench press and deadlift, overhead press, pull up). I try to get in a day of running 3 miles when I'm not lifting and then usually swim for 20-30 minutes after lifting on two days.

Nutrition I generally aim for around 180 grams of protein and < 180 grams of carbs and then around 100 grams of fat (lots of unsaturated). How do you know how many calories someone should be eating? I've still got some "love handles" so I assumed I was eating too much.

Ha ha, thanks. Well I believe 5'10" is about average for an American male, so I play the averages. LOL! I like the "Mifflin St. Jeor" method for calculating calorie requirements. If you've stopped losing weight you can always try reducing your calories by another 5%, but decrement slowly. You want to diet on as many calories as possible for long-term health and weight management.

How long have you been training like this and how often do you feel this way?

esjones12

Hmmm....usually when I'm feeling stressed and crappy I hit the gym to feel better. However the "took an hour for my legs to walk normal again" doesn't sound good. Perhaps a few days off, some good sleep, and a bit of de-stressing is needed. Perhaps you are getting sick?

Best of luck!

Sam_I_Am77

esjones12 wrote: »

Hmmm....usually when I'm feeling stressed and crappy I hit the gym to feel better. However the "took an hour for my legs to walk normal again" doesn't sound good.

Yeah. The keywords "lethargic" and "drained" kind of jumped out at me as being beyond normal tired.

binarylegit

Just in case anyone is curious heres an update:

So I took Friday and Saturday off, I'm feeling a little better but my muscles still don't really want to fire normally. I was noticing that it is a somewhat similar feeling to when I had some neuropraxia in my hand recently. I did some googling about nerve soreness which got me onto CNS (central nervous system) fatigue. The articles I've read seem to line up pretty similarly with what I'm feeling.

In addition I've realized that I've been struggling with butter fingers and general clumsiness lately, not only right after workouts. So I think back to back workouts coupled with stress might have weakened my CNS a bit. I guess some time off is indeed in order. Maybe my eye will finally stop twitching (I've been getting sleep and eating bananas, still it twitches, very annoying).

misskris78

Maybe you're fighting a cold or the flu. I can't work out when I'm sick. I had a double ear and sinus infection and was down for about a week. I hope you feel better soon.