Night sweats from high volume workouts?

DopeItUp
DopeItUp Posts: 18,771 Member
edited November 29 in Social Groups
This is something I rarely see discussed anywhere so I figured I'd bring it up.

I've found that when I'm in bulking season and doing crazy volume (for me) I sometimes (maybe once a week) wake up with incredible night sweats. Like, soak the sheets, comforter, pillow through night sweats. Only happens with very high overall workload.

Recently (past few months) a coworker has been introduced to lifting and she does more very high volume work (like nothing under 12 reps, lots of sets) as well as a couple cardio days. She started getting night sweats and now claims to be getting them almost nightly at this point.

I always assumed maybe ramped-up metabolism or muscular repair systems going in overdrive while sleeping. Or maybe hormonal surges or something? Googling it doesn't give a lot of concrete info. I always thought it was because I worked out late at night too (just before bed) but my coworker works out first thing in the morning (5-6AM) so I guess that throws that theory out. She's also a woman nearing 50 so I doubt she's getting testosterone boosts or anything crazy that I might have theorized for myself.


Anyone have similar experiences with this? Any idea what it is?

Replies

  • lporter229
    lporter229 Posts: 4,907 Member
    I am not a doctor or an expert on this subject, but this is just a bit of info I will throw out to you. I have Crohn's disease and one of the symptoms during a flare is severe night sweats. My doctor says this is a sign of inflammation (in my case the colon, but may be any where in the body) and your body is trying to fight it. Not sure if this is what is going on, but there may be some connection.
  • cajuntank
    cajuntank Posts: 924 Member
    While I cannot say I have experienced this with a lot of volume (and this is subjective from person to person), I do get night sweats when I eat a lot of carbs that day. You mentioned that you were bulking as one of the conditions. Are you eating more carbs on higher volume days?
  • DopeItUp
    DopeItUp Posts: 18,771 Member
    cajuntank wrote: »
    While I cannot say I have experienced this with a lot of volume (and this is subjective from person to person), I do get night sweats when I eat a lot of carbs that day. You mentioned that you were bulking as one of the conditions. Are you eating more carbs on higher volume days?

    If I'm bulking I'm eating high carbs every day pretty much. 300-400g a day typically.
  • cajuntank
    cajuntank Posts: 924 Member
    edited January 2016
    DopeItUp wrote: »
    cajuntank wrote: »
    While I cannot say I have experienced this with a lot of volume (and this is subjective from person to person), I do get night sweats when I eat a lot of carbs that day. You mentioned that you were bulking as one of the conditions. Are you eating more carbs on higher volume days?

    If I'm bulking I'm eating high carbs every day pretty much. 300-400g a day typically.

    I guess I was seeing if you ate even more than typical carbs on high volume days that could attribute to the night sweating. But if you are carb eating "even keel" throughout, then I guess it seems like the higher volume would be the culprit.
  • nossmf
    nossmf Posts: 12,057 Member
    Just a thought, but what about the outside weather? In the last week we've had differences of at least 20-30 degrees from one night to the next, which even though our home is theoretically climate-controlled, I still feel warmer/colder in my bed depending on the outside weather. Could you maybe be sweating more on warmer nights, less on colder nights?
  • DopeItUp
    DopeItUp Posts: 18,771 Member
    nossmf wrote: »
    Just a thought, but what about the outside weather? In the last week we've had differences of at least 20-30 degrees from one night to the next, which even though our home is theoretically climate-controlled, I still feel warmer/colder in my bed depending on the outside weather. Could you maybe be sweating more on warmer nights, less on colder nights?

    This has been a long-time thing, summer or winter so I doubt that part very much.
  • ndj1979
    ndj1979 Posts: 29,136 Member
    you might want to see a DR, as severe night sweats can be a symptom of an underlying medical condition/infection ....

  • tephanies1234
    tephanies1234 Posts: 299 Member
    @DopeItUp

    Did you end up getting checked out? I've been bulking over the last month and have night sweats regularly too. I have been noticing a pattern and they happen the night of a high volume/intense workout. My shirt gets drenched at night and I normally wake up from it around 3am feeling sore from the workout already. While I'm getting ready for work in the morning, I notice that my body is a lot warmer than normal to the point I turn the heat down in the house, sometimes still dripping a bit of sweat. Then I go back to normal in about an hour or so and it doesn't happen again until the night of another high volume workout...
  • DopeItUp
    DopeItUp Posts: 18,771 Member
    @DopeItUp

    Did you end up getting checked out? I've been bulking over the last month and have night sweats regularly too. I have been noticing a pattern and they happen the night of a high volume/intense workout. My shirt gets drenched at night and I normally wake up from it around 3am feeling sore from the workout already. While I'm getting ready for work in the morning, I notice that my body is a lot warmer than normal to the point I turn the heat down in the house, sometimes still dripping a bit of sweat. Then I go back to normal in about an hour or so and it doesn't happen again until the night of another high volume workout...

    Nope, I'm not really concerned at all, it seems fairly typical but I was just curious about the mechanism behind it.
  • SideSteel
    SideSteel Posts: 11,068 Member
    Tagging this.

    I have no idea about this but I'm going to ask a few people who might.

    I'll post back here if I've managed to dig up anything.
  • DopeItUp
    DopeItUp Posts: 18,771 Member
    :heart:
  • SideSteel
    SideSteel Posts: 11,068 Member
    I'm just curious if there are any other changes that take place when you do high-volume sessions that could be causing the issue rather than the training itself causing the issue.

    Any changes to supplement intake, caffeine intake, nutrient intake on high-volume days?
  • DopeItUp
    DopeItUp Posts: 18,771 Member
    SideSteel wrote: »
    I'm just curious if there are any other changes that take place when you do high-volume sessions that could be causing the issue rather than the training itself causing the issue.

    Any changes to supplement intake, caffeine intake, nutrient intake on high-volume days?

    For me personally, if I'm bulking, every workout is high-volume-ish. The only difference on those workout days vs non-workout days is taking pre-workout (C4 or Tier 1 are my go-tos). Other than that, I keep my caloric intake and macros pretty much the same every day. However, I take pre-workout every workout no matter what (bulking, cutting, whatever), while the night sweats only show up 1-2 times a week only when bulking/doing high-volume workouts. I work out at night, just before bed.

    For my boss (a late 40s woman), she's always doing high-volume bodybuilding style workouts. And she's not bulking, she's eating at maintenance. She mentioned 2-3+ times a week getting night sweats. She works out first thing in the morning, 5-6AM. Has never had this happen until she started lifting (mid 2015).

    Surprised I don't see a lot of people reporting the same issues, I know my IRL lifter friends have mentioned it before as well so I assumed it to be more common.
  • tephanies1234
    tephanies1234 Posts: 299 Member
    @SideSteel
    I also eat relatively the same amount in macros each day, also on a bulk. 1 coffee per day in the morning, I eat the same types of meals each week. No pre workouts for me, just creatine. I workout at 5pm, 4 nights a week also high volume. I had night sweats about 3-4 times per week really bad at the beginning of my bulk (started January), and would wake up early morning sweating. I also found I was running warmer during the days (didn't use my heater at work). Last week I think I only had 1 night sweat that really wasn't much of anything, and noticeably less DOMS as well. I'm thinking it's the high volume workouts and change in extra food for the bulk? I didn't experience this on my diet phase. I did experience night sweats years ago when I tinkered around with weightlifting that was similar to this because I remember complaining about how often if happened back then too.
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