Concept2 Forum

I noticed that my sleep is much worse on a hard workout day, such as 8x500m, or hard effort 5000m, even if I do it early in the morning. In the night following the hard workout, I sleep more shallowly and tend to wake up more often and feel tired the next morning. For this reason, I now typically only do one hard workout per week.

Besides trying to get better hydrated and eat more protein. Are there other ways to promote recovery?

I find the opposite so long as I have several hours and food between session and going to bed. I have found that if I go to bed hungry that it definitely makes my sleep more fitful. I find that I am noticeably warmer for upto 24hrs after a hard workout and expect that the extra calories after the session are significant. Coupled with often not feeling hungry after a workout and leaving a gap for food to digest before the workout it is easy not to eat enough on hard workout days. The only other possibility is soreness. This can be reduced by massaging the muscles and stretching post workout, but basically it is about learning to ignore the discomfort that is more obvious when in bed and blanking it from my mind so that I can sleep.

Thanks, iain. The reasons you mentioned are likely valid for me, including hunger, higher body temperature, and soreness. I probably need to eat more on hard days. Increased body temperature might be a major cause of reduced sleep quality, as the body temperature needs to cool for deep sleep.

I think hard workouts and stress from life and work may also make recovery difficult.

Maybe you need to ease off the pace, just a little bit for the harder sessions and see if that makes any difference. You could be overreaching for the moment, and you need to adapt.

Not eating enough isn't something I ever suffer from, but I assume that could cause an issue

I'm the last person to be giving advice on sleep as mine is absolute trash, however, if I go to bed remotely hungry, I'm not getting to sleep (which isn't my issue, staying asleep is). So my last 'meal' or late evening snack will include a good amount of fat and protein. Just don't be fooled in to thinking you need to supplement with the stuff, safe your pennies...

I'm not convinced there is enough science out there to suggest stretching will actually improve muscle recovery, but I do feel better for it. Throw a foam roller in the mix for good measure.

You touched on life stresses and this is a factor which is so easy to overlook. I can put in some solid training on garbage sleep, but if there is anything on my mind, I'm inclined to cut it short, quit halfway, do an easy session or just not bother.

Finally, fitness. As that improves, you'll typically find you bounce back quicker/can tolerate higher workloads.

https://youtu.be/Bt8JbqrK9R8?si=Vuh6oiVkWx3_pgvx&t=74

start at 1:14, the intro is content free. Covers science behind basic recovery technique for endurance sports like rowing. Does not cover strength training recovery.