Fatigue

[tomraven]

I row for an hour 4 times a week and do weight traing for an hour twice a week.

About 2 months ago, I upped the tempo of my rowing and increased the weights one notch.

Over the last 6 weks I have given up alcohol, sweets, nibbles and all junk food and have lost 11kg.

I starting noticing I was getting very fatigued and put it down to a loss of salt, because I sweat off about 1.5kg over an hour. Now I take Barocca Performance before a weekout and it seems to help.

My problem lies with the weights. I am finding I don't have the strength to finish my sets. It seems to be getting harder every week even though I am using the same weights. I do the same routine every week.

Is my routine to boring? Do I need to shake it up a bit or am I missing some sort of energy source? I have cut out sweets completely, but still eat carbohydrates.

Can anyone shed some light on my problem?

[hjs]

It you lose weight is very normal to lose muscle as well. So this is what you are feeling know. If the weight are becoming to heavy just eas off a bit. You will pick up the weights up very quickly as soon as you start eating normaly again.

A few tips.
eat some carbo's 90 min before you workout. This will be fuel for that training.

Eat once a week more complex carbo's. Fill you depleted glocogeen deposeds this way. This will fool your body and help keeping the body burning energy.

[pduck]

Are you getting enough rest between workouts? It sounds to me like you aren't recovering. When I coached (track & cross country) we would not only employ a hard day-easy day routine, but we'd also put in one easy week per month.

Why don't you try taking a few days off, eat well, get enough sleep, and come back refreshed.

[Steelhead]

I row for an hour 4 times a week and do weight traing for an hour twice a week.

About 2 months ago, I upped the tempo of my rowing and increased the weights one notch.

Over the last 6 weks I have given up alcohol, sweets, nibbles and all junk food and have lost 11kg.

I starting noticing I was getting very fatigued and put it down to a loss of salt, because I sweat off about 1.5kg over an hour. Now I take Barocca Performance before a weekout and it seems to help.

My problem lies with the weights. I am finding I don't have the strength to finish my sets. It seems to be getting harder every week even though I am using the same weights. I do the same routine every week.

Is my routine to boring? Do I need to shake it up a bit or am I missing some sort of energy source? I have cut out sweets completely, but still eat carbohydrates.

Can anyone shed some light on my problem?

I also weight train, cycle, and erg. Here's what I learned while trekking over the Cho La to the base camp at Mt. Everest: if you don't eat enough food while exercising intensely, your body will use muscle protein, and you will lose strength. I lost 20 pounds in about 2 weeks.

So, the first step is to determine if you are fueling your body with enough complex carbohydrates so you have enough glycogen to stop your body from using your muscle mass resulting in fatigue and loss of strength (also keep in mind that if you don't drink enough water you will lose about 20% of your muscle strength -- this is kind of like checking the gas tank before fixing the engine). Here's a formula you can use:

66 + (6.23 times your weight in pounds) + (12.7 times your height in inches) - (6.8 times your age in years) which equals your BMR (the minimum amount of calories you need each day just to stay alive -- the bare minimum before you start starving yourself). Since you exercise alot, you can multiply this number (your BMR) by 1.4 to add more calories to compensate for your exercising (if you exercise lightly, you would use 1.2 and if strenuously 1.6 -- I think you are around 1.4). After you do this calculation compare that with the number of calories you are eating each day.

If you want to lose weight without starving yourself and putting your body into starvation mode (where you start consuming your own muscle for energy), then you take your total and multiply it by .8, which is a 20% reduction in the calories you need to maintain your weight while exercising. This will result in a dramatic weight loss. Slow and steady wins the race when it comes to weight loss and muscle gain.

At least the above will give you an idea of whether you are not eating enough (complex carbohydrates) which may be causing the fatigue; in addition, you need to check to see if you are drinking enough water (to avoid the 20% loss in strength) and getting enough vitamins and minerals (including iron) in your diet. Keep in mind that you really don't need all that much protein vis-a-vis complex carbohydrates.

One last point, based on my own experience. If you use your legs more than your upper body, you will lose upper body strength and gain leg strength. Your body is quite amazing in that it will move muscle around so to speak. While in the Himalaya, I lost all of that 20 pounds from my upper body while my legs gained muscle. When I returned home, I had powerful legs but I could barely lift 135 pounds (down from 310) in a bench press. This got my attention and made me realize what had happened. It took some time to regain my upper body mass.

Let us know if this helps.

[HardGainer]

Hi Tom

All the above is good general advice. The point about loss of strength with loss of lean mass is also well made. That's the very reason we have different weight classes in competitive strength events. I would also add that eating cleanly and making sure your diet is not lacking in any of the essential micronutrients is even more important for a hard training athlete.

However without knowing a great deal more about someone (training history, eating habits, body type, symptoms etc.) it's difficult to determine via a message board what are the most likely cause(s) of their apparent loss of strength.

Speaking as an 'ectomorph' and a self-confessed middle-aged gym rat, I'm always very mindful of the effects of over training and lack of quality recovery time between intense weights workouts or cardio sessions. In spite of what we frequently read, one size most certainly does not fit all when it comes to workout routines, optimum workout frequency, basal metabolic rates etc. etc.

In short, what I'm trying to say is that you might also consider the possibility that you're overdoing things. Nothing is guaranteed to sap your strength and energy levels, knock your motivation more than so-called 'over training'. Unfortunately even experienced athletes often overlook it as a reason for lack-lustre performance. That's not difficult to understand why, since it seems quite rational to work harder when you find you're not achieving as well as you used to. Obvious but sometimes overlooked is the fact that exercise breaks down not builds muscle. The building is all done in the recovery period between workouts.

My suggestion would be to do a Google on over training and learn to recognise the symptoms.

John Rippon
NZ Grand Champion
Body-for-LIFE 2004

[Steelhead]

Are you getting enough rest between workouts? It sounds to me like you aren't recovering. When I coached (track & cross country) we would not only employ a hard day-easy day routine, but we'd also put in one easy week per month.

Why don't you try taking a few days off, eat well, get enough sleep, and come back refreshed.

pduck and Tom are correct (they know that).

Here's an article that succinctly sums up overtraining fatigue:


Overtraining Syndrome

It is no secret among athletes that in order to improve performance you've got to work hard. However, hard training breaks you down and makes you weaker. It is rest that makes you stronger. Physiologic improvement in sports only occurs during the rest period following hard training. This adaptation is in response to maximal loading of the cardiovascular and muscular systems and is accomplished by improving efficiency of the heart, increasing capillaries in the muscles, and increasing glycogen stores and mitochondrial enzyme systems within the muscle cells. During recovery periods these systems build to greater levels to compensate for the stress that you have applied. The result is that you are now at a higher level of performance.

If sufficient rest is not included in a training program then regeneration cannot occur and performance plateaus. If this imbalance between excess training and inadequate rest persists then performance will decline. Overtraining can best be defined as the state where the athlete has been repeatedly stressed by training to the point where rest is no longer adequate to allow for recovery. The "overtraining syndrome" is the name given to the collection of emotional, behavioral, and physical symptoms due to overtraining that has persisted for weeks to months. Athletes and coaches also know it as "burnout" or "staleness." This is different from the day to day variation in performance and post exercise tiredness that is common in conditioned athletes. Overtraining is marked by cumulative exhaustion that persists even after recovery periods.

The most common symptom is fatigue. This may limit workouts and may be present at rest. The athlete may also become moody, easily irritated, have altered sleep patterns, become depressed, or lose the competitive desire and enthusiasm for the sport. Some will report decreased appetite and weight loss. Physical symptoms include persistent muscular soreness, increased frequency of viral illnesses, and increased incidence of injuries.

There have been several clinical studies done on athletes with the overtraining syndrome. Exercise physiologic, psychological, and biochemical laboratory testing have been done. Findings in these studies have shown decreased performance in exercise testing, decreased mood state, and, in some, increased cortisol levels -- the body's "stress" hormone. A decrease in testosterone, altered immune status, and an increase in muscular break down products have also been identified. Medically, the overtraining syndrome is classified as a neuro-endocrine disorder. The normal fine balance in the interaction between the autonomic nervous system and the hormonal system is disturbed and athletic "jet lag" results. The body now has a decreased ability to repair itself during rest. Heaping more workouts onto this unbalanced system only worsens the situation. Additional stress in the form of difficulties at work or personal life also contributes.

It appears that there are two forms of the syndrome. The sympathetic form is more common in sprint type sports and the parasympathetic form is more common in endurance sports. The results from various measurements taken during exercise physiologic testing differ between the two forms, but decreased overall performance and increased perceived fatigue are similar. In the parasympathetic form there may be a lower heart rate for a given workload. Athletes training with a heart rate monitor may notice that they cannot sustain the workout at their usual "set point." Fatigue takes over and prematurely terminates the workout. Regulation of glucose can become altered and the athlete may experience symptoms of hypoglycemia during exercise.

I won't comment on all of the differences between the two forms, but one example is resting heart rate. In the sympathetic form, the resting heart rate is elevated. In the parasympathetic form, however, the resting heart rate is decreased. If this sounds confusing, then you are not alone. There is very little agreement in the literature about abnormal laboratory findings. Additionally, it is possible to have the overtraining syndrome, but have completely normal physical findings and biochemical tests. At this point, there is no single test that will confirm the presence of overtraining. The overtraining syndrome should be considered in any athlete who manifests symptoms of prolonged fatigue and performance that has leveled off or decreased. It is important to exclude any underlying illness that may be responsible for the fatigue.

The treatment for the overtraining syndrome is rest. The longer the overtraining has occurred, the more rest required. Therefore, early detection is very important. If the overtraining has only occurred for a short period of time (e.g., 3 - 4 weeks) then interrupting training for 3 - 5 days is usually sufficient rest. After this, workouts can be resumed on an alternate day basis. The intensity of the training can be maintained but the total volume must be lower. It is important that the factors that lead to overtraining be identified and corrected. Otherwise, the overtraining syndrome is likely to recur. The alternate day recovery period is continued for a few weeks and then an increase in volume is permitted. In more severe cases, the training program may have to be interrupted for weeks, and it may take months to recover. An alternate form of exercise can be substituted to help prevent the exercise withdrawal syndrome.

All of the medical studies and advice on overtraining have involved single sport athletes. For triathletes and other multi-sport athletes the recovery process may be different depending on the circumstances. If it can be identified that the overtraining has occurred in only one discipline, then resting that discipline along with significant decreases in the other sports can bring about full recovery. It is vitally important not to suddenly substitute more workouts in one sport in an attempt to compensate for rest in another. The athlete that does this will not heal the overtraining, but will drive him or herself deeper into a hole. Overtraining affects both peripheral and central mechanisms in the body. Resting from overtraining on the bicycle by swimming more will help a pair of fatigued quadriceps, but to the heart, pituitary, and adrenals, stress is stress.

As with almost everything else health related, prevention is the key. Well-balanced gradual increases in training are recommended. A training schedule design called periodisation varies the training load in cycles with built in mandatory rest phases. During the high workload phase, the athlete alternates between high intensity interval work and low intensity endurance work . This approach is used by a number of elite athletes in many sports.

A training log is the best method to monitor progress. In addition to keeping track of distance and intensity, the athlete can record the resting morning heart rate, weight, general health, how the workout felt, and levels of muscular soreness and fatigue. The latter two can be scored on a 10 point scale. Significant, progressive changes in any of these parameters may signal overtraining. Avoiding monotonous training and maintaining adequate nutrition are other recommendations for prevention. Vigorous exercise during the incubation period of a viral illness may increase the duration and severity of that illness. Athletes who feel as if they are developing a cold should rest or reduce the training schedule for a few days.

In conclusion, the prevailing wisdom is that it is better to be undertrained than overtrained. Rest is a vital part of any athlete's training. There is considerable evidence that reduced training (same intensity, lower volume) for up to 21 days will not decrease performance. A well-planned training program involves as much art as science and should allow for flexibility. Early warning signs of overtraining should be heeded and schedule adjustments made accordingly. Smart training is the path to faster times and good health.

Copyright©1998 Mark Jenkins, MD [Emphasis not in original] http://www.rice.edu/~jenky/sports/overtraining.html

[MomofJBN]

Maybe you need some variety. You say that you do an hour 4 days/wk. Is it just an hour of steady rowing every day, or do you work on sprints one day, 1000m pieces another? What about some shorter (half hr or 45 min) work-outs with greater intensity, and maybe one longer, lower intensity work-out.

[tomraven]

Thanks for all the above input.

I guess my problem comes from a combination of factures.

I will be going to Italy for 3 weeks holiday in 2 weeks time, so that will provide a good break from training.

I have supplimented my diet with some nuts and that seems to be helping. I am also making sure I eat enough fruit every day.

This week I rowed a good 1/2 marathon and I changed my weight work out. I did fewer reps with bigger weights and then did some sets with light weights.

At present I am more focused on weith loss so I have kept my rowing to long steady rows of 1hr each. I try and lower my times a little every week. I've never been much of an athlete and can only look at disbelief at times people post. It has taken me 4 months to get my stroke rate for the hour row from 2:15 down to 2:09. I did the 1/2 marathon at 2:09.2 today.

My aim is to get all my times as close to the 50 percentile as possible. At present they range from 62% upwards.

I think sleep is also a factor as I think i must sleep less than 7 hours a night. More like 6 to 6 1/2. My exercising is a factor as I am getting up an hour earlier, but I am still going to bed late. I think this will have to change.

Once again, thank you for your input.

Tom

[Tom]

I totally agree with what everyone else has said so far.

I'd just like to add my 2 pence worth.

I'm currently doing what sounds like a fairly similar workout routine.

I'm lifting weights and rowing. And my main goal is weight loss/toning.

A few weeks ago I found that my ability to lift weights was dropping off a little and that I just didnt feel quite right during workouts. This period conicided with a busy period of work which reduced my normal nights sleep from 8hrs + to around 6-7hrs.

Having now restored my sleep pattern to normal, and made some reductions in my sleep deficit I'm back to my previous level with weights and rowing times. In fact I'd say I'm lifting more and producing better times rowing.

From your last comment hopefully you've sorted things out. Good luck with the progress.

[ancho]

Have you tried a cool beer after your workouts? Makes wonders!

[Steelhead]

Have you tried a cool beer after your workouts? Makes wonders!

Here's a quote from this article:
http://www.e-caps.com/za/ECP?PAGE=ARTIC ... %20Library

The toxic impact of a single drink depresses the entire endocrine system so dramatically that recovery from intense training and strength growth from exercise are cancelled until homeostatic biomarkers are replenished in full. The resultant insulin spike from alcohol "sugars" (fermented carbohydrates or sugared mixers) sweeps blood serum "sugars" for conversion into fats stored in and around the liver or in peripheral body tissues. Since Ethyl Alcohol is virtually void of vitamins and minerals necessary for assimilation into the body, it must deplete valuable energy substrate stores of these micronutrients, robbing the body like an unwanted parasite, predisposing it to premature fatigue during the next exercise session. Depletion of the water soluable "B" vitamins, especially folic acid, and several minerals directly interfere with the effectual operation of the Krebs Cycle upon which endurance performance is dependant. This also directly impedes the storage of available liver glycogen, from which 25% of available blood serum glucose for exercise originates.

....

Specifically, a conclusive, documented argument may be offered which suggests an athlete loses up to 25% in performance gains simply by drinking alcohol during intense training.

[ancho]

...


....

Specifically, a conclusive, documented argument may be offered which suggests an athlete loses up to 25% in performance gains simply by drinking alcohol during intense training.

Well, I drink alcohol "after" training, not "during" it. Now I have to wonder what my performance would be after all those years of erroneous drinking diet

What would be the impact of 33cl of beer after a 20k OTW-row? (That's my top favourite sunday-morning combination)

[Steelhead]

...


....

Specifically, a conclusive, documented argument may be offered which suggests an athlete loses up to 25% in performance gains simply by drinking alcohol during intense training.

Well, I drink alcohol "after" training, not "during" it. Now I have to wonder what my performance would be after all those years of erroneous drinking diet

What would be the impact of 33cl of beer after a 20k OTW-row? (That's my top favourite sunday-morning combination)

Good question. "The toxic impact of a single drink depresses the entire endocrine system so dramatically that recovery from intense training and strength growth from exercise are cancelled until homeostatic biomarkers are replenished in full." I'd have the beer after full recovery, but then it wouldn't be the same, would it? Still, if the goal is to maximize performance, then . . . ?

[blogGreen88]

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I search Yahoo for long time and find here.By the way I found some content on another website about it.Also,you can find some other on it,such as jobs cad or it audit or fortbildungen.
LOL!Good job and go on talking plz,boys

[johnlvs2run]

I get an ample supply of nuts from the internet.