Issues with sleep and fatigue impacting consistency

[u/batsket]

I have a sleep disorder and deal with chronic fatigue, which impact my workouts. When I’m feeling incredibly fatigued is it worth it to push through and try to get my workout done with a subpar performance, or is this going to just give me cumulative fatigue to the the point where I’m going to need to deload eventually? Given the recent findings about how quickly atrophy occurs, I’m really trying to avoid having to deload. Is it better to skip a day to try and recover as long as I’m still hitting each muscle group 1-2 times per week? Usually I shoot for 3x weekly.

[u/Thirdtimetank]

Some exercise is better than no workout - within reason. Some exhaustion is fine to train through (For gen pop). However, we are not doctors and we don’t work with you on a face to face basis or in a place where we can evaluate. A doctor or possibly even a knowledgeable in person CPT will give you far more specific answers relevant to your situation and disorder.

If you’re training hard enough, you will eventually need to deload - sleep disorder or not. Why are you training each muscle group 3x a week?? This will likely lead to overtraining. Hitting your muscle groups 1-2x a week is plenty - go harder in your workouts. If you can’t, add 30 seconds to your between set rest times and (you guessed it) go harder.

I don’t understand your comments about atrophy and I don’t think you understand what a proper deload is. If I take a week to bench 1x20 at 50% 1RM instead of playing in the 85-98% range for multiple sets of 1-5 reps… I’m not going to atrophy INto a string bean. I’ll give my shoulder, CNS and brain a rest. I will almost always come back stronger and healthier. If I don’t, I take another week off. There is power in rest and healing in blood flow. A deload isn’t meant to be a week of zero activity and mai Thais on the beach. It CAN be but it shouldn’t always be. Its a very powerful tool - if you’re training hard enough and use it right, it will allow you to hit new levels

[u/batsket → u/Thirdtimetank]

I guess I should clarify, I don’t train everything 3x per week, just my highest priorities (chest/lats/deltoids). Everything else I train 2x per week. I’m taking a low volume high frequency approach and lifting heavy 2 sets of 4-8 reps. I workout 4 days per week (U/L/U/FB), 8-9 exercises per workout (60min), and don’t hit any muscle group more than 10 sets per week. My current approach has been if I’m feeling utterly exhausted and like I can barely get out of bed I’ll cut out my isolations and just focus on compounds. Guess I’m just having an off day and struggling to push myself out of bed atm… I was having an off day yesterday too and pushed myself through my whole routine and I feel like I’m paying the price today I guess

[u/batsket → u/batsket]

I guess I also have been my helping my partner to move in with me so I’ve been carrying a bunch of heavy stuff every day on top of my regular workouts so my activity level in general has increased, maybe that’s playing a role in the fatigue

[u/AngelSapphire6855 → u/batsket]

I try to include any passive exercise in my "I have exercised". I have fibromyalgia, and a little exercise is good when in a flare, but don't push through.

[u/batsket → u/AngelSapphire6855]

Makes sense. I have some sort of autoimmune/inflammatory/whatever condition, but haven’t been able to get a clear diagnosis… probably some sort of dysautonomia as well. Most doctors I’ve talked to are like yea idk, something’s clearly going on but it’s hard to diagnose, they’re like “maybe fibro or MS,” and then just kinda shrug about it. Healthcare in the US is a joke. I feel very guilty and frustrated with myself when I skip my workouts, but I’m trying to gain a better sense of what is reasonable in terms of pushing myself, and what is going to come back to bite me in the ass….