Even if it’s a solid 2-3 hours before going to bed?
Yesterday I had a heavy deadlift day after an unplanned 2-week break from training due to some personal matters. I thought I had lost some strength for sure, if even a bit, but at the same time, it wasn’t such a long break that I still couldn’t go heavy. I warmed up, then put 350 lbs on the bar for an amrap set. I was thinking to myself - “Wish i’d get at least 7 reps.” Instead, the bar felt like it was flying and I ended up getting 14 reps with a couple in reserve. It felt surreal. I finished it off with a heavy double and a heavy single of 420 and some back-off sets afterwards.
Went to bed two hours afterwards, feeling as satisfied and as ran-through as a miserable suburban housewife married to a loser of a husband that can’t satisfy her who just spent an afternoon with a 350 lb NFL linebacker and arrived back home in the evening, barely able to walk but with a smile on her face. So I had no trouble actually falling asleep. But all night long, I dreamt of russians invading my hometown, and me fighting for my life running around with a gun in my hands. Woke up twice with terror sweat, and despite sleeping a total of 7.5-8 actual hours, I feel like I slept 4-5.
Another time, I had done a mock-meet, all three lifts in one day, 2-3 hours apart, preceded by a peaking phase and all that. That destroyed me, and despite finishing the whole day before 5 pm, I think I couldn’t fall asleep before 3 am and had shitty dreams also.
Of course that was an insane and exceptional day, but still, to have such bad sleep after an intense but otherwise routine workout? Does this happen for everyone else too or am I just particularly bad at handling adrenaline?
Not just you. It’s a thang. I never workout in the evening because I can’t sleep.
1 Like
I see. Sucks though because most of my workouts are intense enough that if I do them in the morning, I feel like I need a nap afterwards and my job is quite physical, so I feel extra drained. Idk, will try to get them in in the afternoon then, I guess…
1 Like
Yeah I deal with this too. Usually 5pm is my line, which is rare for me. I’m sure if you had to consistently workout at that time you’d adjust pretty quickly though.
Any time I go from 2 week break like you mentioned and back into training, even if I train at noon, I cannot sleep that night. No matter how tired I am. I’ll also seem to have a ton of trouble getting hydrated. This coming from someone who only trains every 4-5 days to begin with.
I actually had to outright stop training for a while for several months this year. I was working 12.5 hour shifts at a rock quarry, 5-6 days a week. Even an easy session after my shift was keeping me up late, unable to sleep, and I had to be up by 4am. I’ve pondered for some time what does it. Maybe the adrenaline as you mentioned.
Yes this happens to me a lot. Personally going to try working out earlier in the morning rather than at night.
Tried ashwaganda and magnesium and other supplements (l-theonin, lemon balm, etc) with some help in this regard but there is no “quick-fix” in my estimation.
Magnesium and ashwaganda definitely help me fall asleep but I seem to wake up wide awake earlier in the morning if I take them for awhile.
Yessir. I have avoid training after 4 with a 10pm bedtime. I recall reading years ago that it’s because of CNS activation whilst training. Apparently it takes several hours for it to return to baseline and in the interim, things such as sleep are adversely affected. It makes sense to me although this theory may have been more recently debunked.