Night Workouts for a Type 2B Confident

Bigger Stronger Leaner Christian Thibaudeau Coaching
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Hope everyone is doing great
I would love to hear some inputs on my case it would be great from anyone here would help me out and Guide me a bit

I have been consistent lately with training & sleep and for me Recovery and sleep is more important than training to me to be a Functional Human being through my Day to day Job & Life since my type is on top of the Anxious side with high Cortisol & Adrenaline
recently I have also changed my Job Recently which is a new stress on me lately how can i adapt my Training & my current Situation like what type a split will be more applicable since i finish by 6PM and in the GYM at 7:30 PM which is late for me since i am effected from the elevation of the work stress and the workout and that could mess my sleep & Recovery @lou_smeets any inputs from you would be great i am a Dolphin Chronotype

Thanks & Regards to all

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Hey @wika20 ,

My first recommendation is to start using commas and periods in your sentences and using capital letters appropriately. People won’t be inclined to take you seriously and read through your post when it looks like it’s written by a toddler. I’m not laughing at you, I’m pointing this out for your benefit.

It’s awesome that you took the importance of regular movement (training included) and quality sleep to heart and built your life around those two priorities. That is a great achievement, stay consistent with it. It will go a long way in contributing to your overall health & wellbeing.

Concerning training, it’s hard for us to give good advice without knowing more about your training experience and current goal. I’ll give you some general recommendations:

If you’re a beginner and your goal is to build muscle/lose fat, a full body split done 3 times per week, where you train on alternating days, is probably a good place to start.

Note: training age has nothing to do with experience. There are lots of people who have been going to the gym for 20 years and who are still stuck at benching 135 and a bodyweight squat as their 1 RM or who have not gained more than 10 pounds of lean muscle tissue. On the other hand you have people who have only been training for one year and managed to gain 20 pounds of lean tissue and squat two times their bodyweight. The former would be classified as beginners while the latter would be intermediate or even advanced.

Intermediate or advanced lifters who want to build muscle/lose fat most effectively have only two great splits to choose from imo: full body 3 times per week or upper/lower 4 times per week.

Full body is slightly more effective for hypertrophy in theory but the big caveats are that you have to be smarter with your programming and it might not be as motivating for you to train your whole body in a session.

Upper/lower is often the preferred split of most lifters simply because they hate to train their whole body 3 times per week.

Both splits are great options for hypertrophy/fatloss, using either an effort based, low volume approach or a load based/low to moderate volume approach. You could even do a mix of both. That’s what Paul Carter does with his training groups on Trainheroic. He has two groups: yoke buds (full body 3 times per week) and yoke squad (upper/lower 4 times per week). Joining one of these groups would be my recommendation for you if you don’t want to bother with programming your own training and if you want to make training highly effective for your situation. Paul’s programming is based on maximizing fatloss/hypertrophy by focussing on achieving mechanical tension fast and minimizing fatigue and muscle damage, using a low volume, effort/load based approach.

If it’s power, strength or athletic performance you’re after, you can’t go wrong with one of CT’s programs or online coaching. He is a jack of all traits but after years of learning from him through his course material, webinars, YT content etc. it is my personal opinion that his programming really shines in one of the above mentioned categories.

Don’t worry to much about starting your session at 7:30 PM. Ideally your training won’t last longer than an hour so you’ll be done and out by 8:30 PM which leaves plenty of time to unwind. Dolphins usually don’t benefit from going to bed before 11:30 PM anyway.

Even if you were going to bed at say 10:30 PM, you’d still be OK because lying awake with your eyes closed is already helping your nervous system recover and quality sleep is affected by two systems: sleep-wake rhythm and sleep motivation. Sleep motivation comes from an accumulation of adenosine in the brain, which is highly affected by physical activity. Hence, your training will contribute greatly to increased levels of adenosine, making you sleepier. Sleep wake rhythm is the one you need to be mindful of. This system is highly regulated by cortisol, serotonin and melatonin. Revisit my sleep recommendations in earlier posts for more information on how to optimize that system.

Lastly, learn to be OK with anxiety/stress, don’t overthink everything and don’t be so hard on yourself when things aren’t perfect or don’t go the way you planned them. Overly anxious people have this tendency to get stuck inside their head about all that is perceived as (potentially) stressful and endangering to them or their routines: new job, new girlfriend/boyfriend, financial stress, starting a family, dealing with issues that come from having a family…

Get this: it is 100% normal to get stressed about these things. Life is and will always be somewhat stressful, there’s no way around it. However, stress can become exacerbated, overwhelming and even debilitating when your perception is off. That’s a problem and it needs to be dealt with appropriately.

The key to dealing with high levels of stress/anxiety is taking care of the basics (proper nutrition, sleep and movement) but also regularly checking in with yourself to become aware of how you’re feeling/thinking, then proceed to acknowledge how you’re feeling/thinking BUT not get stuck there and blindly accepting it as truth. Just check in with yourself for a short time to show your subconscious that you are not suppressing or ignoring what’s going on inside but rather accepting it. Then, proceed to focus all of your attention OUTWARDS to the person you’re talking to or whatever is it you’re doing and spend more time there without crawling back inside your head and letting your anxious perceptions take over.

You can tackle overthinking, perfectionism and the way you tend to perceive things by allowing more room for spontaneity, by getting out of your head and by learning to be OK with making mistakes and not being great at everything. You’ll be surprised how differently things turn out than you imagined once you start doing that.

Always remember that it is much more effective to create opportunities and growth by trial and error and being kind to yourself/others than looking for the one right answer (which doesn’t exist anyway) and beating yourself up when you cannot find it.

You didn’t ask for a lesson in dealing with anxiety but I believe it’s applicable to you and might offer you some relief in dealing with yourself and your surroundings when stress is high.

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@lou_smeets First of All I am really sorry for my Writing I was in a hurry

I want to thank you for taking the time to give me that great Feedback and guidelines

For the last part about stress/Anxiety it’s exactly what I needed really it’s not training nor most of the stuff at the beginning of the post but you did hit the nail on the head with me on that Topic I will always reread these points if you got some references that would help with dealing with stress/Anxiety you recommended it would be great

Thank you Again

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@wika20, if you read his reply, you didn’t understand. He said to use capital letters, commas, periods, etc. so 1) the reader understands what you’re trying to convey and 2) people will take you and your post more seriously. Your second post still reads as though it were written by a toddler. Not trying to be rude but is English your first language?

@lou_smeets, I’ve never read one of your replies where I haven’t learned something new. You are definitely an asset to us. Cheers!

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Gigantic “agree”

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I am not writing an essay its just a replay on a Forum why are you Guys write something that is inappropriate to me about being a toddler that is really offensive to me then you write I didn’t mean to be rude I don’t get it you are already rude no its not my first language so I am doing my Best

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Then don’t write about important matters when you’re in a hurry. Wait until you can give yourself enough time to think about what you wish to say and start writing afterwards.

Or you could pen down a couple of thoughts first as a base and then take your time to improve, edit and complete your message. Not only will it be easier on the eyes for those who read your stuff, it’s a matter of self respect as well.

Nobody said you’re a toddler, we are not attacking your character here. We’re simply pointing out that your post looks like it was written by a 4-year old. You went a step further and took that as an offense because you think we’re calling you a toddler. There’s a difference.

Right now your responses show no sign of willingness to improve your English grammar. Yes, this is a training forum and no, you’re not doing a writing assignment for English class but you should still pay attention to your writing if you want to be taken seriously. Use online translation services if you’re having a hard time conveying what you want to say and please start using commas and periods in your sentences.

Now, it can be hard to do all that when you’re feeling really anxious, tired and jittery. I understand that. However, you still need to work on it, even when it’s hard or it doesn’t interest you.

It doesn’t have to be perfect either. Heck, I’m Belgian and I’m pretty sure I’m making grammar mistakes too because English is not my native language. But people who do speak English as their first language will notice your efforts and that in itself has a disarming effect, even when your writing is not 100% correct.

Having said that, I’m still going to give you a couple of pointers below on dealing with anxiety because that’s more important than sending you off with a lesson on grammar conventions and leaving you feeling judged when you’re asking for help.

I already gave recommendations for sleep & training so I’m only going to share my advice on nutrition and stress management here:

  • Nutrition: start reading up on Medical Medium to address anxiety using targeted nutrition and supplementation. Yes, his methods are considered pseudoscience and the source where he claims to get his knowledge from is really vague. However, when you can’t find relief in modern medicine/scientific approaches, your health starts to decline rapidly and the stress is building up inside to a point that you feel like you’re going to explode, then it is time to widen your scope and start experimenting with new strategies/belief systems. When it comes to nutritional support, his health advice has greatly exceeded all the other recommendations I tried in helping me relieve my own issues with anxiety and depression. If you can see past his annoying comments on modern science and research and focus solely on the nutritional side, you can expect (great) improvements in your health. Don’t get me wrong, I love science but I don’t consider every published study as absolute. Scientific research has lots of flaws and misinterprations, even after decades of experimenting with health related subjects. I don’t like to limit myself to what has been ‘proven’ to work. If it doesn’t work for me or I can’t feel/notice improvements after a couple of months, I’m moving on to something else.

  • Stress management:

  1. To adress anxiety, you first need to come to terms with yourself and acknowledge that you’re having an issue that is putting major breaks on your quality of life. Stop suppressing, ignoring or running away from what you’re feeling/thinking. Instead give your emotions/thoughts room to breathe and express themselves so you can start listening and understanding what message they are trying to convey to you. Nowadays, more and more men are starting to realize that it’s OK to be vulnerable and explore this part of themselves to make their lifes better rather than locking it all up because they think reflecting on/talking about their feelings/insecurities makes them less of a man. In my opinion it’s the opposite. To me being a man means being brave enough to be 100% authentic and not being afraid/ashamed to explore and/or express every single facet of your personality.

  2. Once you’ve accepted that you have an issue that is affecting your health, it’s time to start talking about it. Social support and acceptance is a big deal for people who suffer from chronic stress/anxiety. Try to be as honest and clear as possible about your condition when asked but express yourself in a calm and collected manner. People really appreciate authenticity, even when what you’re saying is viewed as dark or negative. It’s actually a great strategy to get closer, stronger bonds with your friends/family/partner because you’re not afraid to be vulnerable around them. In turn they will be more open about themselves with you, leading to even greater connection. Being authentic also helps to be more comfortable with these parts of yourself that usually give you fear.

BUT, and this is a big but: you need to be good at knowing your audience and interpreting when a social situation lends itself to open up about this stuff. Not everyone is comfortable talking about such deep, personal topics and you need to respect their boundaries. Some people want to stay on the surface while others like to take deep dives in conversation. This is for you to experiment with and find out. Expect your friend circle to get smaller once you start to communicate openly about what ails you. This is actually a good thing because the ones that stick around, are the real deal and support/appreciate you for who you really are.

If you’re not ready yet to talk to your friends or family about your anxiety or you just don’t want them to know, then my advice would be to find yourself a great therapist. It’s important that you’re not the only one dealing with your condition. Support from outside or feeling supported really is key for managing anxiety. The reason why I’m recommending a therapist and not a psychiatrist is because people who suffer from anxiety really want to feel understood in their suffering. That means the person they’re talking to needs to be able to show empathy on a level that goes further than simply handing out subscriptions for medication. While that can be necessary and important to some, it’s really important for an anxious person to feel understood and accepted so she/he can learn to be more comfortable with herself/himself.

  1. Once you got 1. and 2. done it is time to take ACTION and put the strategies for tackling your anxiety to practice instead of staying in your head. Experience is the best teacher. Learn to be more comfortable with yourself and spend more time facing your fears and getting comfortable there. It’s always hard in the beginning to deal with the sensations that accompany doing things that are uncomfortable. But once you start practicing and getting more and more positive experiences, those overwhelming sensations will eventually get less and less pronounced or may even subside completely. Also, strive to find a good balance between spending time with others and alone time. Some people recharge their batteries when surrounded by friends, others get a boost from being by themselves. You need both to be healthy but the dosage differs from person to person. That is for you to find out.

Keep trying, be kind/true to yourself, and stay the course. It will get better in time.

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