I did olympic weightliting for 6 years, had a decent result 130 snatch 160 c and j at 90 kg bodyweight.
Trained for that time without problems 5-6 times a week doing a program resembeling somewhat the russian system to describe it in a few words.
Then i tried a bulgarian-ish style training program. After only 2 weeks of doing that i was unable to sleep on the heavy days. Did that for a total of a month then took a break for a month.
When i tried to come back any more intense activity i tried to do would prevent me from sleeping, meaning i sometimes couldnt even fall asleep all night, other times I needen 2-3 hours to fall asleep and then the sleep was shallow and full of dreams and woke up freequently. Resting heart rate was up, my normal resting heart rate before that was around 75 bps, after this promblem began it was up to 90, 95. Blood preasure was normal, blood markers were normal. Went to a doctor after checking my blood they did recoment taking anti inflamatory’s which did help to some extent but mainly proved insuficient and only helped for the moment. But apart from that they didnt send me to any further tests and did nothing else to help.
When i quit all intense activity the problem was better, but immediatly after lifting anything or even running or being mentaly aroused(like worries or anxiety) the problem of not being able to sleep was back for a while until the stressor was again removed. Being tired from intense activity would prevent me from sleeping but very low intensity activity like walking for a long period or low intensity work.
Initialy i thought it was some sort of overtraining, but my lifts progresed during that entire time and i didnt experience any sort of decline in performance. I thought it would go away after a while not it has been more that a year and a half since i had to stop lifting. And even now when i do any activity that’s more intense than walking up a hill I can’t fall a sleep and it doesnt appear to be getting any better by waiting, resting and doing low intensity activity like walking.
When unable to sleep i have an elevated heart rate, feel hyper-cant stop thinking, sometimes feel hot. What i find helps is a cold shower of bath to calm down or taking anti inflamatory pills, only helps for the moment and even that is sometimes like a drop in an ocean.
Anyone with any advice would greatly appreciate it.
I had a lot of problems like you describe in my late 20s - early 30s, when I was trying to eat “clean” and wasn’t getting enough fats in my diet. Or just unde-reating in general, for too long.
Hi i am 23 now my diet was always to gain weight because im more towards the ectomorph side of the spectrum. I never stressed about eating so i guess i was ussualy on about 3000 cal/ day, making sure i was eating enough protein (about 180g per day, 90kg bw) and not eating junk but not stressing about the amount of carbs and fats. So i guess it was quite balanced. Also i think i got enough fruits and veggies as well. For this particular issue i also read somewhere with all these symptomes that vitamin b i think was important so i get that to.
Thanks for the tip about fats ill think that over but i think i get enough of that.
Why almost? What amount of caffeine do you consume and when?
That said, if you aren’t heavily consuming caffeine (I’m also assume you aren’t an amphetamine addict), it is 100% worth seeing a physician to get a sleep study done
I did olympic weightliting for 6 years, had a decent result 130 snatch 160 c and j at 90 kg bodyweight.
Trained for that time without problems 5-6 times a week doing a program resembeling somewhat the russian system to describe it in a few words.
Then i tried a bulgarian-ish style training program. After only 2 weeks of doing that i was unable to sleep on the heavy days. Did that for a total of a month then took a break for a month.
When i tried to come back any more intense activity i tried to do would prevent me from sleeping, meaning i sometimes couldnt even fall asleep all night, other times I needen 2-3 hours to fall asleep and then the sleep was shallow and full of dreams and woke up freequently. Resting heart rate was up, my normal resting heart rate before that was around 75 bps, after this promblem began it was up to 90, 95. Blood preasure was normal, blood markers were normal. Went to a doctor after checking my blood they did recoment taking anti inflamatory’s which did help to some extent but mainly proved insuficient and only helped for the moment. But apart from that they didnt send me to any further tests and did nothing else to help.
When i quit all intense activity the problem was better, but immediatly after lifting anything or even running or being mentaly aroused(like worries or anxiety) the problem of not being able to sleep was back for a while until the stressor was again removed. Being tired from intense activity would prevent me from sleeping but very low intensity activity like walking for a long period or low intensity work.
Initialy i thought it was some sort of overtraining, but my lifts progresed during that entire time and i didnt experience any sort of decline in performance. I thought it would go away after a while not it has been more that a year and a half since i had to stop lifting. And even now when i do any activity that’s more intense than walking up a hill I can’t fall a sleep and it doesnt appear to be getting any better by waiting, resting and doing low intensity activity like walking.
When unable to sleep i have an elevated heart rate, feel hyper-cant stop thinking, sometimes feel hot. What i find helps is a cold shower of bath to calm down or taking anti inflamatory pills, only helps for the moment and even that is sometimes like a drop in an ocean.
Anyone with any advice would greatly appreciate it.
This doesn’t sound like overtraining whatsoever. Sounds like some kind of insomnia or health problem that you should discuss with your doctor or a sleep specialist, not random people on a forum.
like i mentioned i went to the doctor for this, actually discused this with 2 different doctors, none of them thought it was a serious healt issue. The sleep specialist is a good option to try next.
Sorry to hear that bro. I having the same issue for 7 years, and maybe longer in smaller amount.
I tried everything, from stretching, massage, better diet, suplements to muscle imbalance program.
Core problem of your condition is mental stress and repressed emotion. Your body and mind are in a constant survival mode. Youre body cannot heal and your training is just making it worse. When you find your inner peace, your body will lead your mind. Believe me, there is no other solution. If you ignore those fact, thing will be worse, and you will get in more problems (like me). I have severe back pain and needed to stop training. Sleep is essential for recovery and well being. Sport is a sort of stress for CNS, like all other mental stresses so you keep building it trought the time. Hope this is helpful. Cheers.
firstly, sorry about your insomnia, it’s torturous and a subject that has a ton of misinfo surrounding it. CBT for insomnia helps a lot but only if you follow the procedure, talk to your doctor about perhaps a short term prescription for something like temazepam or hydroxyzine. Otherwise try cannabis edibles, the sleep and relaxation is unparalleled to any otc drug you could be prescribed(if you are ok with using cannabis). I’ve had sleep issues for a long time and am currently working through it. If you want you can pm me and I can tell you what I do for all that.
Since writing this in march it got a bit better but its still not OK. Im happy for that little bit of progress since nothing changed before for a while.
All the contributions in this thread are outstanding. I hope you followed up with the advice to get medically checked out (to rule out more significant issues).
In our clinic, we did a three-year study working with veterans who experienced significant sleep problems. Some of these guys hadn’t had a full night’s sleep in a decade. It hugely impacted their lives, wrecking their health, performance, and relationships.
We learned a lot from getting our participants to sleep again. Some of our learnings may (likely) be helpful to you.
Cortisol is almost always a problem. Elevated nighttime cortisol (when it should be the lowest) will cause arousal, inflammation, and disrupted sleep. It will ultimately lead to insulin resistance and the issues stemming from that. Get a 24hr cortisol study done. It’s easy through ZRT Labs Cortisol Awakening Response Test Kit
The wrong exercise can make matters worse. If your cortisol is already high, the wrong type of exercise can elevate cortisol significantly further, throwing you over the edge.
The right exercise can be a solution. Low-load blood-flow-restriction (BFR) training with isometric holds works wonders – cyclical KAATSU is our favorite. It signals the pituitary to recover, induces better sleep, and it’s an easy thing to try!
Shoot us an update or let us know if you have questions.
Great question. I hate to over-simplify or over-categorize based on our experience, but here are some observations.
General numbers seemed to be perportional to officers to enlisted. So the numbers of the wounded, ill, and injured reflected the general population.
Injuries tended to be more frequent in enlisted/infantry, especially head injury and joint injury.
Stress-related injuries (chronic or traumatic) were fairly equal when accounting for combat-related activity.
All of them had sleep disturbances that were significant. Some with apnea and use machines (even in their low 20s) but most just have very poor sleep quality and regularity.
Majority exhibited some level of hormone issues - cortisol, testosterone, thyroid, etc.
General quality of life indexes increased across the entire population with the exercise protocol.