Careful with that Ambien, you might start packing on the pounds!
I’m not too worried about that…I rarely go to bed on an empty stomach and never get up in the middle of the night to eat.
[quote]Flower217 wrote:
JD430 wrote:
Ive had my own sleeping problems recently.
Mainly they are caused by absurd shift work, but I know my personality isnt helping. I tend to try and fix things and
work over them obsessively, which creates much more stress in the long term.
It doesnt seem to me that you have any real sleeping problems. Just a few rough nights. Here are some things to think about though.
Dont obsess about sleep. There is a growing mentality that we are all dangerously sleep deprived and so forth. This leads people to count every hour they sleep and then say things like “I only slept 5 or 6 hours last night. I cant function.” Thats ridiculous. Ask some of the hardcore military guys what they have done in training and in the field in terms of sleep.
Sometimes they’re up 3 or 4 days with little sleep. Dont develop a million rituals around trying to go to sleep or anything like that either. Dont think about sleep during the day(this is key and it is something that all people with insomnia start doing…stressing about sleep). Just let it happen. When you are tired enough, your body will take care of itself.
Also, dont skip workouts or alter your life too much if you dont sleep well. Just go about your business. If Im not mistaken, Professor X has said numerous times on here that he is a very poor sleeper and look at the physique he managed to build.
I dont know much about medications. Xanax be causing your problems. If that is the case, surely that will work out in time.
The sinus thing should be investigated by a doctor. Perhaps you have apnea, allergies or some type of upper respiratory obstruction that is hindering your sleep. I suspect the same thing in my case, as I have a deviated septum and bad sinuses. My doctor is looking into it.
Good luck.
Thanks for this post. Starting tomorrow I’m going to try a “new” attitude based on your post. This 3, 4, 5 hours a night IS starting to get to me. I have a cycle - after a month or 2 of this then I’ll get 2 or 3 nights of 7 or 8 hours. I just wish I could break this cycle.
[/quote]
Sleep problems are tough to deal with. Insomnia is a symptom, not a disease in and of itself.
The tricky thing is that it can be a symptom of a million things. Poor lifestyle habits(like me with the swing shifts), brain and blood chemistry imbalances, psychological stress, medical conditions. The list goes on and on.
I encourage you to investigate medical reasons and try to follow good sleep habits(webmd.com has a list under the topic insomnia). However, many people have psychologically induced insomnia. This doesnt mean you are going crazy, although lack of sleep makes you feel that way sometimes. It means that you keep mobilizing the body’s stress response when you should be relaxing and letting sleep take over. Sometimes the stress response around sleep comes from traumatic events, like witnessing an accident. However, it is often the case that sleep itself becomes the stressor.
This only makes things much worse.
I learned all of this stuff by reading a number of books on sleep. Paradoxically, I have stopped doing that too as I think it caused me to think about sleep more than I should have.
I wish you luck.
[quote]Djwlfpack wrote:
Flower217 wrote:
JD430 wrote:
Ive had my own sleeping problems recently.
Mainly they are caused by absurd shift work, but I know my personality isnt helping. I tend to try and fix things and
work over them obsessively, which creates much more stress in the long term.
It doesnt seem to me that you have any real sleeping problems. Just a few rough nights. Here are some things to think about though.
Dont obsess about sleep. There is a growing mentality that we are all dangerously sleep deprived and so forth. This leads people to count every hour they sleep and then say things like “I only slept 5 or 6 hours last night. I cant function.” Thats ridiculous. Ask some of the hardcore military guys what they have done in training and in the field in terms of sleep.
Sometimes they’re up 3 or 4 days with little sleep. Dont develop a million rituals around trying to go to sleep or anything like that either. Dont think about sleep during the day(this is key and it is something that all people with insomnia start doing…stressing about sleep). Just let it happen. When you are tired enough, your body will take care of itself.
Also, dont skip workouts or alter your life too much if you dont sleep well. Just go about your business. If Im not mistaken, Professor X has said numerous times on here that he is a very poor sleeper and look at the physique he managed to build.
I dont know much about medications. Xanax be causing your problems. If that is the case, surely that will work out in time.
The sinus thing should be investigated by a doctor. Perhaps you have apnea, allergies or some type of upper respiratory obstruction that is hindering your sleep. I suspect the same thing in my case, as I have a deviated septum and bad sinuses. My doctor is looking into it.
Good luck.
Thanks for this post. Starting tomorrow I’m going to try a “new” attitude based on your post. This 3, 4, 5 hours a night IS starting to get to me. I have a cycle - after a month or 2 of this then I’ll get 2 or 3 nights of 7 or 8 hours. I just wish I could break this cycle.
Definitely a good post. Thanks for the info and yes, you’re right about thinking about sleep too much. I need to just let it happen instead of worrying about if I’m going to fall asleep right away or not.
I wouldn’t compare civilians to the military and/or doctors, though, because the situations are different. Yes military/doctors can perform great tasks with little or no sleep for days at a time but it’s because they’ve been trained to do so. Can I function the next day when I haven’t slept well? Yes but I have more energy to do more activities when I’m fully rested.
The sinus issues aren’t anything severe…they just tend to flare up whenever there’s a drastic change in the weather (like we just had out here in CO).
Flower, hang in there girl. Hopefully this will turn around for you soon and you’ll enjoy many consecutive nights of peaceful sleep.
[/quote]
I was never trained to handle a lack of sleep and neither were all of the guys on the police department that I work with. We just try to figure it out.
trust me when I say that you will be able to do the same, although I wont argue that you enjoy life more when fully rested.
Hey y’all,
Just got back from the gym and had a great workout. More good news, I had a full night’s sleep last night. The Ambien really helped as I was out minutes after turning off the lights and slept straight through the night. I’m not going to take Ambien every day but will take it tonight and then take a day off tomorrow and see how I respond.
Here’s the stats from today’s workout:
Sets: 2
Reps: 12
Rest: 90
Good Mornings: 105, 115
Hack Squats: 135, 155
Seated Calf Raises: 90
Pull-ups: BW
Decline DB Bench: 60
DB Front Raises: 25
Did a couple of sets of wrist flexion/extensor work afterwards.
Also did my weekly weigh-in and checked in at 194 pounds, same as last week. So, 6 more to 200 and 11 more to my goal of 205.
I plan on taking it easy this weekend but will be back in the gym for my next workout on Sunday.
Take care,
Dan
Happy Saturday everyone,
Just finished a great boxing workout at home. Man, I just love the convenience of being able to wake up, eat and then strap the gloves on and go to work without having to drive to the gym.
Today was more of Muay Thai based as I did a lot of knees from the clinch (on the bag) and high and low kicks (my flexibility is improving as my high kick has gone up in the past few weeks).
Here’s what I did
Warm-up, 3 rounds:
20 jumping jacks
10 sit-ups
10 burpees
3 rounds:
jab
jab, straight
hooks
jab, straight, hook, uppercut
(after each round did push-ups or sit-ups for 30 seconds)
3 rounds:
knees from the clinch (wrapped my arms around the bag like you would an opponent’s head and threw knees into the bag)
3 rounds:
jab-straight-leg kick
2 rounds:
100 punches
Cool-down, 2 sets of:
10 squat & press w/ medicine ball
10 push-ups
30 side crunches w/medicine ball
Since it’s actually nice out here for a change I think I’m going to get out and take the dog for a walk since she’s been stuck inside the house the past few days due to the colder weather.
Enjoy your weekend!
Dan
Hey there,
Went to the gym this morning and had a good workout, although those 18 rep days are tough, I love the pump you get from the high rep work.
Here’s the stats from today:
Sets: 2
Reps: 18
Rest: 120
A1) Squats: 135 (+20 lbs. from last week; I used too light a weight last time, this felt better today)
A2) Standing Calf Raises: 90
B1) Bent-over BB Rows: 135
B2) Step-ups: 115
C1) DB Bench Press: 55 (up 5 lbs.)
C2) BB Curls: 50 (up 5 lbs.)
Was going to take the dog for a walk but we’ve got some brutal wind gusts out here today, so although it’s sunny, it’s definitely not ideal walking weather. Maybe the wind will die down and we can go later. Guess I’ll just chill and watch some NCAA b-ball.
Take care,
Dan
Hello,
Well, my NCAA bracket is offically crap. For the first time I can remember, I had zero teams make it to the Final Four. All four of my teams (Duke, Gonzaga, UConn and BC) lost this weekend. I think it’s cool that George Mason is still alive, though. It’s what makes the NCAA so much fun, even if your bracket falls apart.
Today I had a really good boxing workout, although I’m becmoing a bit bored with my current routine. I think I’m going to hit up rossboxing.com and see what some of the guys are doing over there and try to find some new things to add to my routine.
Tomorrow it’s back to the gym for more TBT. I can’t wait.
I hope everyone is feeling well. I’m still in my tapering off phase with the Xanax and so far things are going really well. I noticed I was a bit on edge yesterday b/c I hadn’t taken a pill of any kind in more than 24 hours, but it didn’t last long.
-Dan
glad to hear it Dan, i am doing pretty well myself. One thing i would advise is stick to the taper exactly as your doctor recommends, sometimes we want to jump ahead and just be done with it, but the slow taper is important otherwise we run the risk of increasing withdrawal syptoms which will set you back. Keep up the good fight my friend.
[quote]morepain wrote:
glad to hear it Dan, i am doing pretty well myself. One thing i would advise is stick to the taper exactly as your doctor recommends, sometimes we want to jump ahead and just be done with it, but the slow taper is important otherwise we run the risk of increasing withdrawal syptoms which will set you back. Keep up the good fight my friend.[/quote]
Hey, morepain. Glad to hear you are doing well. Don’t worry, I’m definitely sticking to the doctor’s recommendation on the tapering off plan…no sense in messing with what’s working.
Hey everyone,
I actually just got back from the gym. This is the earliest I’ve worked out in 6 months, but I figured since I was up early and have a potentially long day of work ahead of me, I may as well squeeze in the workout now.
Here’s the stats from today:
Sets: 2
Reps: 8
Rest: 90
Deadlifts: 235 (up 10 lbs. from last week and felt like I could def. handle more weight!)
Standing Leg Curl: 87.5
BB Upright Rows: 80
BB Incline Bench Press: 160 (up 5 lbs. from last week)
Crunches: BW + 35 lbs.
Skull Crushers: 75
Came home and finished off the second half of my PWO shake (had the first half before working out). Now it’s time to make some breakfast.
I hope everyone has a great day!
-Dan
Just returned from another great workout at the gym. Two more weeks of TBT left, and then it’s either on to CW’s HFT program or AOW.
I also did my weekly weigh-in this week and again, the scale stayed put at 194. I need to go over my diet and figure out how to add in some extra calories to my diet. I’m also thinking about ordering some Biotest creatine to help put on a bit more size and weight.
Here’s the stats from today:
Sets: 2
Reps: 12
Rest: 90
1A)Good Mornings: 115
1B)Hack Squat: 155 (+ 20 lbs.)
2A)Pull-ups: BW
2B)Standing Calf Raises: 180
3A)DB Decline Bench: 65 (+ 5 lbs.)
3B)DB Front Raises: 30 (+ 5 lbs.)
Tomorrow I’m going to do some sprint work, then resume my boxing workout on Saturday.
The tapering off process for Xanax is nearly complete. I take my last .25mg pill tomorrow and then I’ll be drug free. I’ve noticed that I don’t feel as edgy now as I did last week when I didn’t take Xanax, so my body is obviously adjusting to not having the drugs in its system (I’ve been taking it every other day for the past week). My sleep has been good the past week, too. The Ambien is really helping. I’m sure soon I’ll begin to try and taper off of that, too and then I’ll be completely drug free.
I hope everyone is doing well.
-Dan
Congrats on the tapering process. Sounds like things are much better.
I’m just wondering…have you ever figured out what cause your panic attacks? I’m still dealing with them, sort of limited symptom ones (not full blown)…chest tightness, flushing, just feeling jacked up, etc. The chest pain is probably the most annoying symptom. I can’t figure out what has caused them…only guess is too much work stress for too long of a stretch.
[quote]muscleintraining wrote:
Congrats on the tapering process. Sounds like things are much better.
I’m just wondering…have you ever figured out what cause your panic attacks? I’m still dealing with them, sort of limited symptom ones (not full blown)…chest tightness, flushing, just feeling jacked up, etc. The chest pain is probably the most annoying symptom. I can’t figure out what has caused them…only guess is too much work stress for too long of a stretch.[/quote]
A big cause was that I was working myself way too hard and I finally crashed. I was working 6.5 to 7 days a week, nearly 80 hours a week and it’s no wonder I had an attack. I also had some family members going through some health issues that added to the stress. Since the attacks I’ve modified my work schedule, make sure I take at least 1 full day off a week and try and get out of the office as early as I can on days that I don’t have much work to do.
Hey everyone,
Well, today is my last day on Xanax…I took my final .25mg pill today. I’m excited to embrace the future without medication. Of course, I still have a stash in the house should I ever feel an attack coming on, but I think I have learned enough through therapy and the different calming exercises that I can get through it on my own.
Since it was nice outside, I hit the pavement for some sprints. I haven’t done these in a while and I can already tell my quads/hamstrings are going to be sore tomorrow! I did 6 sets of sprints for 30 seconds each time. Since I wasn’t running on track, I don’t know what the distance was that I covered, so I just went by time, taking a 90 second break between sprints. I finished off the workout with 1 mile jog.
Tomorrow I’ll be doing a home boxing workout and then Sunday it’s back in the gym for Week 7 of TBT.
Take care everyone,
Dan
thats really great Dan, just don’t beat yourself up if you occasionally have to take one to relax. The key is that you have beaten the dependency, its a tough thing to do and alot of people fail it says alot about your inner strength, congratulations!
[quote]morepain wrote:
thats really great Dan, just don’t beat yourself up if you occasionally have to take one to relax. The key is that you have beaten the dependency, its a tough thing to do and alot of people fail it says alot about your inner strength, congratulations![/quote]
I appreciate the support, morepain. Thanks for making the 200th post on this thread…we continue to reach new milestones!
I definitely won’t beat myself up if I have to take an occassional pill, I know there’s nothing wrong with that. I’m glad, too, that my body and mind responded well to the tapering off program.
Relax
Im a zombie
I’ve totally lost sight of the fact of the origins of that original post - this is all due to you Dan. Congrats on the huge milestones. Only thing left for me to say is you’re one lucky bugger with the Ambien!!! Workouts looking great as ever. More & more of a breath of fresh air you are everyday! Bravo!!!