Feeling sleepy at the gym all the time

[ImTheDoubleGreatest!]

For some reason, I feel sleepy when I'm working out. Like I could just fall asleep right in the middle of the gym. I hate it because I can't workout good enough and I can't pump myself up. Some days I feel really good and on those days I'll always hit a new PR but those days are very rare. I just feel so tired at the gym. Before and after though I feel fine. It's like my body hates working out and doesn't want to do it just starts to shut down. I'm not as motivated as I used to be but that's only because I can't become fully awake anymore. I don't know why all this is. I refuse to stimulant-based preworkouts so that's out the window. Any reason as to why this is and how to get around it?

I should also add that I don't feel this way for extremely forceful and explosive type of exercises like say ball smashes, stop & go sprints, prowler, and anything that's related to racing. But at a gym, most stuff is related to muscle growth rather than speed growth so stuff like that is harder to do in a workout while lifting.

 

[resilient]

Listen to some music that gets you amped up on your phone: mp3s, Pandora, Spotify, etc.

 

[ImTheDoubleGreatest!]

Sounds like if you are bored at the gym, do you happen to go a sausage gym only?

Definitely not.

Listen to some music that gets you amped up on your phone: mp3s, Pandora, Spotify, etc.

Can't. I don't have wireless earbuds or headphones and this one doesn't take wired stuff too well.

 

[Smok1nAce]

Your overtraining. Look up

Leroy Colbert

On YouTube and start watching his videos. One called energy another is overtraining. Watch them both. He is a wealth of information. He has maybe 100 videos on bodybuilding.

 

[ImTheDoubleGreatest!]

Your overtraining. Look up

Leroy Colbert

On YouTube and start watching his videos. One called energy another is overtraining. Watch them both. He is a wealth of information. He has maybe 100 videos on bodybuilding.

Thanks I will

 

[Papa_smu]

Your overtraining. Look up

Leroy Colbert

On YouTube and start watching his videos. One called energy another is overtraining. Watch them both. He is a wealth of information. He has maybe 100 videos on bodybuilding.

I second that as well. How long have you been doing your routine?

 

[ImTheDoubleGreatest!]

I second that as well. How long have you been doing your routine?

3 or so months.

 

[Billtx49]

You may be experiencing an expected endorphin rush. I used to get high before and during the early part of a good practice run when I was doing 10k's. It faded later during the run. Your system may be responding differently though.

 

[ImTheDoubleGreatest!]

You may be experiencing an expected endorphin rush. I used to get high before and during the early part of a good run when I was doing 10k's. Your system may be responding differently though.

I know exactly what you're talking about. For me it happens during an intense cardio type training. But I don't get those anymore. I haven't really gotten them since I was 14 or 15. It's not it. And you don't feel like you want to necessarily sleep either. The feeing in question is like a full body shutdown. If I do go take a power nap for several minutes then I'll be extremely awake for 10-15 minutes. Then I'll go back to normal. But I don't plan on taking naps in the gym.

 

[Billtx49]

I know exactly what you're talking about. For me it happens during an intense cardio type training. But I don't get those anymore. I haven't really gotten them since I was 14 or 15. It's not it. And you don't feel like you want to necessarily sleep either. The feeing in question is like a full body shutdown. If I do go take a power nap for several minutes then I'll be extremely awake for 10-15 minutes. Then I'll go back to normal. But I don't plan on taking naps in the gym.

You're having a body shutdown scenario for whatever reason. If it happens after the initial workout entusiasm has worn off, then the commanding mental determination factor has to take over.

 

[Papa_smu]

3 or so months.

Judging from the time and not considering the intensity and nutritional intake; There are two scenarios that I've experienced or witness in other athletes:

The CMS is getting overloaded and isn't getting ample time to recover from the current workload. It's common for young guys to take on more than what they can handle. And typically they're able to tough it out. Though, in the long run they have a hard time seeing PRs because they end up burning out or getting injured.

Because the body's nervous system is "fried", you get the disembodied, lethargic feeling everytime you get in the gym. The best solution for that is refraining from the movements for a good while (2-3 weeks) and focus on different movements with a lighter load. That may mean staying out of the gym and taking up another activity like Yoga, or a sport during the meantime.

However, it's uncommon for something like this to happen in the average population. CMS overtraining is something you typically see in high-level athletes where they're training for 3-4 hours on the same movements. That leads to another possibility: stagnation. From personal experience, there were times I would prepare to do squats or pull-ups and generally had a similar description on energy levels. The way I fixed that was doing a variation on the routine I was on and cut back the load by a quarter.

For instances, if I'm doing the bench press at 80% for 3x8 I would replace it with incline bench presses with dumbbells at 65% for 4x12. Give it about two weeks and you can reap small victories with PRs. Then, when you're feeling up to it, you can jump back into bench press without feeling stagnant.

"Papa, what hell is 65% on dumbbells? How do you convert the weight from barbell to dumbbells"

Not a clue, but if you try a weight and you can do it 18-20 times then you're golden.

"Oh right! Hey, wait a minute! Aren't you advocating to hang back and try a different exercise in both cases?"

Ah, you got me! The only difference is how drastic the change is in the routine and how much of load you're decreasing between the two scenarios.

If you're putting in 2+ hours a session in the gym while maintaining an active occupation, stay out of the gym and do yoga or biking. If you're doing anything less, change up the exercises and taking it down a notch for a while.

 

[ImTheDoubleGreatest!]

Judging from the time and not considering the intensity and nutritional intake; There are two scenarios that I've experienced or witness in other athletes:

The CMS is getting overloaded and isn't getting ample time to recover from the current workload. It's common for young guys to take on more than what they can handle. And typically they're able to tough it out. Though, in the long run they have a hard time seeing PRs because they end up burning out or getting injured.

Because the body's nervous system is "fried", you get the disembodied, lethargic feeling everytime you get in the gym. The best solution for that is refraining from the movements for a good while (2-3 weeks) and focus on different movements with a lighter load. That may mean staying out of the gym and taking up another activity like Yoga, or a sport during the meantime.

However, it's uncommon for something like this to happen in the average population. CMS overtraining is something you typically see in high-level athletes where they're training for 3-4 hours on the same movements. That leads to another possibility: stagnation. From personal experience, there were times I would prepare to do squats or pull-ups and generally had a similar description on energy levels. The way I fixed that was doing a variation on the routine I was on and cut back the load by a quarter.

For instances, if I'm doing the bench press at 80% for 3x8 I would replace it with incline bench presses with dumbbells at 65% for 4x12. Give it about two weeks and you can reap small victories with PRs. Then, when you're feeling up to it, you can jump back into bench press without feeling stagnant.

"Papa, what hell is 65% on dumbbells? How do you convert the weight from barbell to dumbbells"

Not a clue, but if you try a weight and you can do it 18-20 times then you're golden.

"Oh right! Hey, wait a minute! Aren't you advocating to hang back and try a different exercise in both cases?"

Ah, you got me! The only difference is how drastic the change is in the routine and how much of load you're decreasing between the two scenarios.

If you're putting in 2+ hours a session in the gym while maintaining an active occupation, stay out of the gym and do yoga or biking. If you're doing anything less, change up the exercises and taking it down a notch for a while.

I've overtrained before, even to the point of adrenal fatigue and this isn't it. I'm still able to fall asleep relatively easily and I don't feel shaky and restless when I'm not moving (not anymore than I normally do anyway). I honestly think it's motivation. I feel sick and tired of it. There were certain things that happened that made me have to restart my progress so many times that I just feel sick and tired of training. Plus, I want more dynamic stuff too, like explosive football training even though I don't even play football, or maybe some acceleration and reaction time stuff like boxing or plyometrics. I'm not educated enough to do stuff like that on my own though. And no one around can really give me that type of training. It seems like my time has passed for that. Oh well. How do I get motivated again like I used to though?

 

[Who Dares Win]

I believe its either some form of overtraining or other more important matters get your mental attention, so your brain signal that way that you should be somewhere else.

Had something similar last July while following a plan, basically anytime I was at the gym I was unable to focus or feel that "drive" that you need to feel on your way to the gym.

Do you notice any symptom outside the gym? like a desire for different foods like sweets or choccolate? any change in your sleep patterns or libido?

 

[ImTheDoubleGreatest!]

I believe its either some form of overtraining or other more important matters get your mental attention, so your brain signal that way that you should be somewhere else.

Had something similar last July while following a plan, basically anytime I was at the gym I was unable to focus or feel that "drive" that you need to feel on your way to the gym.

Do you notice any symptom outside the gym? like a desire for different foods like sweets or choccolate? any change in your sleep patterns or libido?

Yeah I think you got it. I don't feel that drive anymore. I don't have a desire for any foods really. Sometimes I do get urges for a peanut butter and jelly sand which and it'll stay with me for a few days before going away. My sleep schedule is just plain awful but it hasn't changed recently. It's just been ****ty for a while. Libido won't change anytime soon, that's for certain lol