Frustrating problem, can anyone help?

A

abroad07

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Hello all

I'm a 34 year-old male. Whenever I do light jogging or cycling I have no negative reaction, but when I do anything involving resistance eg weight training (i.e. anaerobic exercise), I feel great for a few hours, then after that I become irritable and stressed for no apparent reason for the next 3 or 4 days. I also sleep very poorly for those days as well and feel really sluggish and lethargic.

The standard blood tests (which looked for probems with my thyroid, for example) didn't show anything unusual.

Anyway, it would be really good to hear from anyone that might be able to offer some help for this really frustrating problem. I'm supposed to be doing knee strengthening exsercises following a cartilage operation but I can't due to this reaction to resistance exercise and I love doing weights.

Thanks!
 
experiencing symptoms like that so long after just one session is not normal. are you 100% sure it has something to do with weight lifting? How many times has this happened? If you just felt like **** later the same day I could understand it as if you just worked too hard. But for the next 3 or 4 days.. It's not like you are gonna seriously overtrain from one session.
 
Yes I agree, it certainly isn't normal, hence the frustration I guess. Diet's pretty good, and I'm doing 10 - 15 reps, 3 sets of things like leg press, leg extension, calf raises. I only get a particularly bad reaction when I do leg exercises like this, seems to be a lot better when I do upper body weights.

Like I say, no bad reaction with aerobic exercise, only anaerobic resistance stuff.

Would be v grateful of any help.

Thanks
 
Also, in response to Karky's message, yes it definitely is just after weight training. Cycling, jogging, things like that are fine. Weird I know...
 
How long have you been at a routine? Has it always been this way?
 
For years, yes. As a result, though I love weights I've kept away from them and stuck to football, running and cycling in the past. Now I've got a knee injury, I'm not supposed to run/play football and would like to do weghts to build up the area around my knee, but can't due to the bad reaction I get after using weights.
 
Do you make sure that you make sure you do recovery like active warmdowns and dynamic stretching? Grumpiness can be a result of a poor ability to get rid of lactic acid. I sometimes feel like this but not to such an extent. Just make sure you warm down psychologically as well I often feel stressed out after doing weights.

Dont know if this helps but it has for me.
 
That's an interesting one, I haven't heard that before.

Thinking about it I do notice that when I do aerobic stuff after weights, the negative reaction I get does improve, now I think of it. I'm not sure it's the complete answer, but what would you recommend in terms of 'active warmdowns'?
 
Well i personally like to drop all the weight off and do the exercise with little to no load a few times strectch myself out. I always do a 10 minute walk at the end of my workouts I shake my arms out a bit while I walk shake my legs and just loosen up. I always go through my static stretched as well.

Theres also things like contrast therapy that may be of use to you.

This is an interesting abstract of an article

Lacitc acid can be disapated through this method also.
 
Ok thanks for this advice, I'll give it a go. However having thought about it I'm not convinced it will provide the complete solution. For the next few days after doing weights on my legs I do feel really sluggish (as well as not sleeping well) and I get tired a lot more quickly than usual when walking around - so any other advice would be greatly appreciated, if there's any out there.

Many thanks
 
This might be a wild shot in the dark here but my guess is that it's hormone related, especially as it's occurs more frequently after a lower body session.

My knowledge of this is so unbelievably basic you'll need to go and look into this yourself (There are books on my Christmas present list this year to remedy my ignorance).

Idea 1) Endocrine system imbalance - Heavy lifting causes a reaction from your endocrine system, it is usually helpful as it triggers testosterone release however an imbalance can cause depression especially as it works in conjuction with your CNS

Idea 2) Adrenal system imbalance - Your body releases cortisol when under stress (physical and mental), maybe you're releasing too much or for too long. Doctors can do a blood test for this I think

Ah, also just had a brainwave;
Idea 3) I read an article on T-Nation recently that said the resting T levels in the blood of people who lift are actually lower than in those who don't. Lower T levels could cause depression too. Your doctor can test for this also
 
That's really kind of you, thanks. Funnily enough on all the research I've done the endocrine system does keep coming up, I'll try to get my doctor to fit in a test or two.

So you're basically saying testosterone or cortisol, sounds really helpful. With idea (1) when you say 'an imbalance can cause depression' I assume you mean an imbalance in testosterone?

Many thanks
 
abroad07 said:
That's really kind of you, thanks. Funnily enough on all the research I've done the endocrine system does keep coming up, I'll try to get my doctor to fit in a test or two.

So you're basically saying testosterone or cortisol, sounds really helpful. With idea (1) when you say 'an imbalance can cause depression' I assume you mean an imbalance in testosterone?

Many thanks
Click to expand...

The endocrine system controls the balance of many hormones and Test is just one of them. But as I said, I don't know a lot on the subject and I was just taking a guess at some posibilities given your odd symptoms.

I'll try and think of a member on here who might have specific knowledge that would help you
 
Well yes you're right in a way, basically I get the symptoms of overtraining BUT without actually overtraining. I don't need to do much at all to get these symptoms.

I've tried doing hardly anything, but the result is always the same. Only with weights. I can run or cycle my heart out and I don't get a bad reaction.

Strange indeed...
 
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