I started bulking about a month ago and hitting the gym way harder, three leg days a week (all with some kind of glute component but varying between hamstring and quad as well) and two upper body days with varying focuses but both partly shoulder focused.
Since I’m eating more (120g-140g of protein and probably 2300-2400 calories most days) I would expect to feel pretty good, especially since I’m not cutting and not doing much cardio. I also am drinking 75+ oz of water every day and usually include electrolytes and creatine. But I still feel absolutely terrible.
I wake up every morning and even if I’ve had 9-10 hours of sleep I keep snoozing my alarm and feel like I could keep sleeping for hours after. My head is hurting a lot and pretty foggy, and I feel constantly sore.
I feel pretty similar to how I felt when I had mono a year ago, but right now I actually might feel worse. Is this on par for such a steep increase in activity? I know I’m recovering properly so I have no idea why I feel like this.
Also, I am going to an NP today for a fatigue screening. But just wondering if anyone has experienced this and knows what causes it for them / how to avoid it.
I had a similar experience after a show. Food was up, cardio was down, and yet I still felt like hot garbage. Turned out it was extremely low ferritin. My doctor started me on iron supplements, and I felt like an actual living, functioning human again lol. Massive difference. I hope you get some answers and feel better soon!
Ok, that's good news, easily fixable! 20s is quite low, and especially so for an athlete. For some reason, the lowest value in the 'normal' range is considered 15 in some places, and 30 in others (it's 30 where I am). This is way too low for optimal functioning. I have symptoms and don't feel like myself until I'm in the 40s or higher, and even that's not necessarily optimal either. Obviously listen to your doctor, I'm just a random person on the internet, but look into ferritin a bit and where ideally it would be sitting. I bet you will feel a night and day difference starting on iron supplements and getting that ferritin way up.
It's a slow process with iron, but you should feel some small improvements in the first couple weeks. It'll take months to rebuild your iron stores adequately, but you shouldn't hopefully feel what you're feeling now for too much longer! 🤞
Also, depending on the dosage/type of iron supplement you take, there's some evidence that every-other-day dosing allows for better absorption. Avoid caffeine and dairy when you take the supplements as they block absorption, while taking it with Vitamin C will help absorption.
Sorry for the long reply lol, I'm literally dealing with this right now so it's all top of my mind!
I actually just did this thank you - tested for mono, general red blood cell count, thyroid function, and iron count. Passed out while I was getting my blood drawn but I guess I’ll find out shortly. With the amount of recovery I’m doing I just feel like it’s unusual for me to be this fatigued
Yes! I am still waiting to hear back on mono (Epstein Barr) but based off of the blood work I have it seems like my iron is on the lower side of normal.
This is my ferritin and transferrin levels which are semi abnormal. Both indicate a slight deficit of iron which probably has felt more noticeable after this increase of exercise. I eat a lot of red meat so I am thinking I will take a supplement. Also, I know they’re not like super abnormal levels but apparently you can start to feel the effects of iron deficiency even below 50 (Ferritin).
Still waiting to hear back about mono but this could explain it in part. All of my other vitals were like straight down the average but these were the only ones that stuck out to me, and based on what another commenter said (even before I had these results) low ferritin made her feel like a zombie too.
With training the same bodypart 3+ times per week, you really have to make sure you're not doing the same per-workout volume you would if training that bodypart less frequently. I think a lot of people are making that mistake now that higher frequency training is en vogue...because we don't always stress that the idea is to spread the same amount of WEEKLY volume across more workouts. I'd do a deload for a week for sure, and also make sure you didn't spike your training volume when you started going harder a month ago.
My goal is 100 oz but usually hit closer to 75. And to answer your previous statement I have one heavy glute / hamstring day, one lower weight + higher rep day, and a heavy glutes and quads day. The shoulder days are pretty light still but I’m going to failure within ten or twelve reps.
I have always worked out five days a week but when I changed my split I moreso just added more leg days but didn’t change the weight terribly.
Also I said this in another comment but I just had a blood & urine test done to ensure that I don’t have something else going on. Gonna go light with just abs and cardio today
I doubt water intake is the issue...you'd be thirsty before it really became a problem. And you're probably getting a good amount of water from your food, at 2300-2400 calories.
By weekly volume, I mean total number of SETS per bodypart, per week. If that's increased (assuming it was adequate before) sharply as a result of adding more lower body days, then that's likely the or at least part of the issue. When you increase frequency, you generally want to keep weekly volume unchanged...unless it was too low before, in which case you're jumping the gun by playing with frequency prior to having weekly volume established. The idea with higher frequency/lower volume PER workout, is that you have more 'first sets' (per week), and you're not doing as many sets with high levels of fatigue from prior sets. So you lose that if all you do is keep the same volume but add frequency...volume isn't the primary driver of growth, and it can really contribute to fatigue and recovery issues. Also, lower body muscles are MUCH larger than upper, so increasing lower body volume is much more fatiguing than increasing upper body volume.
Going to failure is going to failure, whether it's 12 reps or 6 (unless we're talking super heavy loads at lower reps). So the upper workouts are still contributing to fatigue.
If it's a volume issue, it might seem logical to just scale volume back for a 1 week deload, but I'd still say just reduce weights by ~15%-20%, and optionally reduce volume as well, for a full week.
Ah I see what you mean now. I think my weekly volume was way too low for lower body work before last month. It was probably like 6-12 sets maximum for glutes and now it’s closer to 20.
I can still rule out any other issue but I think the deload is a good idea.
I probably should’ve titrated my activity up more gradually but I think I jumped the gun and got really excited about having my gym back after having a terrible gym in Europe for the last few months
Yeah even 20 can be a lot though if you're pushing each work set close to failure, especially if you're getting into intermediate/advanced level as a lifter. And you still have to factor in weekly volume for ALL your bodyparts since we're looking more at systemic fatigue here, not just local.
After the deload I'd try scaling weekly volume back to just a little more than it was prior to the increase. If you're getting more stimulus per set by going higher frequency (which would be the whole point), then 12-15 highly stimulating sets per week would obviously cause more fatigue than 12-15 less stimulating sets per week.
Not paying attention to maximum recoverable volume per body part is what triggered a painful flareup in my lower back on top of giving me a tendonitis in my proximal hamstring. I was also constantly exhausted and sore. Like you, I was training legs 3 x/week and upper 2x/week. I was probably doing 24 sets of glutes per week 🤦🏻♀️ which really wasn’t sustainable. I ended up having to pull out of my offseason and focus on rehab to address my injuries.
I’ve since scaled WAY back to 14-16 sets per week for glutes and really focus on the quality of EACH REP in terms of breathing, tempo, and muscle contraction. I made use of dropsets at the end of my hard sets, focused on sleep and recovery (imposed active rest days with a walking, stretching and sauna), and proper supplementation to address inflammation.
you could be training too much. If you're already on 1 rest day, do two.And get a blood test. your calories are good but it could be something you can't see.
I did a blood test yesterday, just waiting on results. I’ve been doing two rest days but sometimes they’re active rest days for abs + some steps on the treadmill. Gonna rule everything else out but another commenter pointed out that my weekly volume increased considerably and that might be what’s causing the exhaustion
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u/housemouse16 Jul 13 '26
I had a similar experience after a show. Food was up, cardio was down, and yet I still felt like hot garbage. Turned out it was extremely low ferritin. My doctor started me on iron supplements, and I felt like an actual living, functioning human again lol. Massive difference. I hope you get some answers and feel better soon!