Fitness 101 · Eat Based on Your Biology™

Fitness 101

Hi Maurice, I was going through lesson 2 of Fitness 101 and the part about lack of recovery definitely describes what I’ve felt too often:

persistent soreness beyond 72 hours
declining strength
disrupted sleep
elevated resting heart rate
low motivation
irritability
increased injury risk

I’m doing kettlebell training 3 days a week. I’m fortunate to live near a great coach. My goal here is building strength, so it’s usually 5 to 10 reps per exercise, with enough rest to get my heart rate to calm a little. For the most part I do three sets, but if the technique is bad, I stop. On the off days I’m either doing yoga or animal (primal) moves. Walking, I do everyday. My morning routine for years has been similar to what you recommend with the exception of switching from an expensive electrolyte powder to salt. Thanks for saving me some money! At night, the lights are soft incandescents and I wear blue blocking glasses. The last hour/half an hour is red incandescent light only while stretching and reading.

There feels like I’m missing something because it’s still common for me to be wiped out during and after workouts. I’ve had a tendency to work out too hard when I’m run down in the past, but I have gotten better at listening to my body. I did mention to you that I stopped caffeine a week ago. I’m on day 8 now, and I still don’t feel like myself. My goal is 30 days. So far I can’t say my sleep and the feeling of being rested has improved, but I’m hoping that will change. The only issue that’s hard to control is my being a professional musician. I try to keep my bedtime around 12:00am on non-gig evenings so that the nights when I’m driving home after a gig, I’m not falling asleep. The getting home time can vary from 12:00 to 1:30. If it’s any later than that, I’ll get a hotel. That has its issues in that I don’t sleep so well in hotels, so I do my best to get home. The one good thing is that I don’t need to use an alarm clock since there’s nowhere I have to be in the morning.

Is it possible that all of this is from disrupted sleep due to caffeine and that once I’m over this hump, it’ll improve? Is there anything else I should be looking at? I’m hitting the protocols daily, and although my bedtime is late, my wake time is adjusted for this, and that’s pretty consistent. I make sure I don’t eat three hours before bed and I keep the bedroom cool, and wear a sleep mask to keep it dark. My wife likes the sun to wake her up so the mask is the compromise. I’m on the fence on getting a sleep tracker as well. I’m a bit concerned I’ll get too into the data haha.

Chris

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Fitness 101