Long story short I had really bad back problems and sciatica for over 3 years which prevented me from any sort of running or lifting in most of that timeframe. For the last year or so though I was able to work my upper body like heavy bench press without issues until the nerve problems started up again (about November 2023 I had to stop so from November 2023 until about February 2024 I had no physical activity outside of going for a walk). My whole life though I was physically active with lifting, sports etc.

I came across this acupuncturist recently who basically helped resolve all these nerve issues I was having so I could start lifting and running again. I think I went a little too hard too fast though - for example once I started to not have these nerve issues a normal week may have been heavy upper body monday, heavy legs tuesday, heavy upper body wednesday, heavy legs thursday, friday no weightlifting, heavy upper body saturday, heavy legs sunday. During that same week, every or most nights I would do 20+ minutes of cardio whether that be the stair master or running on the treadmill (fast enough pace so I would be breathing heavy by the end of it) and then stretch for like an hour or so afterwards. I'd also at some point in the morning go for a long walk maybe an hour or so (not that walking is a lot but throwing in everything here). By "heavy" i just mean doing lifts til failure or 4 sets of 5 - so like 4 sets of 5 of squats for me that is challenging, or bench press, or deadlifts, etc. or 3 sets of dips until failure, etc. During this timeframe I did not gain or lose weight really, ate about 180 g of protein (I am about 180 pounds) and ate about 2600 calories or so a day give or take of course.

For about 3/4 weeks of that I felt really really great and high energy and then all of the sudden I started to get super fatigued. Like its hard to get up out of my seat and grab water fatigued. This past weekend I developed some sort of stomach bug which is almost passed now probably needs another day or two but I am incredibly fatigued still.

Anyways appreciate if anyone read that but my point is I'm hoping this is as simple is I was an idiot and trained way too hard way too fast for my body and my central nervous system was exhausted which in turn weakened my immune system which is why I got sick and once I feel better I just need to lower my frequency and intensity of training but would appreciate any insight on this. In the meantime I have basically been barely moving at all these last few days, mostly laying down and barely even walking (still that fatigued..). Looking for some advice how to increase my energy levels moving forward after this and eliminate this fatigue - I am thinking just rest up the rest of this week into this weekend and only go for a walk if I feel I have the energy for it and maybe starting next week I just do a Monday Wednesday Friday full body type exercise (not til failure at first) and on the off days really limit my physical activity to just walking or something.

EDIT: Also any other advice that may help like foods to avoid or something but I would imagine its mostly just about my level of activity throughout the day and sleep (most of my diet is eggs, chicken, salmon, steak, fruit, quinoa, black beans, plain greek yogurt, etc very little processed foods).

This post was edited by Dbroncos22 on Apr 30 2024 06:47am

I expect that your fatigue has more to do with contracting an illness that can really sap you of energy, even before you start to feel other symptoms, and after other symptoms have faded

In combination with nerve fatigue perhaps. I would only do 3 days in a row maximum of heavy lifting, I stick to a pretty sustainable routine of 4-5 days per week of heavy lifting, usually 2 on 1 off, occasional 2 off if I feel I need it or 3 on if I'm feeling good.

I'd say just ease back into it as well as you can, I expect you would recover relatively quickly

CNS fatigue is just overtraining. Don't do anythingnuntil it goes away then reduce the volume of your training.

I don't think volume appears to be the issue here. It appears that his intensity is not dialed in at all for the volume he is doing.

Hes doing fine volume by doing sets of 5 reps for 4 sets. That's pretty standard strength building stuff, but hes doing sets of 5 reps at RPE 10 every single set which is asking to be injured and you won't recover from that. Going REP10 on squat day into a RPE10 deadlift day with high intensity, lower mid volume all the time is not going to get you anywhere.

"By "heavy" i just mean doing lifts til failure or 4 sets of 5 - so like 4 sets of 5 of squats for me that is challenging, or bench press, or deadlifts, etc."


OP: You need to educate yourself on proper set and rep schemes that align to your goal. Going to failure on compound lifts every single set is incredibly stupid and doing multiple sets to failure, even worse. Isolation exercises to failure , sure, they pose significantly less risk and don't expend as much energy. The amount of injury prevention and CNS recovery saved by leaving 1-2 reps in the tank compared to strength gained from going to failure on multiple compound lift sets is not comparable. You're handicapping yourself.

This post was edited by SBD on May 23 2024 08:14am

You described overtraining in detail. He is doing too much strength training (volume). I'd never do strength training more than once per week due to the lengthy recovery time if done properly. It holds even more truth if you're over 30y old. The usual treatment in that case is to stop whatever you're doing until you feel alright again, otherwise you're asking to be injured. Always listen to your body.
Now to the OP, after you'll feel alright again post training break, think about what SBD wrote:

To add to his point, going till muscle failure is very dangerous during strength training with a high load. Usually, if you badly want to train till failure, you'd save it for the last rep of the last set.

You can certainly strength train more than 1 time per week per lift via manipulation of intensity and volume, it's the bread and butter of block periodization training. Ultimately, it's often block dependant. As intensity rises to + 85% sure perhaps once per week with a lower % on the second day you train that lift that week since you still need to put in reps to often maintain proficiency at the lift until you're in a more elite category. Olympic style lifters are a prime example, they often do strength training several times a week with low volumes and high intensity, the other workouts consisting of low intensity and often low volume, making it essentially just practice to remain proficient or gain proficiency. Specification and practice making perfect.

Now you can auto-regulate via use of the RPE system, OR alternatively if an individual is prone to sandbagging themselves and not actually pushing themselves to an RPE8 for instance using a % based system via some well established rep schemes is the ideal system and will stop that individual from sandbagging themselves. Ive met both types of individuals in my time, and even myself gone through different phases where if im not motivated an exact prescribed number for the day gets you there. Personally when I first started writing my own programs I looked to Prilepins Chart as my baseline for sets and rep schemes, wasent perfect but its a good reference until you understand roughly what RPE's and %'s you should be at depending on what block you're in (hypertrophy, strength, peaking, test).

Ultimately, whatever program you do use, it has to fit your goal, be realistically achievable with whatever out of gym commitments you have (some six day P/P/L/R/P/P/L is absurd for most people) and efforts obviously must be expended getting sleep and eating a caloric surplus if the goal is increasing strength.

I wont delve much further than this, but overall program design, while individualistic, often has some pretty consistent overarching principals but obviously first and foremost, OP needs to understand what their primary goal is they want to achieve. Pure strength training is going to look significantly different than some overall health and fitness routine that has you piling on additional conditioning training.

You're technically right but OP seems to be our average Joe who lifts weights as hobby sportsman. Your Olympic lifters work out multiple times per weak by having a very low volume and they mix up very heavy with low weights in-between.
Let's talk about normal people:
Most training routines you find online are somewhat flawed. For example, almost every strength based plan recommends 5x5 back-squat on the same day as 5x5 deadlifts. People who know anything about these exercises know that you essentially prioritize one over the other (the one that comes first drains up all the strength) and they work very much the same muscles. It's very easy to overtrain them due to those "plans". For upper body, military press and any type of bench press use pretty much the same muscles. You can't do 5x5 with each of them on the same day, yet, you'll find those routines online. Moreover, most of those plans are too press/front oriented. Most of the people need almost 2x more back exercises and abs regimes to regain their proper posture from sitting too much. They also believe, the harder they train, the more gain they get, and soreness all over body is celebrated as something positive
These type of 5x5 people should never do strength routines more than one time per week per muscle group. Otherwise, fatigue and injuries are preprogrammed. Back-squat and deadlift are also recommended to them due to the ease of teaching these exercises to a newbie by trainers. Front-squat + RDL combo is absolutely superior to that combo. You actually train targeted muscle groups hard with less weight, they don't overlap.
Ideally, when someone comes back when haven't done a lot for a very long time, front-squat, RDL, military press, dips, pull-ups and rowing are the way to go for the first 1-2 months. The volume of pull-ups + rowing should be 2x to 3x compared to press exercises. ABS can be trained every single day.

This post was edited by babun1024 on May 23 2024 11:55am

I don't disagree with the stance on normal people, that's the caveat I mentioned, what is optimal for you will entirely depend on your outside of gym factors. The father of 2 who works full time, has outdoor hobbies and other proprieties might not be able to run what is "optimal" but rather needs to find what is optimal for them. The average person is best off being NOT great at anything but just have good strength, conditioning, flexibility, etc. Some compound movements per week, conditioning with body weight or kettlebells and maybe some just low impact cardio that comes from things like walking the dog.

For powerlifting / strength, I don't know many programs that have you doing 5x5 squats and deadlifts on the same day. Admittedly I have done my own programs for a long time now, but typically you're pairing bench press with your squat or deadlift day to get the extra pressing volume in and if you do have a SBD day or squat and deadlift day, typically one will have pretty low volume, not another 5x5 or if you're closer to the beginning of say a 16 week program you're often doing a variation, so you might have a front squat or a paused squat, or a deficit or paused deadlift at lower intensities than you would had you just done a normal squat or deadlift, as you progress through the program, specificity kicks in and variations start to disappear unless you really have some sticking point that needs to be addressed by a variation. A lot of strength / powerlifting programs will have you pressing 3x per week. Typically you can handle that volume since its just not the same taxation on your CNS and wont hamper recovery. Pretty common id say to see something like a Squat and bench day, deadlift and bench day, bench and squat day all in the same week and then Day 4 maybe your're doing some RDLS and rowing movements or perhaps a light front squat and some rowing movements.

We can really delve once you start to need to prioritize one lift over the other after you surpass that intermediate strength phase. Things be come unique at that point and your block periodization cycles have to be modified accordingly.

Ultimately its all goal dependant. The average joe can and do complete in powerlifting meets and their 16 weeks is going to look vastly different from 16 weeks for someone who wants the ideal superhero V shape physique and that program will look vastly different than the person who wants to just maximize overall health and fitness and potentially minimize time in the gym.

This post was edited by SBD on May 23 2024 01:16pm