Training when tired

[riverrock]

Should you force yourself along even if tired or is there a point? I don't mean tired from previous sessions, I mean tired from poor sleep for a few nights in a row?

 

[silver_shadow]

i sometimes avoid it depending on how tired. sometimes i pick myself out of bed, tell myself "get the fuck out of bed you lazy dick... if you miss today's workout next thing you know, you'll be missing the next and the next and so on... an then one day you'll be like the pillsbury boy"... enough to motivate me... besides, once i'm in the gym and get the blood flowing, i can still have an intense workout... caffeine can help too.

 

[blut wump]

I try not to let lethargy deter me from the gym. Once you're there you'll probably find that you still have your strength and can make your weights.

The downside is that if you really need to be awake silly long hours then maybe you can't afford to be even more drained from a gym visit. I've often had to decide that there was no place for hard exercise in my life for extended periods of excessive working hours requiring a reasonably sharp and focussed mind.

 

[Maks]

I regularly have nightshifts without any sleep, and 24h-shifts with no/only little sleep. So I quite often have to go to the gym when tired. But once I'm there and the weights are moving, i feel quite good. Forcing new PRs when tired is hard, but you feel great afterwards nevertheless.

And someone said that muscles don't need sleep for growth. Dunno if that can be backed up, but I would really like to believe that.

 

[heavyweightchamp]

For the most part if its days in a row of no sleep as you said it would be harder for blood to get to the muscle your working from lack of sleep and dont count on setting any PR's during that time but if you missed a bicep or tricep/ calf or ab workout it probably wont hurt. Get some sleep dude, quit staying out at the bars and stip clubs with bitches til 5 am. Lol. Now if you were physically tired from training but get adaquet (spelling) sleep thats when you will break through your plateaus without knowing down the road and makes you what you are, training through the exhausted times. Good post.

 

[c3bodybuilding]

I do the same thing Silver Shadow does. I force myself out of bed. Some days it just doesn't happen though. Like today, lol. So tomorrow before I head out for a day at the beach, I have to go in and do some heavy squats. I'll be going in tired too, because I'm at work now and I'm not done until 12. By the time I eat a few more meals, drink a shake, relax it will be 3. And I've been promising my wife a day out, so off to the squat rack at 9 or 10 for me! But with low sleep and only one meal in me, there better not be someone curling in the rack! It happened earlier in the week and the bastard was there for 30minutes.

You know, I never thought making time for the gym would be a problem. When I was younger I never understood how some people who used to be so active could let themselves fall apart. Then you enter the real world and you quickly see how precious free time is.

As for your question, a few years ago, I would have said take the day off and rest. Now I see that you just have to go in there and do it, even if it's a day you feel tired or low on energy. Drink coffee, eat a quick pick me up meal that has complex carbs, some fruit and quality protein. Because it may suck going in the gym with a tired mind and forcing yourself to hoist up the weights, but you always feel better afterwards.