For some time now I’ve know I have struggled with some excess cortisol and possible adrenal fatigue issues and I am finally getting around to handling it. It is due to a combination of school, work, training, poor sleep habits, and way to much caffeine for a very long time. All this accumulates into excess stress over a long period of time. There are many symptoms that result from this but the ones that have affected me are fatigue, decreased work out performance, trouble leaning out, and difficulty focusing on one thing at a time.
To help combat it, here are a few lifestyle changes I am implementing.
- No caffeine for a few weeks.
- Be in bed by 9:30 and wake up at 5:00 AM.
- Time permitting, take a nap in the middle of the day.
- Be more strict with paleo and eating more meet and veggies and less fruit and nuts. i.e less sugar.
- Start taking 3 grams of Vit C a day as it has been documented in helping reduce cortisol caused by stress.
Here are some of the changes in my training.
- Stretch and roll out after each work out.
- Decrease my metcon to 2-3 a week and increase my Oympic Lifting to 4-5 days a week. My CNS will thank me for this one!
I’ll report back in a few weeks to let you know how these changes affected the aforementioned symptoms.
{ 3 comments… read them below or add one }
Chris I think what you’ve written is really important, its easy to get caught up in the ‘more is better routine’.
Personally listening to my body and allowing myself to train as fresh as possible has produced some great PR’s. I’m doing 2 on 1 off, and where necessary I stick another rest day in between.
I figure, I want to become a better athlete (CF) but not at the expense of not enjoying the process. I think its realistic to rest more, do less, get far superior results and have fun!
Good blog, enjoying reading your thoughts and challenges – be interested to see how your new approach works for you!
Warm regards
Peter
Peter,
Curious to know what techniques you have used to help recovery. I’ll be posting in a month or so on anything I discovered and what I thought about the changes.
Chris, my recovery is based around how my body is feeling with regards to overall ‘life’ workload.
I’m a new Dad and have lots of new and exciting responsibilities
so I take that into account, not just the ‘physical’ load of WODs.
I think simple stuff rules IMHO –
Good stress management of important things in your life,
Good quality sleep,
Eating the best food you can,
Staying mobile – foam rolling/DROMs/ Stretching,
Enjoying your training and aiming to feel ‘Ready to give each session your best’
& Repeat…
Looking back now I see how ‘obvious’ a lot of things I’m doing now is… I guess gaining that experience only comes from f’ing up with what doesn’t work so great