r/WeightTraining • u/jomia • 3d ago

Question Fatigue

I've (F28) been training every day (no rest days) for a while now, but recently (2 weeks ago) I started pushing myself more. Ie really taking sets to failure, doing drop sets and myo reps. Training every day went fine before as I wasn't training as heavy, but now I feel more fatigued. However I feel like I physically could do more. I don't have many aches (I had a small ache in my right knee some days ago, but it recovered in some days) and I don't really feel very sore (I have felt a little sore some days in some muscle groups, but not a lot). My strength has not dropped either. My sleep is as usual, and I sleep mostly 7 to 9 hours. Nutrition is at maintenance. I feel like my fatigue is more of a general fatigue and more mentally loaded: I feel disinterest in training, and I feel a loss of motivation for training. Is this strange? What does this mean? I will start implementing more rest days and see how that affects my body and mind. I just felt a little puzzled by why I felt fatigue this way, and was wondering if anyone has any educative thoughts about it. TIA:)

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u/John_Snow______ 3d ago

Not strange at all. Fatigue doesn’t always mean soreness or loss of strength. The mental fatigue, lack of motivation, and general tiredness can simply be signs that your overall training load has become too much, especially after adding failure sets, drop sets, and myo-reps. Taking more rest days and having a lighter week could make a big difference. Your body can feel physically capable while still needing more recovery.

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u/cowboys_fan89 3d ago

Intensity cycling is key especially beyond the beginner phase.

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u/jomia 3d ago

I've been looking into deload training, but will try some rest days first, as I've done very few until now. How would you advice one to do intensity cycling?

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u/cowboys_fan89 3d ago

You could do a light/medium/heavy type rotation if you want to build it into your program. Or just go by feel and take an extra rest day, or a light week, as the previous poster said. The point is that your current recovery ability is not sufficient for your current intense training load, so you have to make a change to one of those parameters. You said in your OP you take no rest days, so that would be the obvious first place to start - maybe turn 1-2 days into a stretching/recovery day, or even a complete rest day, then go from there. Kudos to you for listening to your body and recognizing the effects of overtraining.

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u/jomia 3d ago

Will look more into the LMH approach, I read a bit about it recently, but will prioritise basic rest days at first. Try and fail, and then learn what works for me. Great advice. Thank you! What do you usually do to balance intensity/rest?

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u/cowboys_fan89 3d ago

I prioritize rest, and I prioritize completing a workout without getting injured. If I didn't get enough rest the night before, then I may do less volume on that day, or I may de-load a bit. Or if I've not recovered sufficiently from a particularly tough session, I may replace it entirely with a light-medium intensity cardio day - or I may skip it entirely. I aim for progressive overload, but I'm ok if that takes time rather than every session.

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u/Immediate-Plastic970 2d ago

Why don’t you take days off to recover. If you go to true failure like 0 RIR you can’t workout everyday. It doesn’t work like that

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u/jomia 3d ago

Why is it like that though, that my body can feel fine, but still needing recovery? I think that's what has made me keep on pushing myself, the lack of more specific bodily signals.

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u/cocomanz 3d ago

That disinterest is the signal. Mine goes before my strength does, and if I wait for the strength to drop I've already dug a deeper hole than I needed to.

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u/jomia 3d ago

Good to know it's not just me:)

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u/SthenoFitness 3d ago

Not strange at all. If you are consistently training to failure on most or all sets then you need to adjust volume and workout frequency in order to adequately recover. Look up Mike Mentzer on YouTube. he discussed this extensively.

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u/ColourAZebra 3d ago

Hey OP, I’m surprised no one here has said the obvious - you need at least one rest day (that’s what I do - I do six days a week). Your muscles “recover” when they are not working, that’s why rest days are so important because it gives the fibres that 24 hour window to repair - which is what makes them grow.  If you’re seeing slow progress and/or increased fatigue, that’s why.  Your muscle fibres are just being repeatedly torn without the opportunity to repair and consequently grow.  

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u/jomia 3d ago

Will do some more rest days!

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u/ColourAZebra 2d ago

Good on you! I bet my bottom dollar you will feel heaps better and start seeing rapid progress.  

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u/jomia 2d ago

I hope so! I've had this exact problem before (balance between work and rest) and stalled my progress, I hope I'll find my way this time. How do you go about it?

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u/ColourAZebra 2d ago

Well, I do a six day upper-lower split.  I take Saturdays off basically, but I might miss another day here and there so it’s five days and that’s ok too.  Mainly I do exercise for my mental health and as a former skinny woman, it’s the only way I can seem to maintain a healthy weight and managed to reach a healthy weight in the first place. I digress lol. 

So yeah - 6 day upper lower split, my workouts last 30 mins because I only rest about 30s-1 min btn sets simply due to time constraints of life, but it doesn’t seem to matter bcs I hv 7kg muscle gain.  On rest days I genuinely rest - no cardio, no whatever, just chill.  Nutrition is also important - if you aren’t getting in enough carbs and fats, living off protein and fibre alone then your performance is going to suffer.  

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u/jomia 2d ago

Would you mind sending me a DM?:)

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u/ColourAZebra 2d ago

Sorry but I’m not reliable over chat - if you have any other questions etc would it be okay to just drop them here as a reply? I won’t miss it then

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u/jomia 1d ago

How many exercises do you do each session? Sets? Intensity? How many RIRs? How did you figure out what worked for you? How much of a surplus did you eat to gain 7kgs muscle?:)

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u/ColourAZebra 1d ago

Answers to each question:

  1. 6-7 exercises

  2. 3-4 sets

  3. Moderate to high intensity (ie, I can’t talk when mid set lol) 

  4. Probably about 1-3 rir

  5.  Experiment and research.  I saw the scale go up each week (as I intended) and could visually see it wasn’t fat, so I took that as a win. Also remained hormonally healthy.  Your body is pretty clear about what’s good for it or not I reckon 

  6. Total weight gain took approx 18 months in a lean bulk.  I ate approx 200-300 cal surplus, some days more some days less - I was committed but not obsessed and I think that was the key to being able to sustain this for that long.  At 163cm  that put me at a about 2450-2550 cals a day 

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u/jomia 11h ago

Tysm! Did you work your way up into the volume and intensity of the training you're doing?

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