General quick fatigue after weight and strength gain? What to do?

[Dklifter]

Dear all,

I am a 27 year old male who has been been lifting for 10 years, but I must admit that most of it has been bro lifting, quitting squats etc. I am not proud of and trying to remedy it now.

I have been doing novice LP for 2 months now, 2 sessions a week (unfortunately, 1 year old kid and my work in academics does not allow for more). I started this after a 1 year ish break off from lifting due to COVID closing down the gyms in my country. I have had what I personally think is great results. These are my stats:

Age: 27
Height: 6 foot 3 (190cm)

At beginning of LP:
Body weight: 210
Squat: 180lbs for 5 reps
Bench: 225lbs for 5 reps (yes, brolifting so was higher than squat)
Deadlift: 260lbs for 5
Press: 130lbs for 5

Now, after 2 months LP:
Body weight: 233
Squat: 330 for 5
Bench: 310 for 5
Deadlift: 410 for 5
Press: 165 for 5

Calories during LP: about 5000, ca 300g protein

I still have visible abs but they’re not that visible and have gained some fat, but I am happy with the strength results.

Now to my problem: although I am stronger and can lift more weight, I feel that I tire / fatigue much more easily when walking doing “daily life” so to speak. Doing yard work, walking around town for a couple of hours with my kid, just being lightly physical outside doing things which are not work or strenuous, or just standing around a lot during the day. Although I know I am fitter strength wise now, this is annoying because it makes me feel heavy and sluggish, and thus I feel less “fit” now in daily life than before.

Is this to be expected? Can anything be done about this, or must it simply be accepted? I plan to gain more weight and strength, and I therefore am concerned it will get worse. Does anyone have any inputs?

Thank you very much for getting through this wall of text.

[tompaynter]

Dear all,

I am a 27 year old male who has been been lifting for 10 years, but I must admit that most of it has been bro lifting, quitting squats etc. I am not proud of and trying to remedy it now.

I have been doing novice LP for 2 months now, 2 sessions a week (unfortunately, 1 year old kid and my work in academics does not allow for more). I started this after a 1 year ish break off from lifting due to COVID closing down the gyms in my country. I have had what I personally think is great results. These are my stats:

Age: 27
Height: 6 foot 3 (190cm)

At beginning of LP:
Body weight: 210
Squat: 180lbs for 5 reps
Bench: 225lbs for 5 reps (yes, brolifting so was higher than squat)
Deadlift: 260lbs for 5
Press: 130lbs for 5

Now, after 2 months LP:
Body weight: 233
Squat: 330 for 5
Bench: 310 for 5
Deadlift: 410 for 5
Press: 165 for 5

Calories during LP: about 5000, ca 300g protein

I still have visible abs but they’re not that visible and have gained some fat, but I am happy with the strength results.

Now to my problem: although I am stronger and can lift more weight, I feel that I tire / fatigue much more easily when walking doing “daily life” so to speak. Doing yard work, walking around town for a couple of hours with my kid, just being lightly physical outside doing things which are not work or strenuous, or just standing around a lot during the day. Although I know I am fitter strength wise now, this is annoying because it makes me feel heavy and sluggish, and thus I feel less “fit” now in daily life than before.

Is this to be expected? Can anything be done about this, or must it simply be accepted? I plan to gain more weight and strength, and I therefore am concerned it will get worse. Does anyone have any inputs?

Thank you very much for getting through this wall of text.

Those are GREAT results after 2 months, and 23lbs of weight gain doesn't seem like that much given that your squat went from 180 to 330 (by which I mean, I might have expected more weight gain for someone who got that much stronger that fast).

I suggest that rather than being less fit, what you are is tired. Even training two days a week, you are training much heavier than you ever have before. It takes something out of you. Your lifts went up fast, that's probably stressing your system in some way. I'm not a coach or anything but that's my guess.

[oface]

Dear all,
Can anything be done about this, or must it simply be accepted?

Looks like great progress. You don’t mention sleep, so might be worth a self-assessment. I am a male around your age, and I feel like I’m carrying a sack of boulders all day if one of my kids keeps me up the night before.

[Dklifter]

Thanks for the answers.

Tiredness from lifting: It may be - i do feel a bit beat up from time to time. Not necessarily soreness, but "stiffness", at least more so than if i was not lifting heavy.

Sleep: it is quite true that my sleep is most likely not optimal - probably around 6-7 hours, with 1-2 wake ups due to my kid. It might be worth focusing on trying to improve this parameter.

Update: Overall, i think things are improving without conscious effort from my side. This is higly speculalbs to kgtive, but i gained the bodyweight over a short amount of time, so perhaps i just had to adjust to being heavier. My squat has now gone up to 340x5, and my deadlift to 440x5. Unfortunately, i have injured what seems to be my pectoral muscle tendon on one side, which is limiting my bench. I think im nearing the end of LP, and it might also help to add in some conditioning of sorts once i have fully depleted LP.

Thanks for your time

[Sebastian Ohanian]

Sleep: it is quite true that my sleep is most likely not optimal - probably around 6-7 hours, with 1-2 wake ups due to my kid. It might be worth focusing on trying to improve this parameter.

Get a book on sleep training your kid.