Lifting when tired

[Barry Charles]

If this ends up being the dumbest question of all time, I will wear it as a badge of honor....

If you lift when tired the work is harder. Ditto bad diet within some number of days or hours. Etc.

If the work is harder, is the training effect more pronounced?

Obviously if you miss sets or reps your worse off. But, for example, you were perfectly prepared to do 5x5 and do them or struggle ( say bad sleep) through 5x5 and also do them are you better off?

I'm not proposing programming around being tired or hungover. I'm asking is it better to lift on schedule or lift when conditions are optimum and is there actually an advantage to lifting suboptimally on occasion?

Another way of looking at this ,I suppose, is your programming should be so dialed in that it requires everything else to be dialed in.

[Jordan Feigenbaum]

You could really argue it both ways:

Way 1) In some phases of training you want to intentionally accumulate fatigue so that you can't recover between workouts so that you're, in effect, functionally (planned) overtraining/overreaching. By training sleep deprived/hungover/fatigued you're getting more stress, which depending on where you're at in your training and how well you'll recover from that increased stress may or may not lead to a more pronounced adaptation.

Way 2) Given the same load, volume, rest periods, etc. a "fresher" person will likely have better quality of reps, faster bar speed, and thus get better practice/technique development, motor pattern development, etc.

My thoughts: Sometimes you have to train when you feel like shit. Somedays those are awesome days and somedays you should've stayed home. The point is you show up, day in and day out and put the work in while trying to program as intelligently as possible.

[Barry Charles]

You could really argue it both ways:

Way 1) In some phases of training you want to intentionally accumulate fatigue so that you can't recover between workouts so that you're, in effect, functionally (planned) overtraining/overreaching. By training sleep deprived/hungover/fatigued you're getting more stress, which depending on where you're at in your training and how well you'll recover from that increased stress may or may not lead to a more pronounced adaptation.

Way 2) Given the same load, volume, rest periods, etc. a "fresher" person will likely have better quality of reps, faster bar speed, and thus get better practice/technique development, motor pattern development, etc.

My thoughts: Sometimes you have to train when you feel like shit. Somedays those are awesome days and somedays you should've stayed home. The point is you show up, day in and day out and put the work in while trying to program as intelligently as possible.

This makes sense. It also occurred to me that it would be very difficult to program and titrate intentionally suboptimal conditions.

[Trewarin]

Training when you don't feel above 20% of your best helps testicular hypertrophy.

[Milo's Ghost]

Training when you don't feel above 20% of your best helps testicular hypertrophy.

This is true of training - especially squatting and deadlifting - in general.

[madmaxaus]

It kind of comes down to the word 'optimal'. We do our best to get optimal results in training, optimal nutrition etc

Sometimes we don't. Ideally we would all live with our parents who would cook us copious amounts of great food, we would sleep 10 hours a night and lift to we passed out.

Unfortunately I have things like study, work, a girlfriend.. And they are far from optimal for my training (especially the girlfriend).

I do my best to get optimal results, but sometimes I have to walk in the gym hungover with 3 hours sleep..

I hate those days.

[JCavin]

This is where the mental portion really comes into okay, IMO. Discipline isn't just about repetition. It's about consistency under any circumstance.

My mantra: If you want to get stronger, do hard shit.

[Milo's Ghost]

Unfortunately I have things like study, work, a girlfriend.. And they are far from optimal for my training (especially the girlfriend).

You need to program more hip thrusters, bodyweight squats (for her), and HIIT. Lemons, lemonade, etc.

[madmaxaus]

You need to program more hip thrusters, bodyweight squats (for her), and HIIT. Lemons, lemonade, etc.

I'll be sure to take that on board