Can't Sleep After Big Workout?

[forrest.filhour]

Hey everybody, I've more recently been getting into Starting Strength (about 2 months) and have improved tremendously. I usually do a four day split and have switched to working out in the mornings to try and remedy my situation and have been taking some high quality magnesium supplements twice a day to try and even out my issue. Only been recently affecting me over the past two weeks but almost feels like my adrenaline is on overdrive following my more intense days i.e. Monday: Squat, Deadlift, and Barbell Shrug and Tuesday: Shoulder Press, and chin-ups and has been leaving me feeling extremely restless and feels like my heart is pounding when I lay down to go to sleep. It generally lasts a few days but when its at it's worst I've been awake for near 36 hours straight. Have been to plenty of doctors, had an EKG, blood work, and chest x-ray and everything has come back normal. Doctors started prescribing me to drink a gallon of water a day and think it's linked to my recent training habits. Additionally, Thursday is Bench Press and chin-ups and Friday is RDL and Squat. The latter two days have yet to affect me unless I attempt to work out while I'm still feeling the heart sensations. I'm 23, weigh 205 lbs., eat around 5,000 calories a day or more since I manage a restaurant- Squat is 260, Deadlift is 400, Shoulder Press is 160, Bench is 270, chin-ups can hit near 3 sets of 10. Usually do my 5 rep max for deadlift and 3 sets of 5 for squat, 3 sets of 5 for bench, 3 sets of 5 for shoulder press, and 3 sets of 5 for shrugs on barbell. I take about 4 minutes in between sets as well; I have yet to divide Monday up to isolate some of the more difficult workouts like deadlift and squat or considering to take a day off in between workouts since I slept fine following this Monday's session but Tuesday sent me back again. Was curious if anyone has any input since this has been hurting my training and otherwise way of life. Thanks.

[Browndog]

FF
I have experienced sleep disturbances after grueling sessions, not as bad as yours, but enough to keep me awake all night.
I've tried just about everything to solve the issue to no avail.
The best I can do is to recognize when I'm in that zone and just relax as best I can.
Hope you can find a work around to this issue.

[Iron Monkey]

At first blush I would say this is overtraining. What is your eating like and how old are you? Are you gaining weight? Two months in, I believe you should still be on LP. Stick to the program, it works best when followed as written.

[forrest.filhour]

FF
I have experienced sleep disturbances after grueling sessions, not as bad as yours, but enough to keep me awake all night.
I've tried just about everything to solve the issue to no avail.
The best I can do is to recognize when I'm in that zone and just relax as best I can.
Hope you can find a work around to this issue.

Thanks Browndog, glad to know I'm not alone in it. Have had doctors tell me I have anxiety among other things which I thought was ridiculous since I don't think a lot of people deal with athletes and such but I'll keep trudging through. I think I wanna try to isolate deadlift to a day in itself since it's the lift that usually takes the most out of me, i.e. leaves me light headed or have felt like I was gonna vomit around rep 3-4 and kept going occasionally.

[SirIrb]

I would replace the straight magnesium with ZMA. I use Vitamin Shoppe brand. 3 before bed. Great for recovery and helps you sleep. Last night I took ZMA and i was out cold in 20 minutes. The only time I wake up is about 4am to get rid of a beer and then right back to bed within 10 minutes (usually). The thing I have a problem with is restless legs after VD.

[forrest.filhour]

At first blush I would say this is overtraining. What is your eating like and how old are you? Are you gaining weight? Two months in, I believe you should still be on LP. Stick to the program, it works best when followed as written.

Hey Iron Monekey, I'm 23 and have been working out for roughly two years now. I recognize I might not be eating enough, haven't been able to gain weight for awhile being stuck around a 200-205 range for about a year. Assuming I'm just burning fat stores and replacing it with muscle mass at this point but difficult to get in the additional nutrition when I have 6 classes each semester in college and work an additional 40 hours a week on top of 2 hours 4x a week at the gym. I usually eat 3 decently large meals a day with at least 1 snack and aim for around 5,000 calories but may fall short if class workload is heavy. Lemme know if you have any additional thoughts, thanks.

[forrest.filhour]

I would replace the straight magnesium with ZMA. I use Vitamin Shoppe brand. 3 before bed. Great for recovery and helps you sleep. Last night I took ZMA and i was out cold in 20 minutes. The only time I wake up is about 4am to get rid of a beer and then right back to bed within 10 minutes (usually). The thing I have a problem with is restless legs after VD.

Ahh, okay. I'll give it a shot. I read about some people finding relief from them; have been taking ZMA's from GNC (I know they're trash) but everything else is from Vitamin Shoppe. Slept fine last night but this is after that first grueling night of 2 crappy hours of sleep after my Tuesday work out.

[DaveJF]

Sleep problems after a series of tough workouts are not uncommon for me, but not as bad as you describe. I have done 4 day splits and cut that down to 3 days per week, and it seems to have helped both sleep and recovery overall.

I've more recently been getting into Starting Strength (about 2 months)

Was the bold a typo? The program you describe doesn't look like anything I've seen in the books. The SS Novice LP and the base TM and HLM programs are all 3 days / week.

Also odd that Tuesday looks like it would have the least systemic stress but is one of the workouts you think are causing the most sleep problems.

Is there some other life stress thrown in at the beginning of the week, like a shitty work or class schedule? How about a lot of caffeine after noon?

[forrest.filhour]

Sleep problems after a series of tough workouts are not uncommon for me, but not as bad as you describe. I have done 4 day splits and cut that down to 3 days per week, and it seems to have helped both sleep and recovery overall.



Was the bold a typo? The program you describe doesn't look like anything I've seen in the books. The SS Novice LP and the base TM and HLM programs are all 3 days / week.

Also odd that Tuesday looks like it would have the least systemic stress but is one of the workouts you think are causing the most sleep problems.

Is there some other life stress thrown in at the beginning of the week, like a shitty work or class schedule? How about a lot of caffeine after noon?

Was more referring to the proper technique usage and working the core lifts for workouts instead of the nonsense I used to partake in at the gym lol but I've actually tried to cut out caffeine completely since I noticed it the first time. What's your 3 day split look like? I modified the 4 day split I do from the techniques in the book and a blog that somebody derived apparently from one of Rip's splits but maybe that is one of the sources of the discomfort. Also, I don't think its the fact that Tuesday is hard, I just felt pretty sore after Monday (had minimal sleep disturbance but woke up about an hour early) and Tuesday felt like it sent me over the edge. I don't think I necessarily feel stressed by life though, was watching a movie around 7 pm and I worked out at 12 pm when I noticed it felt like my heart was about to jump out of my chest. Usually an indicator I wasn't going to sleep following that workout which I felt pretty optimistic about, can usually monitor my heartrate and if I went back to soon it feels like it aches and beats really fast after my 1st workout set but if I get ample days to recover then I don't notice it.

[Tiburon]

4 minutes between sets is weird.

Your squat is relatively low given your DL and bench #s.