Where did my energy go?!!!!!!

Tricia Haley

Tricia Haley

Cathlete
I consider myself a cardio junky, but this past year my age and body has been speaking to me with an ache here and an ache there plus i haven't been as tone and tight as i would like to. I feel like i look soft. anyway this past January i decided to focus more on weight training but is seems like now that i am more focused on challenging my body with more weight i feel as though my endurance level for cardio (i have all your cardio dvds)has gone down the tubes. Some times its all i can do to just walk.

Since January my workout schedule looks like this: Gym style workouts for 6 weeks; then i went to endurance workouts -Power hour, body max 1, Max Inten. strength- 6 weeks; and i am currently on body max 2, butt and guts, and one of your circuit workouts. I try to do 3 to 4 cardio workouts a week but lately its been a struggle to do even 2 cardio workouts. Now when i am doing my weight training i feel strong and i go as hard as i can. I am just having a problem with doing the cardio. Its like i get up the next day and the thought of doing a step cardio w/o its like my body is saying no way. I have tried doing my cardio after weight training and sometimes my body is ok with that, and i have also done my cardio later in the day. It just seems lately i am struggling to get it in.

My eating is fairly clean.
example - (B)grape-nuts w/1tbls flax seed & 1tsp wheat bran, 1/2c
skmilk, 1 egg & 1ser. egg beater.
after workout - protien shake w/banana 1/2c skmilk 1/2c
water
(L) sometimes 1/2 turkey sandwich w/ low-fat cheese or
oatmeal w 1tbls walnuts and a fruit
(S) light activa yogurt w/ 1/2 ser. dry oatmeal, sm box
raisins 1tsp each walnuts,sunflower seeds, slivered
almonds or cottage cheese w/ wheat bran crackers
(D)diner is usually a protein a starch a veg. sometimes desert and sometimes i have 2 starches. really depends on what Ive eaten during the day.

sorry this was so long!!! I just sometimes feel as though i take one step forward and 10 steps back. Please let me know your thoughts. Thanks cathe
Tricia



Tricia M.Haley
 
not cathe but i would say listen to your body. when your that tired it means it needs the rest. if your not gaining weight i won't worry to much on getting the cardio in. i know its good for your heart but if your pushing really hard in your weight training sessions your heat rate increases too. i think with the increased weight training your body is pushing super hard during the workouts and needs time to rest and recover. when you are ready to get back to cardio your body will let you know. good luck!
 
If you are focussing on weight training right now, it is completely acceptable to do 2 or 3 cardios a week max. This is what I do and I think it makes for a more balanced program than 5 or 6 cardios per week and struggling to fit in lifting.

Our needs, desires, focus and energies do change as we get older, nothing wrong with that. Embrace it and make it work for you by putting your all into your lifting and resting as much as possible with quality sleep and days off so that the cardio you do do is quality stuff.

I have found generally that I can still go hard, and in fact, my personality type doesn't really recognize any other way of exercising (!), but now in my forties my recovery time is longer than it was in my thirties. Again, nothing wrong with it. It's life. So instead of shooting for quantity, I go for quality. 4 or 5 days per week of hard exercise, and I enjoy my days off, no guilt, just good food and feet up at the end of a long day!

One thing I would say though is make sure you take a supplement daily and iron, just in case you are somewhat anaemic: this will zap your cardio abilities faster than you can swallow an iron pill.

Clare
 
>One thing I would say though is make sure you take a
>supplement daily and iron, just in case you are somewhat
>anaemic: this will zap your cardio abilities faster than you
>can swallow an iron pill.

I would definitely not take an iron supplement "just in case." Too much iron can have even more serious health consequences than not enough. If you are concerned about your iron intake, get tested for it first. Then, IF you are low, supplement following your doctor's recommendations.
 
Sorry it has taken so long to get back to the forums, as far as aerobics how long do you do cardio? how intense do you do it? It just seems to me that even if i was going to do cardio 3 days a week for 30 min. the intensity isn't there, its like my body has no intensity after doing intense weight training the day before. Do you think i am eating enough. The only thing i DONT like about cardio is when i do focus more on it than weight training it seems like my appetite increases big time and i don't like that. So thats kinda why i have tried to focus more on weights and also that next year i will be turning 40. I still hope Cathe chimes in! But a big THANKS to everyone who responded and would appreciate any more thoughts!!
Tricia M.Haley:7
 
> But a big THANKS
>to everyone who responded and would appreciate any more
>thoughts!!

You might want to repost your question in the Open Discussion forum, since this technically is a forum for questions for Cathe. You'd get more responses there.
 
sorry. this isn't Cathe, but i had to reply just to let you know, i know exactly what you're goin thru. when i first began my intense workout in January, i had all the energy in the world. i could go for hours doing cardio and then strength training. but within the last 2 weeks, i just don't have that same energy anymore. i found that eating carbs before your workout will give you that energy you need to make it thru your cardio workout and afterwards, have a sandwich and make sure you get that fiber in. it too can give you energy , not to mention, keep you regular. ;-) hope i helped, even a little.
 
I understand completely! And it doesn't help that I am going through menapause which means I can't sleep or sleep that well. But when I am tired, I'll eat a hamburger. Nothing like Hardees Monster Burger but I Small burger. Also supplements: B vitamin, a multi w/iron (I usually cut in 1/2), Flaxeed, Calcium with vitamin D-Caltrate is wonderful because of the colon.

I have been trying to eat more fresh fruits and veggies, especially oranges and cantalope. Hope this helps. It doesn't help either it is the spring. I feel really drain when it gets hot. For the most part it always hot in SC.

Hope you get your energy soon!


Annette Bethel

PS: If Cathe were to answer, I supposed she would say peanut butter :D
 
I feel like i am eating better than i ever have in my life. I am eating clean foods 90% of the time, have tried to cut out all processed foods although i do have a cheat day once in a while. I purchased the book Burn the fat feed the muscle, great purchase by the way, and i know i wasn't eating enough protein so i have been diligently trying add more protein into my diet and that has helped with my energy level but when i started to really focus on weight training its like my energy just plummeted. I would try to do cardio the next day and i just didn't have the energy. I don't know! I still am hopeing cathe will respond, but i do think i will take the advice of one of the other posters and put this on the open forum to see if i can get anyone else to respond!!!! Thanks for you thoughts Annette:+

PS i forgot to mention i do take vitamins.

Tricia Haley
 
Tricia -

I am going through the same thing. I was doing great with working out, eating clean, etc. until the week of Easter. I was having family over so I spent the week before getting ready, my kids were off from school the week after, and then it took another week or two just to get back on schedule. My energy was zapped and I truly had no interest in doing anything. During this time I focused on yoga and doing one or two HIIT workouts a week, and nothing else.

I am currently doing the weight segments only of 4DS on a three-day split, two days of cardio (Cardio Coach on a treadmill) and yoga/stretch on the other day. But I do have to say that I'm not being as regimented and hard on myself if I miss a day here or there. I have three kids and sometimes their schedules interfere with mine, but that's okay. I'll get to it when I can! I tend to push myself so hard that I burn out and I'm now trying to find that happy medium!
 
I went thru the same thing and focused more on weight training because the cardio was exhausting me. Well I finally got a couple of Leslie Sansone workouts (I couldn't tolerate her in the past and they were too easy) and find that I like doing them--no dread factor and I get in a 4 or 5 mile walk at a solid pace. It is not Cathe step but I feel much better and I am getting cardio done. They take about an hour and I feel good afterwards.
 
So when your really focusing on the weight training, how much cardio a week are you getting in? I am going to do this months rotation because it seems more focused on the weight training but looking at the cardio cathe has suggested I'm thinking there is no way that i am going to be able to do that much cardio while weight training as hard as i have been trying to. I really don't think i will have the energy. So do you just cut your cardio in half? It is hard not to feel guilty when cutting back on my cardio!!!!arrrrrg Sometimes i wish our bodies came with instruction manuals!

Thanks again
Tricia
 
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