Your Own Personal Energy Crisis?
February 9th 2007 10:59
You may feel as desperately out of energy as these folks. Train on.
Decades of trying to maintain consistent workouts have caused me to reflect on a variety of topics and to articulate a number of my own admittedly idiomatic theories about weight training. One of these has to do with energy levels and how to factor their ebb and flow into your workout plans.
I have an overall energy system which manifests itself in general feelings of wellbeing and readiness to undertake work. This system is highly correlated to my health, the amount of work I have been doing, and the amount of sleep I have gotten. It is this holistic energy that I have to guard with care and is most likely to keep me out of the gym whether altogether validly or as not.
I often hear people who have lately undertaken weight training say that they now feel so much better and have more energy than before. I assume they are referring to their version of this overall energy system. There is little doubt that one of the salutary effects of weight training is that the body mobilizes its energy systems to meet the increased demand and that this ramped up capacity is then available for all of life's tasks.
At some point,however,as training is increased the body cannot adapt to the point that the earlier euphoric abundance of energy can be maintained. At that juncture weight training becomes such a dominant consumer of energy that it begins to weigh heavily on the rest of one's life. When I train I am intent upon focusing as much of my available energy as I can on the 45 minutes I am lifting weights. The result is often that I feel exhausted for several hours after the workout and sort of envy those folks who feel more energy as a result of their training.
I think that this increasing consumption of energy as one becomes more experienced in training has an important implication. It is increasingly advisable to train earlier in the day as you become more demanding in your training. You will get to the gym more and do more when there, if you offer your best energy to the task. Letting a day's worth of activity sap your general energy system is going to impact your training in a negative way. Mornings are indeed tough, but ultimately more productive.
The more you do the more it costs.
Your body has what I think of as specific energy systems in addition to general. In other words your legs or arms etc are subject to different levels of energy than your overall system. You can,for instance, feel quite energetic about training and find the body part you are trying to train unresponsive. This is the result, of course, of the specific demands you have placed on these parts recently.
This specific energy system theory of energy has an important implication that I have experienced literally hundreds of time. If you feel generally a little off and tired, that may not really apply to the specific parts you intend to train on a given day. If you force yourself over your protests to show up at the gym you will be happy with how much work you are able to accomplish. I've always been amazed by how little my general energy level effect my workout once I got started on it.
My point? Train early;train often. Feel more energy or feel less. Just train, baby.Your servant, as always.
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