Adrenal Fatigue/Insomnia

Bigger Stronger Leaner Christian Thibaudeau Coaching
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How should training change when dealing w/ adrenal fatigue/insomnia. I’m no longer using any stimulants, but can’t seem to get quality sleep at night. I wake four hours after I fall sleep and never really fall back into a deep sleep. I supplement w/ vit c, an adrenal sup, ZMA, taurine, rhodiola. Carbs are typically around 200-300 on training days. Should I take time completely off from the gym? This seems to be a cortisol issue, do you have any experience w/ insomnia/adrenal fatigue/cortisol issues?

Sorry for so many questions, any response is appreciated.

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Hey Op,
I by no means have Thibs expertise and I’m not trying to fill in for him (I actually posted a question a few below you). Anyways a cpl years back my adrenal glands were BONE dry per the hospital. My CNS was caving in, and I simply was having a physical breakdown. Body would tremble throughout the day, voice was gone. Not a good experience, and took MONTHS to recover.

I wouldnt take any sleeping agents. I refused. However the doc finally got thru to me by suggesting Benadryl. She told me its gentle enough she recommends it for her pregnaunt patients. At my size (roughly 225ish, 6’1, 8-10% body fat) she recommended 4 pills. Heres the thing, it doesnt make me sleepy, but when I do sleep, it keeps me out. To this day when I feel those symptoms creeping up on me, I’ll cycle some benadryl for a cpl weeks till I feel myself come back.

I also took 2 weeks off from the gym. I didnt count calories, macros, fats, carbs, protein or anything. I jus’ made clean, QUALITY choices when I ate. Hope this helps and good luck!

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  1. Avoid all stimulants, they will just burn out the adrenal glands even more and raise cortisol

  2. TAKE SOME TIME OFF… you don’t have a choice if you want to recover from this, do not resume training until you are sleeping well and feeling normal/good during the day

  3. Caffeine-free BRAIN CANDY in the morning and POWER DRIVE in the early afternoon will do tons to help the nervous system recover

  4. Pulse with MAG-10 3-4 times a day

  5. For sleeping, when that happened to me I used a double dose of ZMA… the magnesium is a great relaxant and help to sleep and will not have negative effects

  6. I’m not sure about the Benadryl, I know that NyQuil messed me up even more.

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CT

Do you think just a general lack of energy during the day and always feeling tired is probably caused by adrenal fatigue For a few weeks now I feel like I could use a nap after only being awake for a couple hours after getting up. And it probably doesn’t help that I work in law enforcement and change shifts every 2 months so I’m always trying to sleep at different times of the day.