T Nation

What is Going on Here?

Powerlifting
#1

I am sleeping 10+ hours a day, and cant get out of the bed in the morning because I literally feel too depressed to, like I want to hide under the covers. As soon as I actually get out of bed I feel great though.

I recently decided to take time off lifting because I was feeling like smashed assholes, stalling on deadlifts etc.

So I’m on my first of two weeks off squatting and deadlifting. When I stall on benching ill take off another week.

I haven’t taken time off since last october, and have been training like an animal.

brought my raw squat from 370 to 460, my raw deadlift from 440 to 480, and my raw bench from 250 to 290-300. Now I just cant keep up with the gains, every week was heavy squats, heavy deadlifts, speed pulls, heavy good mornings and sldls, board work, heavy dbs etc. NO deloads.

Is this sleep issue a symptom of overtraining? I never really believed in overtraining but lately I had been straining so hard at the weight my face looked sunburned from the broken vessels and I was blowing my eyes out constantly. My deadlift is so low because my arms barely go to my dick, so I’ve been stalling around the 500lbs mark for months, which means I should switch to sumo.

how much time off is enough to be fully rested? will my sleep normalize? I haven’t felt sore in a long time, just sloppy and slow.

#2

Time for a shot of test!

Seriously though, maybe you are just over training, if your body cant keep up, then yeah your CNS is probably over worked, but dont just take the lower body days completly off, deload for a week, and maybe raise the intensity up each week. Listen to your body.

#3

I was going to take 2 weeks off lower body, but still do sled dragging and whatever my program at school does (usually circuit stuff and some agility drills, step ups etc). Then the first week go light to medium weight, after that go full bore again.

I’m still benching heavy through all this

#4

How much are you eating? Are you taking vitamin D supplements? The reason I ask is that I see you live in Canada and it’s winter time. I ran into a similar problem earlier in the semester. I started to up my vitamin D and the problem vanished.

#5

I had a similar problem, because for a long time I was too stubborn to take any training breaks. Eventually it came to a point where I knew I had to do something about it, so I took a complete training break for two weeks.

I originally planned on it being one week, but my body was telling me something was still wrong. After the two weeks I resumed training, but strictly limit my sessions to one hour, and do cardio on separate days from weight training. I feel much better.

#6

I read that the avg sleep cycle is 90 minutes. So if you wake-up from 30-60 minutes for example, you wake up at the deepest part of the cycle and will feel tired and maybe disoriented, or you could be sleeping too much too.

#7
#8

i would take a week off from all training.

#9

Too much sleep maybe? If I get over ten hours I feel like shit for the day.

#10

i can attest to vit D, i take 5-10,000 IU per day for the last 2 months. I live in Wisconsin.

Take some time off and eat. Go eat a pizza, the whole thing.

#11

[quote]Justin Negrete wrote:
i can attest to vit D, i take 5-10,000 IU per day for the last 2 months. I live in Wisconsin.

Take some time off and eat. Go eat a pizza, the whole thing. [/quote]

and a half gallon of ben and jerrys!

#12

Just about finished my 2 week hiatus and im starting to feel beastly strong and eager to lift weights again

#13

good luck returning man. a burnt out CNS really sucks. last time i felt like i had the flu and had similar symptoms as well.

it might be a little late but here is my two cents:

depressed feeling in the morning after sleeping tons: get better quality sleep (deep level three sleep with REM and dreams). how? try some herbal sleep aids or some Z-12. also, snag some Vit-D.

stalling on lifts after months without rest. Deload/Time off, change programs, get more calories. Basically make a change to keep your body from adapting to a “normal”.

good luck dude!