Does anyone else get Insomnia from a hard workout? If I have a 6pm workout that kicks my butt I can be up until 3 am sometimes.
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Yes I used to get it. I swapped VO2 and threshold work to the morning as a result.
If you can’t switch around the schedule, a good carbohydrate recovery drink should help to turn down the cortisol (or just time it so you have dinner after the workout)
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From the links above kindly provided by @Captain_Doughnutman here’s a useful post from TR’s coach chad
Pretty simply, the workout puts you in a catabolic state and your goal is to return to an anabolic one prior to bed. Plenty of hormones ramp up to help you wrangle the energy necessary for the workout, not least of which is cortisol, and counteracting them post-workout is both necessary for adaptation and, as you well know by now, to keep your sleep on track.
Having a meal goes a long way in both respects. Carbohydrate will kick insulin into gear which basically shuts down cortisol production, and protein will mitigate protein degradation/muscle catabolism and ideally bring your protein balance back to the plus side such that you can actually manifest muscular adaptation in response to all your hard work. Fat will gum up the works though and slow absorption, so consider keeping your post-workout/pre-bedtime meal low-fat or even no-fat
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I get the night sweats. I have to turn the heat down in the house or I wake up in a pool of sweat. My wife really loves this side effect of my cycling.
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For me, if the workout is really intense and long (4+ hours and/or a bike run brick so roughly 350+ TSS) even if I do it in the morning I am tired but wired all day
I am quite the opposite and sleep like a baby after a workout, no matter intense it is.
I do however have trouble falling asleep if I haven’t done any endurance workouts for more than 2 days.
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My old PT recommended ZMA. It’s pseudoscience that only seems to be backed up by the people who own the patent so I could normally ignore it.
I tried it however and for me, in combination with a typical recovery regime, it worked. Over and over. Never slept so well.
One additional note: for the night try Casein protein (vs Whey) as it digested over several hours. It has helped me significantly to improve my sleep after workouts.
It normally helps but if you have cumulated too much training stress then it won‘t help either after big training day.
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I also suffer from insomnia after 6pm or later vo2max workouts and so do them in the morning whenever I can.
If I can’t do vo2max in the morning and have to do them in the evening thenI have a small carbohydrate snack post workout and take two melatonin tablets. About an hour later im yawning and struggling to stay awake. Sleep like a baby.
Does anyone else get Insomnia from a hard workout? If I have a 6pm workout that kicks my butt I can be up until 3 am sometimes.
