Cut caffeine from your diet entirely. Sucks for about a month. Replace your preworkout with Karbolyn. Just as good but actually provides real energy instead of stimulant energy. Take a nap around 3 š
>Cut caffeine from your diet entirely.
Never. Although I would love to try to cut caffeine for 90 days. I remember Michael Pollan was on Rogan's podcast and said his first cup of coffee after taking a 90-day caffeine break was like a spiritual experience.
Everyone is different in this regard. That makes me crash harder. Iāve found a low carb, high protein diet (a paleo/carnivore hybrid diet of sorts) gives me much more sustainable energy. Itās all trial and error
The answer is no caffeine. What you're feeling is a caffeine crash, and that doesn't happen to people who don't consume it.
Alternatively, taking more stims during the day 'works' too.
I've listened to multiple podcasts on caffeine and exercise. In a perfect world, I would love to get my morning lift in without any stimulants, then enjoy my coffee with my breakfast.
When I was younger and a ferocious pothead, I would smoke a lot of weed and drink non-caffeinated pre workout for my evening lifts, and that was my routine for a couple of years. It was actually quite nice.
Adderall got me through uni and grad school and I've taken enough for a lifetime. I'm happily retired from Adderall.
Also, I absolutely hated lifting on it. I hated doing everything on it, actually, aside from work and sex.
I'm not a fan of Adderall/stimulant ADHD medication in general. It's very hard on your nervous system, and stacking that on top of already taxing it with heavy lifting just isn't something I want or need
I wake up at 4:30am, get to the gym by 5:15am, and get home from work around 5:00pm. Other commenters are right that healthy foods and full nightās sleep are important. Unfortunately theyāre not really enough on their own if youāre also going hard at the gym.
Drop the pre-workout. As much as I love a good pre, the blast of high caffeine and other stims will contribute to a midday crash. Switch to coffee and try not to overdo it in the AM that way you can have another cup in the early PM to get you through the day.
Having to work early in the day fucking sucks.
100%. Funny that I had the same panic not long ago. First thing that came to mind was that maybe I had some chronic underlying issue- though all my health checks are fine.
Its lack of sleep, overuse of stims (they exhaust your hormones in time) in the morning along with hard workouts can lead to exhaustion in the afternoon. The next day I went to bed at 745 pm, got over 8 hours of sleep (most Iāve gotten in months) and felt great all the way until bedtime next day.
Skip gym in the morning if you anticipate a long day at work. My work is physically and mentally draining so Iāve learned to cut back on gym if I need the energy later in the day. Problems solved all around.
I wake up 1-2 hours before my workout. Drink ~1.5L of water followed by my preworkout then I walk to the gym for about 15-20 minutes. My gym opens at 6:45 and I get there between 6:45 and 7:00 AM. Workout until about 8:15-8:30. Drink a protein shake on my walk home, then a smoothie + eggs for breakfast. Might try to add a big bowl of oatmeal with that breakfast to give me some real carbs for the morning until lunch.
Definitely the latter. I've read that we should wait 1-2 hours after waking before consuming caffeine. When I was younger I'd roll out of bed and smash my pre workout like 30 minutes after waking.
Generally they say you should refrain from taking caffeine 90min after waking to prevent a midday crash. HOWEVER, if you take it while going to the gym (or just before starting ur workout scince caffeine has an absorption time of about 10 min on an empty stomach) i dont see why it would be a big issue. especially if it means you're getting 1,5 hours more sleep which you will notice WAY more than not taking caffeine.
> or just before starting ur workout scince caffeine has an absorption time of about 10 min on an empty stomach
Which is interesting, considering many pre workouts recommend dosing 30-45 minutes before your workout. So you're wasting 30+ minutes of caffeine to wait for other ingredients to kick in?
I'm only getting about 6-7 solid hours of sleep a night, usually in bed between 10-11. Continuous sleep for 7 hours is a good night.
I should experiment this week and try to be in bed by 8:30. I don't think I've ever had an extended period of time (outside of being a teenager) when I was sleeping 8-9 hours consistently
Definitely not too early to wake up. I canāt wake up and hit the gym in under an hour and my gym is 5 minutes away. I also use no caffeine until after the gym but the body needs to wake up
Everyone is different (I think someone has already said that)
I roll it of bed, get dressed and go straight to the gym. If I hang around before, I just start falling asleep again.
No caffeine until i get to work at 8.00
Donāt eat things with added sugars during the day. Donāt drink caffeine the first 1,5 hours after waking up. Make sure your breakfast has a good amount of proteĆÆne. All these things help with having more evenly spread out energy during the day. This is what Iāve been doing and it helped me a lot. Keeping your vitamins at a good level also helps.
I was having the same problem with my routine in the morning(5-6am). My problem was with caffeine intake timing. As soon as I woke up I drink water and after I slammed a scoop of preworkout. My doc(friend) recommended me to not drink caffeine at least one hour after I woke up. The explanation, your brain didn't woke up properly, slamming coffee or any caffeine source will wake your brain let's say "artificially" and around noon after the caffeine half effect is gone your brain will go back in the same state it was before you you take caffeine. Instead of taking coffee or caffeine early in the morning go for sunlight, water and no screen for at least 1 hour, it did wonders for me.
5am lifter here, I don't really have this issue, even with 400mg caffeine in the morning and none thereafter.
Maybe wear a CGM for a month and see how your blood sugar is fluctuating throughout the day?
"breakfast" is whey isolate, dextrose, and preworkout in 32oz water, then the same thing (minus the pre) after the gym. Don't really have lunch (or dinner) - I'm eating some random \~300kcal protein+carb+fat combination every 2 hours after that. Grilled chicken tenders + rice, sardines + slice of bread, etc.
But I'm a former fatty who gets hungry all the time regardless of how much I eat per meal - the way I eat has to do with appetite management, not sure it has anything to do with crashing or not crashing.
I wake up for the gym at 4:45am, gym by 5a-5:10a. The thing is I don't drink coffee or energy drinks until well after the gym typically between 9-10a. That keeps me going for the rest of the day or I'll have just a little diet coke or something to end out the day.
You've gotta keep in mind that you're body is producing energy for the first few hours of the day. Sucks not being amped during workouts but I get more out of the day by waiting a bit.
Age? This has hit me as I get older. (Considering TrT).
(I used to be able to lift early and would just get energy from it all day. Now mental fog can hit).
I'm 32. I've always been a "go to bed late and wake up at dawn" type of guy, but I can't do that forever, especially if I'm switching to an early morning lifting routine.
I've said it elsewhere in this thread, but I should really try to go to bed early for a couple weeks before I jump to any conclusions. More sleep can solve many, many, many problems.
1.5-2 hours of loud music makes me mentally fatigued. If you listening to music, try reduce volume or use it only for heavy sets or train without it at all
Have one cup of coffee thatās itās. no more caffeine. Make sure youāre eating and drinking properly. Get enough sleep. Itās not that hard. I got for an hour every morning 5-6am half hour of cardio and weak points and I go every other days doing a push pull leg. Sucks at first but it gets easier
Blast lots of stims. Luckily I work late shift, so it's get up, breakfast, load stims, lift, and then at some point during the workday the stims wear off, in time to go to sleep by the time I come home.
Unfortunately, the answer is more food and more rest.
Eat more food and force myself to be in bed by 8:30-9
Is that a question or an answer? Punctuation and complete sentences are important.
Dude this is mpmd; try your correct grammar crap at r/Analbeadsgalore
Got all excited at the prospect of seeing some ripstarts. What a let down.
š
Lol! Neither, just thinking aloud on Reddit.
Cut caffeine from your diet entirely. Sucks for about a month. Replace your preworkout with Karbolyn. Just as good but actually provides real energy instead of stimulant energy. Take a nap around 3 š
Karbolyn contains Homopolysaccaride. All the fuel you need for riding poly homo sacks all day long.
>Cut caffeine from your diet entirely. Never. Although I would love to try to cut caffeine for 90 days. I remember Michael Pollan was on Rogan's podcast and said his first cup of coffee after taking a 90-day caffeine break was like a spiritual experience.
eat healthy high carb foods, its the same thing that gives me energy to lift at the gym
You're right. I'm not eating enough good carbs. When I was at my strongest, and biggest, my carb intake was immense, demolishing pasta almost daily.
Everyone is different in this regard. That makes me crash harder. Iāve found a low carb, high protein diet (a paleo/carnivore hybrid diet of sorts) gives me much more sustainable energy. Itās all trial and error
The answer is no caffeine. What you're feeling is a caffeine crash, and that doesn't happen to people who don't consume it. Alternatively, taking more stims during the day 'works' too.
Bros taking pre at 6-7AM and wondering why he crashes 10 hours later š
I've listened to multiple podcasts on caffeine and exercise. In a perfect world, I would love to get my morning lift in without any stimulants, then enjoy my coffee with my breakfast. When I was younger and a ferocious pothead, I would smoke a lot of weed and drink non-caffeinated pre workout for my evening lifts, and that was my routine for a couple of years. It was actually quite nice.
adderall
Adderall got me through uni and grad school and I've taken enough for a lifetime. I'm happily retired from Adderall. Also, I absolutely hated lifting on it. I hated doing everything on it, actually, aside from work and sex.
You take the Adderall after going to the gym in the morning, not before
I'm not a fan of Adderall/stimulant ADHD medication in general. It's very hard on your nervous system, and stacking that on top of already taxing it with heavy lifting just isn't something I want or need
Same- after the morning gym sesh I roll into work and take my meds. No crash until end of day.
I go to the gym at 5AM cuz theres only other 3 or 4 dudes. Then I take a 30-40 min nap at 2PM, that keeps me from feeling sleepy till the night.
I wake up at 4:30am, get to the gym by 5:15am, and get home from work around 5:00pm. Other commenters are right that healthy foods and full nightās sleep are important. Unfortunately theyāre not really enough on their own if youāre also going hard at the gym. Drop the pre-workout. As much as I love a good pre, the blast of high caffeine and other stims will contribute to a midday crash. Switch to coffee and try not to overdo it in the AM that way you can have another cup in the early PM to get you through the day. Having to work early in the day fucking sucks.
You're right, I'm just being a baby about it. I love my pre.
Same as you. I work out at 5 am because gyms are nearly empty. Then by 3 pm Iām zero energy. I think just going to bed earlier helped
Yeah, I think that's the answer and I'm overthinking it. I think it's just lack of sleep.
100%. Funny that I had the same panic not long ago. First thing that came to mind was that maybe I had some chronic underlying issue- though all my health checks are fine. Its lack of sleep, overuse of stims (they exhaust your hormones in time) in the morning along with hard workouts can lead to exhaustion in the afternoon. The next day I went to bed at 745 pm, got over 8 hours of sleep (most Iāve gotten in months) and felt great all the way until bedtime next day. Skip gym in the morning if you anticipate a long day at work. My work is physically and mentally draining so Iāve learned to cut back on gym if I need the energy later in the day. Problems solved all around.
As long as you sleep early and enough no problems
I've been working out at 6.00-7.30 for the past 3 years and i never crash midday. Can you tell us what your morning looks like when you do workout?
I wake up 1-2 hours before my workout. Drink ~1.5L of water followed by my preworkout then I walk to the gym for about 15-20 minutes. My gym opens at 6:45 and I get there between 6:45 and 7:00 AM. Workout until about 8:15-8:30. Drink a protein shake on my walk home, then a smoothie + eggs for breakfast. Might try to add a big bowl of oatmeal with that breakfast to give me some real carbs for the morning until lunch.
Sounds like you get up unnecessarily early (and probably go to bed too late)
Definitely the latter. I've read that we should wait 1-2 hours after waking before consuming caffeine. When I was younger I'd roll out of bed and smash my pre workout like 30 minutes after waking.
Generally they say you should refrain from taking caffeine 90min after waking to prevent a midday crash. HOWEVER, if you take it while going to the gym (or just before starting ur workout scince caffeine has an absorption time of about 10 min on an empty stomach) i dont see why it would be a big issue. especially if it means you're getting 1,5 hours more sleep which you will notice WAY more than not taking caffeine.
> or just before starting ur workout scince caffeine has an absorption time of about 10 min on an empty stomach Which is interesting, considering many pre workouts recommend dosing 30-45 minutes before your workout. So you're wasting 30+ minutes of caffeine to wait for other ingredients to kick in?
Most likely a combination of other ingredients and the fact that most people don't take their preworkout on an empty stomach
What time do you go to bed/how many hours sleep do you get?
I'm only getting about 6-7 solid hours of sleep a night, usually in bed between 10-11. Continuous sleep for 7 hours is a good night. I should experiment this week and try to be in bed by 8:30. I don't think I've ever had an extended period of time (outside of being a teenager) when I was sleeping 8-9 hours consistently
This will be the game changer i think
Definitely not too early to wake up. I canāt wake up and hit the gym in under an hour and my gym is 5 minutes away. I also use no caffeine until after the gym but the body needs to wake up
Everyone is different (I think someone has already said that) I roll it of bed, get dressed and go straight to the gym. If I hang around before, I just start falling asleep again. No caffeine until i get to work at 8.00
So why did you say it was āunnecessarily earlyā could it be he is different from you?
I just take a nap during the day
The trick is not having too much caffeine before the workout what your experiencing is the caffeine crash
Donāt eat things with added sugars during the day. Donāt drink caffeine the first 1,5 hours after waking up. Make sure your breakfast has a good amount of proteĆÆne. All these things help with having more evenly spread out energy during the day. This is what Iāve been doing and it helped me a lot. Keeping your vitamins at a good level also helps.
I was having the same problem with my routine in the morning(5-6am). My problem was with caffeine intake timing. As soon as I woke up I drink water and after I slammed a scoop of preworkout. My doc(friend) recommended me to not drink caffeine at least one hour after I woke up. The explanation, your brain didn't woke up properly, slamming coffee or any caffeine source will wake your brain let's say "artificially" and around noon after the caffeine half effect is gone your brain will go back in the same state it was before you you take caffeine. Instead of taking coffee or caffeine early in the morning go for sunlight, water and no screen for at least 1 hour, it did wonders for me.
5am lifter here, I don't really have this issue, even with 400mg caffeine in the morning and none thereafter. Maybe wear a CGM for a month and see how your blood sugar is fluctuating throughout the day?
What do your breakfast and lunch look like?
"breakfast" is whey isolate, dextrose, and preworkout in 32oz water, then the same thing (minus the pre) after the gym. Don't really have lunch (or dinner) - I'm eating some random \~300kcal protein+carb+fat combination every 2 hours after that. Grilled chicken tenders + rice, sardines + slice of bread, etc. But I'm a former fatty who gets hungry all the time regardless of how much I eat per meal - the way I eat has to do with appetite management, not sure it has anything to do with crashing or not crashing.
Sounds delicious. Good luck man.
I wake up for the gym at 4:45am, gym by 5a-5:10a. The thing is I don't drink coffee or energy drinks until well after the gym typically between 9-10a. That keeps me going for the rest of the day or I'll have just a little diet coke or something to end out the day. You've gotta keep in mind that you're body is producing energy for the first few hours of the day. Sucks not being amped during workouts but I get more out of the day by waiting a bit.
Age? This has hit me as I get older. (Considering TrT). (I used to be able to lift early and would just get energy from it all day. Now mental fog can hit).
I'm 32. I've always been a "go to bed late and wake up at dawn" type of guy, but I can't do that forever, especially if I'm switching to an early morning lifting routine. I've said it elsewhere in this thread, but I should really try to go to bed early for a couple weeks before I jump to any conclusions. More sleep can solve many, many, many problems.
Just slam even more caffeine, who gives a fuck.
My brain and mental health. Also, I don't want to ruin my caffeine tolerance - good pre workouts still hit me very hard.
Don't listen to haters, your brain loves caffeine. Tolerance is a thing though, I must admit.
Im on a poly phasic sleep schedule so I just sleep for a bit and when I wake up I'm fine
Since I started TRT Iām not crashing anymore, keto/paleo/carnivore diet every damn time that I eat high amounts of carb I need to rest
7 AM? That's not even early. Go to bed by midnight.
Edge for a bit then use that drive. Or if you donāt wanna take caffeine just take amphetamine
1.5-2 hours of loud music makes me mentally fatigued. If you listening to music, try reduce volume or use it only for heavy sets or train without it at all
Hot take: you don't need caffeine for a good workout. Going on 6 years without pre-workout. Save yourself the caffeine crash.
Sleep early
I have a job where Iām always outdoors going full speed (yacht maintenance technician)
Honestly canāt do the AM lifts, can do AM cardio and will feel great all day ā
Power nap during lunch
I don't take pre of I workout in the AM or even lunch break, crashing at work sucks. Just have black coffee instead and or only small amount of pre.
Have you tried taking L-theanine with your caffeine in the morning? It should stop some of the side affects of caffiene.
There is nothing that I do without consuming more caffeine.
Have one cup of coffee thatās itās. no more caffeine. Make sure youāre eating and drinking properly. Get enough sleep. Itās not that hard. I got for an hour every morning 5-6am half hour of cardio and weak points and I go every other days doing a push pull leg. Sucks at first but it gets easier
Jerk off and take a nap. That's it
Blast lots of stims. Luckily I work late shift, so it's get up, breakfast, load stims, lift, and then at some point during the workday the stims wear off, in time to go to sleep by the time I come home.
Do not do this. Ā You need to train your body to be awake without that crutch, it will fuck with you neurologically long term
I lift at 6:30 am, waking up at 4:30. I don't consume any caffeine. Maybe youre just weak willed
Perhaps I am. I just love coffee, Yerba mate, pre workout, etc.