That is completely me!!! Morning I'm groggy, around 10 am I'm like hell yea, I'm gonna train, and by 2 pm, I just can't keep my eyes open. By the time I get off, I'm completely drained and have to go home and rest. Freaking 930-11 pm is when I have the most energy. :/ ugh, I'm all jacked up. Help!
Definitely sounds like Adrenal Fatigue. If I don't manage mine I fall asleep in the lunch room at work...bad idea with a bunch of good humoured guys hanging around :stick:
While my AF can be contributed mainly to many years of inconsistent shift work (& too much vodka red bull back in the day i'm sure), i'm unable to change my work patterns, so have no set sleeping and eating patterns.
For you consistency in these areas can be a help in making beneficial adjustments. The only down side is that we are creatures of pattern, so if you perform the same work/eat/train patterns daily the AD reflex can become patterned too. The body learns that it gets lunch at x o'clock and begins to automatically follow that with the AD reflex for a nap 2 hours later. It's a big pain in the butt!!
I've found that keeping my blood sugar levels up helps minimally, that just prevents me from fatiguing before the AD kicks in.
I once saw my GP for advice on this as it was my suspicion that AD was causing my tiredness. She recognised Sleep Apnoea symptoms & insisted AD was not a medical condition. Bullhsit. Tests confirmed I had Sleep Apnoea & my naturopath friend concurred with my initial diagnosis of AD. Now I'm 2x as tired ;-)
I did get liquid herbs from another experienced naturopath, but found the OTC products as if not more effective & much cheaper.
Remedy:
It sucks but there's really only 1 way to combat this condition properly. You can try just reducing stims intake & supplementing with adrenal formulas, but it's like running water into a bucket full of holes. You just keep squeezing the last few drops of adrenaline out of those adrenals every time you get a stim hit or adrenaline rush. it is helpful for those people who have gotten overly used to their preworkout drink though (switch to something like Hemavol pre-wo with an adrenal formula for a month).
To really get it sorted you need to follow a few simple steps:
* maintain those beneficial work/eat sleep/patterns
* avoid late nights, weekend party-a-thons
* de-stress, take a load of your adrenal glands
* remove ALL stims from your diet. I'm not talking B vitamins, Taurine etc, I mean caffeine, fat burners, synephrine etc. No coke, no energy drinks, no coffee. Beware of green tea.
* drink PLENTY of water & add in electrolytes including magnesium to help with energy, help with relaxation and reduce headache severity (if that occurs). I like Baywood Cal-Mag Fizz & Magnesium Fizz in half doses...they're loaded with trace minerals & vitamins. Trace Minerals Power Paks are awesome too, little sachets that I keep handy for an electrolyte & vit C hit & all natural. If you prefer capsules 200mg of any decent magnesium will help.
* use a good Adrenal reset/support formula. There are quite a few out there, this is my experience with them so far:
- Jarrows Adrenal Optimizer: works quite well but does take a while, most comprehensive & well dosed product I've tried
- BPS ArenoSurge: good product, good feedback from customers, does contain Bovine adrenal extract for the vegan minded
- Southland Revamp: wasn't particularly effective for me, but my former housemate was overjoyed with this one, it's her favourite. Highest Bovine adrenal & B5 content.
- Christophers Adrenal formula: This is an entirely herbal product. i'm currently using this & it's a bit hard to say how effective it is as i'm also using stims. i'm definitely not tired during the day, but it's flawed testing. I do like Christophers products in general, the kidney cleanse is esp good.
NutraPlanet currently have Revamp on sale as a B1G1 offer. it might be a good place to start.
There's really no quick fix here, it generally takes a couple of months to turn the ship around so aim for 2 months of the one product initially. Some people notice a difference in days, others take weeks & even months. You're young & fit, with a good diet no doubt, so making a few changes should see changes in a reasonable amount of time. After that it's a case of managing your AD & being aware of it. Regular good sleep helps considerably, as does managing stress effectively. Meditate, learn good breathing techniques, do yoga.
I hope this helps :sleeping: :yup:
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