Chronic fatigue issues

[nighteyes]

Hello folks,

 

I have fibromyalgia, which is associated with chronic fatigue and pain. I've been going through a "rough patch", particularly fatigue-wise, for the past 2-ish years.

Every time I try to start back at Bodyweight Level 1, I end up crashing again.

 

How can I find a level that's right for me without crashing out?

[Harriet]

Hey there, I thought I'd share my experience, because I had unexplained, long-lasting, life-interrupting fatigue for many years. I never got a diagnosis, though, because I didn't see the point. So my fatigue might have a different cause from yours, and you might not need the same exercise programme as me. But... I just wanted to say that I thought I hated all exercises, I would get puffed and fed up doing bodyweight or light dumbbell exercises and never make progress, and I could never make progress on the horrible cardio machines either. I was always just as unfit as before. This only changed when I started powerlifting. Yep, powerlifting. Low rep, heavy barbell movements. It sounds kinda crazy if you're super tired and weak, as I was, but it was the only thing I could stick at because it didn't really require endurance (you never have to do more than 5 reps in one go!), and because it was innately more interesting than cardio or high rep bodyweight stuff--every lift feels like a dramatic awesome challenge (for me, anyway). And boredom absolutely lowers my tolerance for pain while exercising. Low rep heavy movements get my heart rate up temporarily, but they don't create that sick, exhausted feeling I used to get from doing cardio or high rep movements (anything over 6 reps is fatiguing for me). Also, I feel like you can do light weights or bodyweights and cardio for weeks and months without improving (because fatigue stops you from pushing hard enough to force physiological adaptations), but with heavy weights, you can't help but get better from week to week. And as you get stronger, ordinary things like standing and climbing stairs get easier, so you get less tired even though you haven't directly increased your endurance. This is just my experience, and yours may be different with the fibromyalgia. But I wanted to share because powerlifting for real changed my life. 

[nighteyes]

Thanks so much for replying, Harriet, that's really helpful. Would there be something similar I could do with dumbbells?

[Harriet]

5 hours ago, nighteyes said:

Thanks so much for replying, Harriet, that's really helpful. Would there be something similar I could do with dumbbells?

Sort of, there are definitely dumbbell variations or replacements for many barbell movements. BUT, it's harder to keep increasing the weight in a safe way, because heavy dumbbells are hard to handle, and in my opinion it's easier to hurt yourself with a dumbbell overhead or bench press than with the barbell versions of these (I hurt my shoulder when I let a DB fall to my side, pulling my arm with it because I didn't let go fast enough. I was careless... but it could never have happened with a barbell). But I think DB floor press, DB Rows, and Goblet or DB Squats and DB deadlift could be pretty safe. You want to include push, pull, squat and hip hinging movements.There are some quite knowledgeable folk in the Powerlifting forums who can help you pick out the best, safest replacements to do at home. 

The most important thing is to keep it heavy and low rep. You might already know this, but (if I understand correctly) muscle growth can be triggered by both metabolic stress (from high volume lifting, i.e. lots of reps) and by mechanical tension (from heavy lifting). If you just can't manage high enough volume to create sufficient metabolic stress, then you might still be able to trigger strength adaptations through mechanical tension. So the key would be picking a weight that you can do for no more than 5 reps (at least, that's what I do with barbells, you should check with the powerlifting forum to see what's appropriate for dumbbells). Then, if you succeed in getting 5 reps with a certain weight, you increase the weight for next time. I know this part can be scary, especially if you don't really believe you're capable of getting stronger. But attempting the next weight is the most important part of lifting, and if you wait until you "feel" strong enough, you won't make much progress. The only way you can find out is by trying and failing or succeeding (safely) at the next weight. Most people start with three sessions per week on non-consecutive days, and have three exercise types per session  (one push, one pull, and one squat or hip-hinge movement) and do five sets for each exercise. But you could do three sets each to start with to avoid fatigue. So nine total sets, three times per week. 

Again, I would post in the powerlifting forums to check if it's safe to do heavy, low rep dumbbell work, and to ask what the best basic push, pull and legs movements are. They might tell you it's fine, or they might recommend a slightly different rep range than is appropriate for barbells. Or they might tell you it's safe up until a certain weight level, when you would be better off switching to barbells. Please don't just start doing ultra heavy dumbbell overhead presses