Decline in health and performance.

[IllusoryNeptune]

I thought I would repost this here since this subject seems to get the most traffic:

hi,

During the past month I've been experiencing a decline in my performance during my kung fu classes. Everything just seems so much harder to do and I'm a lot more sore than usual and I feel a little clumsy too. Outside of class, I just feel tired and my body feels tight. It's gotten to the point where I'm having trouble keeping awake in my college classes. I don't think it's my sleep because I rest for at least 6 hours a night and nothing else has really changed much other than I've started to drink a little more often, though I only drink 1-2 times a week.

It's been like this for a while but has been manageable up until a month ago, as I mentioned. I just want to have a lot of energy and be vibrant, but I don't know what to do or what is wrong with me. Could someone give me any advice?

[red5angel]

Mayeb try layin off the drinking for a while. Check your diet as well, maybe try to change it a little.
Otherwise you may just have hit a low spot, it happens every once in a while.

[Budokan]

It also depends on how *much* you're drinking. It can catch up to you pretty darn fast, especially when you're doing something as strenuous as MA.

[Suntzu]

I felt that way all this week… but I haven't been getting quality rest and been eating crappy food… on top of that maybe a lil bit of over training… I took the beginning of the week off, but it hasn't helped… this weekend I'm gonna sleep a lot and see how it goes... i start my training diet again next week so hopefully it'll give me a lil more energy... the trade off is i'll be hungry all the time...i think a week away from work would help alot too,,, but alas, i have no vaction days:rolleyes: ...

[David Jamieson]

Is this normal? Maybe not.
There could be a variety of reasons that you are feeling low energy.

Drinking, when done with moderation shouldn't effect your overall health unless you have a bad reaction to alcohol.

See a doctor first, you may have an onset of CFS (chronic fatigue syndrome) or perhaps even something like a hepatological disorder (a,b,c?), meningitis, et al.

Point is see a doctor at your earliest convenience. Could be nothing but a lack of sleep, poor eating habits and more drinking than you are saying :D

Better safe than sorry.

peace

[Merryprankster]

Dude, CLASSIC symtpoms of overtraining!

There are many ways to get overtrained--lack of sleep is one. 6 hrs is a little on the low side, but within normal.

Doing too much too fast too often is another.

Having an improper diet and poor hydration will also lead to overtraining--with the drinking, you need to make sure you take in about a gallon of water a day (good idea, even if you AREN'T drinking that much.)

Take a break and try to get some more sleep. Check your diet (this isn't really that much of a problem in the civilized world unless you are in particularly hard training, or you only eat fried cheese and beer or something) and maybe reduce the drinking if it's "drinking till you're drunk," twice a week.

[HuangKaiVun]

We do not know enough about you to assess this, illusoryneptune.

We don't know what style you do, how often you train, how hard you train when you do train, or how your sifu has counseled you on this.

More importantly, we do not know what's going on with you OUTSIDE of kung fu class. But I'll say this - as a college student, you're facing the end of the academic semester and are probably deluged with lots of work to complete on schedule.

Know what the problem is before applying the proper treatment. That is the way of kung fu.

[yu shan]

Good advice from everyone! Your young so sleep shouldnt bother you, but, watch the diet young person. Eat healthy, drink alot of water.

Question: do you have stress in your life? Geezlouise, don`t we all! If you are in the college atmosphere, with all that goes with that, grades, parents, yada yada. Do some internals if you can.

Kung Lek has good point, CFS is nothing to mess with.

Never give up...

[IllusoryNeptune]

Thanks for the advice.

I should have been more specific though. I train in five animals kung fu, four times a week. I doubt that I overtrain because my sessions are usually anywhere from moderate to slightly intense. I never overdo it.

With the drinking, I'll drink 5-6 bottles of beer in a night and then finish what's left over plus I'll have one of those large bottles some other night, usually the next. I don't think I get that drunk because all I have the next morning is a faint headache. I started drinking in December of 2001 so our definitions of "being drunk" probably differ.

Yes, I am a full time double major college student and I also work 15 hrs a week. I am also serious about the piano. I don't know if it's stress because the vast majority of the time, everything gets done with plenty of free time left over.

It may be my diet, but I'm not really sure. Half the time I'll eat well, and the other half, I won't. But I do take a multivitamin daily to compensate for any nutritional loss. I do drink a lot of water when I can. Not all the time though because I hate having to go to the bathroom really often. It gets annoying.

I've also noticed that I've gained a little bit of weight and my legs seem to be a little sore most of the time.

I did tell my doctor this back in January and her response was to get more sleep. I did for a while and it didn't help. She didn't have anything else to say to me so nothing else was done. I guess I can ask her to get bloodwork done. I'll do that next week.

[HuangKaiVun]

You're drinking too much.

[CrushingFist]

5-6 bottles of beer a nite and ur wondering why you gained weight?

i'd definately lay off the drinking and see how that goes.

i get anywhere from 6-4 hrs of sleep a night on average. in fact i don't remember what it feels like to train "refreshed" i don't think i remember what it feels like to BE refreshed....
but everyones bodies are different.

[IllusoryNeptune]

Once a week is too much?

[HuangKaiVun]

If you are drinking that much and don't feel any effect, then YES.

Stay off the booze altogether if you can.

[TenTigers]

You're in college, meaning that you are about 17-25 yrs old (unless you got left back!) and your body is still growing, still developing. Plus you're training, PLUS you're partying, studying and all the other stress factors. You need optimum nutrition, not a few whoppers and a Flinstones vitamin. And you need adequate rest and recuperation, not 6 hrs, but 8-10 hrs. Drink your water, pee like a racehorse, and stop making childish excuses. Try adding extra quality protien-one half gram per pound of bodyweight. Athletes have higher protien neeeds than sedentary individuals, no matter what your teacher's food pyramid says. Balance your complex carbs, not simple carbs-which is white death. Eat fresh fruit and vegies, and meditate. Yeah, and see your doctor anyway.

[tnwingtsun]

Stop watering the beer garden so much.

[IllusoryNeptune]

Thanks for the advice, everyone.

[scotty1]

You say you drink on two nights a week.

So lets say Friday (normal party night) you have 5 or 6 bottles of beer.

And then Saturday night (normal party night) you have one large bottle of beer.

That is not a lot, or heavy drinking, or a reason why you would feel tired all week.

Saying stay off the booze altogether if you can is, quite frankly, ridiculous. If you like to socialise and drink alcohol then there is nothing wrong with that. And certainly not twice a week and the amount of beer you're drinking.

"Drinking, when done with moderation shouldn't effect your overall health unless you have a bad reaction to alcohol. "

Exactly. And you ARE drinking a moderate amount.

[IllusoryNeptune]

That's what I thought.

Anyway, I'm probably going to call my doctor Wednesday to get some blood tests done. What sort of tests should I ask for?

[HuangKaiVun]

Staying off the booze is NOT RIDICULOUS - at least in the eyes of the American Medical Association.

Many ailments - fatigue being one of them - are directly traceable to alcohol and the dangers that go with it. This is why though alcohol is supposedly cardioprotective in small doses, the AMA does not recommend its usage for medicinal purposes.

If I were YOUR doctor, IllusoryNeptune, I'd be asking a lot more questions about your lifestyle and PARTICULARLY your drinking habit before doing any sort of "tests".

At least that's what they taught us to do in medical school - take a good HISTORY before taking a good physical.

[scotty1]

"Staying off the booze is NOT RIDICULOUS - at least in the eyes of the American Medical Association. "

You don't like a drink, do you Huang? Fair enough.
Most people do though, and having a few beers over the weekend is not going to kill this guy, nor give him any problems with fatigue, as long as his body is not unusally intolerant to it.
Which is a possibility, I suppose.

[TenTigers]

"I'm not an alcoholic, I'm a drinker. Alcoholics go to meetings!"