Post: #1

Yeah I know the title sounds retarded-no shit you get fatigued by intense physical activity, everyone does. Let me explain a little bit.

When I was a kid and even unto early adulthood I used to like just breaking out into a mad sprint once in a while. I remember that I could sprint at 100% intensity until my breath gave out- the time interval I could go at 100% was determined solely by running out of breath. At the end of my sprints I would catch my breath and be no worse off for the wear.

Now in my mid 20s, I started trying to do HIIT and found that no longer to be the case. When I start sprinting, I can go all out for about 5 seconds and then my body kind of loses power. I've still got breath left, but my body just feels like the horsepower it's capable of generating goes from 100% of max to ~80% of max after that initial few seconds, regardless of breath.

Same during lifting. I remember in my early 20's I would go to the gym and my workouts would be limited by muscle fatigue. Now, I go to the gym and maybe I can do deadlifts first, no problem. After deadlifts I do pullups, no problem. But by the time I go do some lat pull-downs, I feel like my battery is at 60-70%. My muscles are still not burned out, but I have to ease up on my workout because of this general sense of fatigue where I just can's summon up the energy to transfer to the muscles and move that weight.

The weird thing is, I've not really lost any cardio as far as I can tell. I could do a 5:30 mile in high school and I can still do a <6 min mile today. The only thing I can think of is that I used to be 5'10 and 135-140lbs before and I've put on about 10 lbs of lean muscle this year. Still, I would expect putting on some muscle on my scrawny frame would allow me to go at lifting harder rather than tire out faster.

Has anyone else experienced something like this and/or do you think it's a normal part of getting older? I'd like to think mid 20's isn't that old but at the same time I'm not sure how I can improve my stamina, seeing as I'm not overweight and my cardio is quite decent.

Post: #2

(12-24-2014 01:06 PM)Fast Eddie Wrote:  Yeah I know the title sounds retarded-no shit you get fatigued by intense physical activity, everyone does. Let me explain a little bit.

When I was a kid and even unto early adulthood I used to like just breaking out into a mad sprint once in a while. I remember that I could sprint at 100% intensity until my breath gave out- the time interval I could go at 100% was determined solely by running out of breath. At the end of my sprints I would catch my breath and be no worse off for the wear.

Now in my mid 20s, I started trying to do HIIT and found that no longer to be the case. When I start sprinting, I can go all out for about 5 seconds and then my body kind of loses power. I've still got breath left, but my body just feels like the horsepower it's capable of generating goes from 100% of max to ~80% of max after that initial few seconds, regardless of breath.

Same during lifting. I remember in my early 20's I would go to the gym and my workouts would be limited by muscle fatigue. Now, I go to the gym and maybe I can do deadlifts first, no problem. After deadlifts I do pullups, no problem. But by the time I go do some lat pull-downs, I feel like my battery is at 60-70%. My muscles are still not burned out, but I have to ease up on my workout because of this general sense of fatigue where I just can's summon up the energy to transfer to the muscles and move that weight.

The weird thing is, I've not really lost any cardio as far as I can tell. I could do a 5:30 mile in high school and I can still do a <6 min mile today. The only thing I can think of is that I used to be 5'10 and 135-140lbs before and I've put on about 10 lbs of lean muscle this year. Still, I would expect putting on some muscle on my scrawny frame would allow me to go at lifting harder rather than tire out faster.

Has anyone else experienced something like this and/or do you think it's a normal part of getting older? I'd like to think mid 20's isn't that old but at the same time I'm not sure how I can improve my stamina, seeing as I'm not overweight and my cardio is quite decent.

Your running thing is a weird example.

No one can just sprint endlessly at a maximum effort.

There's a reason that sports like football use the 40 yard dash as a measure of speed and explosiveness, and that for elite level 100 meter sprint specialists even a 200 meter race is long.

When you were a kid 'breaking out into a sprint' you simply weren't sprinting properly, you were just running fast. Now that you're doing true sprint training you're fatiguing just like anyone would.

The weight room very well could be the same issue. Lifting heavier, with better form, recruiting more muscle fibers and pushing your body harder, so you fatigue quicker.