Recovery post menopause

[Girlintheframe]

Hello all

I'm looking for some guidance re my recovery which is awful!

An example is I went to the gym Saturday and worked really hard. Yesterday aside from having DOMS I was absolutely shattered. Had to have a nap and still felt dreadful. I just felt so depleted.
This has happened a few times now and it's so frustrating.

I know lack of estrogen post menopause can make recovery difficult but I'm on hrt.

Can anyone resonate and offer advice please?

How much are you doing? Both at each session and overall? Are you having rest days? And are you managing volume and intensity is sessions? Are you eating and drinking plenty?

Left to my own devices I'd train and train and the endorphins would mean I'd not notice how fatigued I was till later. My programme, which is done for me, has less than I'd do to myself. I was training for a powerlifting comp recently and towards the end of that block I was fatigued and needing naps, but that was deliberate for that point in the programme, I couldn't sustain it long. Could it be you're doing too much? My coach would stop me doing any extra lifts, say if I wanted to work on some technique after I'd done all the programmed sets, as that would then be too much volume. If I do extra, other bits get taken away.

Things I do to manage fatigue aside from careful programming to make sure I'm not doing too much are making sure I'm eating enough, drinking enough, early bedtimes, naps when I need them.

@Girlintheframe
When I first started weight training (I'm 43) I was truly shattered and needing naps sometimes. I dialed it back so I am in control of my increases i.e. 5-10% per session, if I add more than that it is most likely only going to be on one compound lift. As someone on here said to me, I need to be able to function. I also wasn't sleeping as much at the start, now I do try.

Thank you both.

Think your both right, I probably am pushing myself too much. I'm so eager to progress I'm probably getting ahead of myself.
I'm looking more closely at my nutrition too.

I'm still tired today from Saturdays session. At the time I feel good and really motivated to do more, it's later that it hits. I'm relieved to hear it's not a me problem and more of an over enthusiastic beginners problem, that gives me hope that I can learn to manage it.

I'm not sure what the answer is but i find the same. I'm not post menopausal but often suffer fatigue for a few days after a hard workout. It's worse if I'm iron deficient (which I am from time to time), if I don't eat enough carbs or protein or if my days are too busy generally. It seems to come and go. Sometimes I can have a few weeks of being fine, other times I havr a few weeks of terrible fatigue and aches. I wish I knew how to stop it.

Definifely dialling in your nutrition will help. I'm pretty consistent as my coach gave me a calorie target and macro ratio and that has definitely helped with DOMS. In the beginning we were reversing back up my calories, plus I was building muscle, so it took a while for my body to catch up. I do think as a general rule I never quite know what I have in the tank until that first lift, even if I was raring to go, so there is alway an element of going through the motions and seeing how I feel.