Overcoming muscle fatigue...

[Bearsy]

How do I?

Towards the end of my weight workouts my arms are shaking like I'm having a seizure or something...
and at the end of long bike rides my legs are shaking so much that it's hard for me to peddle.

It's weird because my whole body(including the effected muscles) feels like I could keep going with no problem, I'm not tired or sore, but I just can't physically make myself do much more.

[Robot_Butler]

I hate this feeling. I know some people enjoy it, but it is just not for me.

I've found that eating right and staying hydrated can help fend this off. Having a small, healthy snack 30-60 minutes before my workout makes me noticeably stronger, and last much longer. This doesn't have to throw off your diet plan. Chug a low calorie, high protein shake, or save half of your sandwich from lunch to eat later in the afternoon.

Also, be sure to keep drinking throughout your workout. You don't need a big jug of 12000 calories of gatorade. Frequent sips of water from the drinking fountain work.

Decide if you are trying to build muscle or cut fat. Gain weight or lose it. It is very difficult to try to do both at the same time. Generally speaking, if you're weight training for size or strength, you need to eat . You need food to get the energy to power through a hard set. You also need food to help heal and rebuild your muscle tissue after a workout. This can be counter productive if you are trying to just burn a ton of calories at the gym to lose weight.

If you are really trying to lose weight, try reducing the resistance on your lifts, and doing more of them. Light weight, more reps, less time between sets. Keep your heart rate up throughout your workout. This won't help you build size or strength, but it will help you get a calorie burning workout without sitting on the bike for hours working only your legs.

Do you think your muscle fatigue is due to lifting weights that are too heavy, or training for too long above your lactic threshold? Either one could have this side effect.

[grasshoppa]

It's a good sign your working hard. Once that happens, finish up what your doing and take a break, drink a protein shake and wait till the next day.

[Robot_Butler]

I just re-read my last post and realized I spewed a bunch of crap without actually saying anything.

To sum it up:

The muscle failure you are describiing is probably due to a build up of lactate (some say lactic acid). If this is the case, you are working beyond your lactic threshold. You are working your muscle too hard, causing lactate to build up in faster than it can be removed. Generally, you want to train just below this threshold so you don't crap out too soon.

If you are doing heavy weightlifting, you might experience muscle failure due to glycogen depletion. This does not sound like the case for you.

[Oneironaut]

It all depends on what kind of training you are doing. If you are doing strength training (building muscle), then muscle failure is a good place to stop. Everybody's muscles fail, once you work them beyond the point where they are comfortable. Everyone experiences muscle failure, upon a good workout. Once you work out to the point to where you feel like your muscles are approaching failure, your muscles are tapping new/unused muscle fibers to help complete the workout. That is what builds more muscle.

Work until muscle failure, rest that muscle group for a day, and then come back to it. Be careful, though, of course, not to work them too much, or you will tear too much tissue, and your muscles will be too sore to work out, for the next few days.

[Robot_Butler]

I've heard that the soreness that lasts for a few days can be avoided by sticking to concentric muscle training. Most microtrauma comes from the eccentric part of the lift, where you are extending the muscles as they work. Of course, some people say that eccentric excercises are more effective at causing hypertrophy because of this exact reason. Others say the increased down time and reduced strength from DOMS offsets this benefit. There is so much B.S. out there, and these things are so hard to study, it is almost impossible to really know.

I guess, just trust what your body is telling you. If you are noticing that delayed onset muscle soreness is interfering with your training, you can try to switch to exercises that minimize eccentric strain.

[PhilosopherStoned]

Another take on it is that training to failure is a bad thing as it causes nerve damage. I should know the mechanics of it offhand but I don't so I'll look it up and report back.

Personally, I train to a few reps shy of muscle failure and it works out allright for me as far as strength goes. My muscles don't get as big but I can do a half flag and that's something that a lot of body builders can't do.

[Kromoh]

LUL. Go for concentric training if you want to be huge and totally weak. If you're actually like me and value strength over volume, you'll do full-movement training.

I've learned not to bother about muscle fatigue. I simply ignore it. There is a very deep reason to this, but it'd take long to explain and wouldn't change anyone's life.

[Flavour of Night]

Stopping due to the burning from lactic acid build-up is a bad thing too. Drop down to a lower intensity, the continued lower intensity activity will help to flush the lactic acid.

[Robot_Butler]

Lately, I've been feeling your pain with the DOMS. I changed up my workout to avoid using my injured shoulder for a few weeks. I've been focusing more on my legs, with excercises I don't normally do.

My legs have been killing me the past few days. I can barely walk.

I was at the beach the other day, and almost cried. Walking on sand - bad idea when your legs are slaughtered.

[ninja9578]

Sounds like you aren't stretching enough, stretching helps prevent tightness, it's tightness which causes those pains.

[Robot_Butler]

Nope. That's a myth.

[Ozzi99]

Sounds like you aren't stretching enough, stretching helps prevent tightness, it's tightness which causes those pains.
After a leg day(especially after a break) there's not much that will stop the infamous newbie waddle :(

As for the shaking after/during sets i read somewhere that it was to do with your nervous system not being used to a certain intensity/volume, but that's a bit of a stab in the dark for me.

[IrisRavenstar]

The word shouting in my head reading the question is "Potassium." That's my guide JoAnne doing the shouting, I think. :)

Carry a bottle of orange juice or a banana with you and eat or drink when you feel weak. Both are high in postassium. Or beg a baked potato off a camper. LOL.

I found this here <http://www.umm.edu/altmed/articles/potassium-000320.htm>:

Potassium
Overview:
Potassium is a mineral that helps the kidneys function normally. It is also an electrolyte, a substance that conducts electricity in the body, along with sodium, chloride, calcium, and magnesium. Potassium is crucial to heart function and plays a key role in skeletal and smooth muscle contraction, making it important for normal digestive and muscular function, too. A heart-healthy diet includes potassium from fruits, vegetables, and legumes.

Having too much potassium in the blood is called hyperkalemia; having too little is known as hypokalemia. Keeping the right potassium balance in the body depends on the amount of sodium and magnesium in the blood. Too much sodium -- common in Western diets that use a lot of salt -- may increase the need for potassium. Diarrhea, vomiting, excessive sweating, malnutrition, malabsorption syndromes (such as Crohn's disease) can also cause potassium deficiency, as wells as use of a kind of heart medicine called loop diuretics.

Mose people get all of the potassium they need from a healthy diet rich in vegetables and fruits. Older people have a greater risk of hyperkalemia because our kidneys get rid of potassium less efficiently as we age. Older people should be careful when taking medication that may affect potassium levels, such as nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) and ACE inhibitors (see section on Interactions).

Whatever your age, talk to your doctor before taking potassium supplements.