Significant fatigue despite relatively low training volume

Medical Q&A [Moderated]
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Hi everyone,

I wanted to make a more detailed previou post about starting the Knee Rehab Template, because I’m noticing something that I’m not sure is related to the knee rehab itself or to my overall training/recovery capacity.

I’ve been strength training for several years and normally really enjoy training. However, I’ve noticed a recurring pattern over the past year that concerns me.

Last winter/early this year, I was doing a fairly traditional upper/lower split with quite a lot of volume and 4 training days per week. During that period, I gradually became extremely unmotivated to train. Eventually I genuinely hated going to the gym, had almost no desire to train, felt like I had very little energy, and my strength started declining. I even started questioning whether I wanted to continue strength training at all, which is very unusual for me.

I eventually switched to a more powerlifting program. The program involved fewer exercises and one less training day per week, and interestingly, I felt significantly better. My motivation came back and training felt much more manageable.

Fast forward to now: I’m starting to notice a similar pattern again with the knee rehab template.

Current situation

I only started the Barbell Medicine Knee Rehab Template about three weeks ago.

My current overall training volume is actually very low compared with what I was doing last winter. I’m also using very little weight.

Despite this, I’m finding the sessions surprisingly exhausting, after the last session I felt completely wiped out, almost as if I had done a very hard full-body session. I was also slightly nauseous/flau afterwards, although I didn’t feel sick otherwise.

What makes this particularly confusing is that my strength has also declined significantly.

Last winter I was doing around 14 kg/side for DB shoulder press and around 30–40 kg on the T-bar row. Now, even 8 kg/side on the shoulder press can feel extremely difficult, especially after the lower-body work.

I understand that I’ve lost some specific strength and muscle because I haven’t trained these movements consistently for several months. I’m not necessarily concerned about the absolute numbers themselves.

What concerns me more is the overall feeling of fatigue and reduced training tolerance.

It feels somewhat similar to what I experienced last winter, when I was doing much more volume and eventually became completely burnt out on training. The difference is that my current training volume and loads are nowhere near what they were then.

So I’m wondering:

Can someone have a relatively low current training volume but still have a low recovery capacity / poor tolerance to training for other reasons?

And how would you distinguish between:

  • normal fatigue from returning to lower-body training after a period of reduced activity,
  • accumulated fatigue from overall training/life stress,
  • simply being detrained and therefore finding relatively easy training very taxing,
  • versus something that would warrant looking into other factors?

I’m not trying to diagnose anything from the forum, but I’d really appreciate some perspective from the BBM team or anyone who has experienced something similar.

I’m especially interested in whether it would make sense to simply give my body a few weeks to adapt to the current workload, or whether this degree of fatigue despite relatively low training volume is something I should investigate further.

Thanks!

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Hi Maddy,

Thanks for the update. To be sure, yes, you can have low current training volume and still be fatigued. As far as figuring out why, that can be the tricky part. A few things come to mind:

  • Under-recovery from life stressors: when the “life load” goes up, which is everything that interacts with recovery, e.g. sleep, food, life stress, and health, the training load one can tolerate can decrease. The tell here is that usually soreness persists, performance is flat or goes down, and there are some identifiable inputs that have changed, with sleep and stress being the big ones.
  • Detraining: If someone becomes detrained due to time off (especially due to illness), their training tolerance can decrease, especially if the new training program is filled with novel exercises. The signature of this one is that it improves week over week as you re-adapt, and you feel basically fine outside the gym.
  • High training load despite lower volume: as you know, training load is not just the volume, but also the proximity to failure, the intensity, exercise selection etc. Some lower volume programs (e.g. 5x5 squats) could demand more from recovery/cause more fatigue than a higher volume one (e.g. 6 x 10 leg extensions). The tell here would be comparing programs and seeing if there’s a clear difference in the “nature” of the programs, i.e. average intensities, exercise selection, and proximity to failure. With a higher proximity to failure (RPE), intensity (closer to 1RM), and more taxing exercise selection (e.g. more compound exercises vs isolation), that’d be a possible cause. People also can adapt to this, provided it’s not WAY too much, where an injury often shows up first.

In your case, you’ve described not just fatigue but a decrease in motivation and energy, to the point of questioning an activity you normally love. If that low energy and low drive live outside the gym too, that’s worth raising with your doctor, because persistent fatigue has plenty of causes that have nothing to do with programming, from underfueling to sleep to iron, thyroid, or mood. I can’t really comment on that for you specifically from a forum, but I will say this does tickle my spidey sense for something medical going on under the hood.

If it were me, I’d give it another two to three weeks of deliberately easy dosing on the template, leaving plenty in reserve and letting your readiness guide the day, while you shore up the boring inputs, particularly enough sleep and enough food. If no real improvement, I’d see my doctor.

Potentially helpful resources

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Thanks Jordan, that makes a lot of sense. I think the detraining/re-adaptation explanation might be particularly relevant given how little lower-body training I’ve done over the past few months.

I’m now almost finished with week 3 of the template, and I’m already noticing a significant improvement in my knee, which is really encouraging.

Interestingly, yesterday’s session actually felt pretty good during the workout, and I didn’t feel unusually fatigued afterwards either. I’ll continue with deliberately easy dosing, leaving plenty in reserve, and see whether my recovery and energy continue to improve week to week.

I’ll also make sure I’m eating enough and prioritizing sleep. If I’m still experiencing the same level of fatigue and loss of motivation after another couple of weeks, I’ll bring it up with my doctor.

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Great to hear! I agree with your assessment and plan. Carry on :wink:

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