Lifted a PR in full clean on Friday which is actually no small thing in your 60’s! So yay. Thought to myself, this would be a good weekend to do some additional hot yoga, a lighter squat workout and an hour of sauna/steam. Cold snap so walking 10K steps outside was very comfortable. A little football, some Mexican food, nothing too far from my usual. Sleep was my usual meh. Come Monday, Coach called for (unexpectedly for me) max jerks. I felt a bit dizzy, off balance, maybe dehydrated. My “max” was totally off -82% of current PR. Seems like dehydration did a number on me. Wondering what’s the mechanism here? I had my usual 24oz of 12g creatine/5g karbolyn along with an orange on the way to gym. 24oz of coffee during the session that I have a high tolerance for. Was there anything else I could have done that morning to have a better workout? Was that Monday max lift day just not a great programming idea? Or was my weekend recovery plan not quite right? What’s your take?
Howdy,
Congrats on the clean PR! That’s amazing period, especially in your 60s.
As far as Monday’s performance goes, I don’t think it was likely to be caused by dehydration. Most people aren’t dehydrated, as the body is very good at maintaining this. Plus, you had fluid, creatine, an orange, and coffee, so unlikely to be hydration. If anything diet-related, I’d be looking at pre workout nutrition.
Perhaps the bigger issue, would be the ask to max on jerks out of nowhere. I’m not sure how often you’ve been training the jerk for singles and/or at circa-maximal levels in your recent training, but that could be your 82% right there. As you know, maxing is a skill, not just raw strength, and if you haven’t been getting exposed to it regularly, the result is going to likely be lower regardless of how you slept or ate. I think this is especially true for high skill/coordination exercises.
That all being said, I do think stacking hot yoga and sauna can contribute to training load in a non-productive way, especially if there’s limited time (less than a few days) before a hard day, mainly because it costs resources to both do and recover from. Still, I’d put most of my stock in the surprise test.
-Jordan
Thanks for your thoughtful response, Dr F. That programming seemed better suited timing-wise for my 25yo former D1 gymnast training partner lol!
Jill