How to Feel Full Energy at The Gym
Feb 6th, 2008 by Mehdi Tags: Nutrition, Strength Training
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Eddie posted in StrongLifts.com Forum:
I’ve been doing strength training for 4.5 month now, and I enjoy it. I’ve been eating right, sleeping for 9 hours. But when I go to the gym I just feel weak. I fail all over the place.
I’ve deloaded, and get stuck when I hit the same weight. On the Overhead Press 45kg. I just don’t feel strong at all.
Has someone got any advice on anything to eat? Sleeping hours? Anything that will make me feel more alive?
Average day:
- Morning: porridge + 2 scoops of whey
- Mid day: shake
- Dinner: chicken/pork/beef in sandwich or with potatoes
- Mid after: shake, either after gym or before finishing work
- Tea: Jacket potato with breaded fish or chicken with salad
I have at least 8:30 hours sleep. Sometimes up to 11, bit of a slob at weekend. I may need a lot more vitamins and minerals, I don’t get enough. Could that be why I feel like crap when I hit the gym?
You can’t increase the weight each workout forever. Eddie workouts since 4.5 months and weighs 78kg. Pressing 45kg for 5×5 overhead isn’t bad at all. The Overhead Press is a tough exercise, it’s normal to stall on it.
However there are things you can do to get the most of your workouts. Here’s how to feel full of energy at the gym.
Eat. Calories are energy for your body. If you don’t get sufficient calories, you’ll lack energy at the gym. Eat your body-weight in lbs x 18 kcal daily. 20x if you need to gain weight. 16x if you need to lose fat.
Eat every 3 hours. Eat veggies or fruit with every meal. Get 1g/lbs protein daily. Don’t rely too much on supplements like whey. Get your calories from healthy, unprocessed food. Example meal plan.
- 7am. Eggs with veggies — more breakfast recipes.
- 10am. Quark cheese with fruit.
- 1pm. Tuna, brown rice & pineapple.
- 4pm. Mackerel, brown rice & apple.
- 5pm. Workout.
- 6pm. Post workout protein shake.
- 7pm. Meat or poultry with potatoes & veggies.
- 10pm. Cottage cheese, berries, flax seeds & fish oil.
Sleep. Quality sleep influences your recovery, but also your mental state. Sleeping 4 hours/night kills motivation. Some tips to get better sleep:
- Clear Your Mind. Stop working 2 hours before going to bed. Write any idea/task on a piece of paper & work at it on waking up.
- Read Fiction. No TV or non-fiction books. Reading fiction will keep your mind away from career/business/etc.
- Eat light. No heavy meals before going to bed. If you go to sleep at 11pm: dinner at 7pm & light snack at 10pm. Done.
- Make a Routine. Wake up each day at the same time and you’ll go to bed each day at the same time.
- Naps. Take 20min naps before working out. Use the time spent in public transportation.
- Workout. Try Smolov for Squats, you’ll get your best sleep ever. Avoid working out late.
Deload. Failing with the same weight over & over will demotivate you. Deload on the Overhead Press if you don’t get all reps after 3 attempts. Don’t hesitate dropping the weight by 20%. It’s good for technique, speed & confidence.
If that still doesn’t work, take one week active rest.
- 2 workouts. Monday workout A, Thursday workout B
- 3×3 on all exercises. 1×3 on Deadlifts
- Drop Pull-ups, Chin-ups & Dips
- Use the same weights of the week before
- Don’t increase the weight on the Squat workout B
- Eat a lot, sleep well & get a change of mind
I want to hear your tips on how to feel full of energy at the gym. Share them in the comments.
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This may sound a little odd, but I read somewhere that peppermint is a mood booster. If I am feeling a little blah and don’t particularly feel as motivated as I should when approaching a workout, I pop a peppermint and go down into my “man cave” to lift. Also, I take a shower before going to yoga class. The shower makes me feel a little more upbeat and generally looser. This helps a lot before 100 minutes of a woman putting me into knots.
I did a quick search on the internet and found that I am not alone…
http://www.medicalpoint.com.au/need-a-mood-booster-hit-the-showers.asp
i know that the whole peppermint and/or shower thing may be a placebo, but it does help me.
down some black coffee, i just started drinking my coffee black, tastes the same as with milk. lol.
Deloads works wonders for me. Continually failing target sets is such a mood killer. And dropping the load around 20% and focusing on speed and technique is the equivalent to a hot knife to butter once you come back to the weight you had trouble with. When you break that personal record, it’s a bit of a high.
So what is a kCal? IF I am 210 lbs and I want to lose fat, would my calorie “requirement” be 3360? IF so, this seems a bit high. I always heard 8-10x your weight in lbs.
Unfortunately, because everything going on in my life I only average about 5 hours a sleep at night. I have been doing this over a year, I lost 100 lbs, but my weight is stuck right now. I wish I could get more sleep, but I can’t find any time. The good thing is that I have not lost any motivation to go to the gym.
You need fresh, raw fruits and vegetables (green) in your diet! You show almost none in your diet. Too much cooked food is draining on your body. Uncooked foods give you the enzymes and energy you need, plus undamaged vitamins and minerals. Also, eat plenty of fresh raw nuts, seeds, and nut butters for more strength, and cold-pressed oils such as flax, hemp,and coconut. Try drinking green tea or yerba mate tea before workouts! An incredible strength supplement is cordyceps mushroom capsules-powerful stuff! Find them at a health food store or online. Also, a good green powder supplement would be helpful. Good luck!
yep, make sure you are eating alot, you dont want to be weak whe you workout, for me the way i keep motivated and full of energy is eating every 3 hours, sleeping alot, and taking all my supplements, zma,b-vitamins,multi vitamins, 3 grams of vitamin c, my liver tabs.. you know all this adds up… but also when i go to sleep listen to my mp3 i got a trance mental workout and it takes you away and feeds your mind when your sleeping i currently have 2, one for bodybuilding, and one for peak performance and recovery, i think training you mind and going in there with a solid mind state is key too…. thats why i always listen to them when i go to sleep..
Eddie seems to be undereating and/or overtraining. He needs to take in more carbohydrates to fuel his workouts. He also needs to take a break from training for 1 to 2 weeks to allow for full recovery. Once he starts training again, he should cut back on the frequency or the volume in order to accommodate his new level of fitness without overtraining. Look up overtraining syndrome for more information.
A kCal is the same as a calorie for our purposes. The most common calorie recommendation is 15 times bodyweight per day (210 x 15 = 3150). This can range from 10 to 20 calories per pound of bodyweight depending on activity level, gender, weight goals, etcetera. Fred needs to restart his metabolism by coming off of his diet for at least a week. He should then cut calories in small increments, about 10% per every 2 to 4 weeks. This will prevent the metabolism from slowing down rapidly in order to compensate for the lack of calories. For weight loss, his diet might look like this:
Weeks 1 & 2: 3150 kCal/day
Weeks 3 & 4: 2835 kCal/day
Weeks 5 & 6: 2551 kCal/day
Weeks 7 & 8: 2296 kCal/day
Good luck!
One thing I didn’t see come up yet that can also affect your performance is hydration. Being low on fluids can wreck a workout. If you drink a lot of coffee or soda at work its a good idea to lay off and just drink water a couple hours before you knock off and head to the gym. Other than that, eat more, eat more regular, make sure you eat an hour or two before lifting so your bloodsugar can make up for the oxygen deprivation that occurs with heavy work. Best of luck and good lifts.
may seem strange.. but this works for me (when i follow my own advice):
two handfuls of peanuts (roasted salted)
two cups of strong coffee (with milk and sugar)
About 20 minutes before i go. Coffee gives me an initial boost, gets me through the squats. The peanuts seem to keep me going until I can get home to my post workout shake (milk, whey with fruit)
Mehdi, do you still recommend the anabolic diet. You said you stopped following the diet, so im curious?
Thanks John. I guess I am trying to figure out the calculation below that was in the original post today.
“Eat your body-weight in lbs x 18 kcal daily. 20x if you need to gain weight. 16x if you need to lose fat.”
Mutt - I didn’t think you were supposed to eat anything high in fat before workouts?
what’s so special about quark cheese? is it the fat/protein ratio and calcium? never heard of this before until you mentioned it!
also, what do you guys think about roaring and being loud and stuff? or slapping yourself lightly, and jumpoing around like a maniac?
I’m not a big fan of supplements but I find a bit of creatine pre workout when I’m feeling weak gives me an energy kick.
@Fred
You are probably right about that, maybe its the caffeine that does it.
It seems pretty clear that the energy that Fred is lacking is mental. He writes that the has been “failing all over the place.” If you know you are going to fail before you go to the gym its probably time to switch things up.
Im in the same situation now. I have been stalling lately on the press and squat, and I’m about 4 months in as well. I have de-loaded before but only by maybe by 5% and I failed afterward. Today I think i’ll try to deload 20% on the press. I am already excited to hit it with 20 less pounds on it, I’ll probably throw it through the roof.
what works for me is one day off where i just sit in the sauna steam and jacuzzi for about 2hours in the gym complex, take a cold dip in the pool etc just a little treat to myself for the hard work. i think that’s a good idea and it works for me, maybe it’ll work for others too.
take animal pak
Another thing that really works to get energy and even excitement is visualization. If before you go workout, you visualize what you want to do and really exaggerate the fact that you are kicking ass!
Visualize that you are training for a fitness competition, a championships boxing match, you are Tiger Woods getting ready for the US Open, anything really… but make it something that pumps you up! You will go into that workout with purpose and excitement.
@Fred
Read this post, it will answer your questions.
@Robin
Allergies to egg white/cheese that I seem to have developped.
@michael
Quark is a cheap source of protein, less than 1€ for 100g protein.
@Parker
What I think too, more mental than something else. Heavy deload is best to build back confidence.
Yes, treating yourself (sometimes) is a great way to motivate yourself to go to the gym more often (and with more energy).
But something that works for me, is also some form of “punishment” if it feels like I can’t do 5 sets but instead do 4, or something like that. If that happens, I just determine that I can do it, and that it’s a failure if I don’t. I let the fear in for 5 seconds, and then I just do it.
Afterwards, I feel great.
But in regards to Eddie’s questions, I think it’s important that you eat more food, and eat more variated. Mix some turkey in, some different pastas, thai food sometimes, you get the point.
And don’t forget your fruit!
This may be a little blasphemous, but I’d recommend a month of different exercises. Sometimes the mental break is what you need to get refocused.
Try a month of body weight exercises, or a month of strongman style workouts.
Monotony is often the most insidious motivation killer.
Normally when I feel groggy at the gym, I consider taking a week off from training. Feeling weak is most likely your body saying to you to take a break. Ive heard every 6-8 weeks you should rest for a week, but I normally lose track of time! Good luck Eddie.
Mehdi, so you are saying for me @ 210 lbs, I need 3,360 cals? Maybe I have been undereating for a long time now. However, I have gone from 204 to 210 lbs over the past 6 weeks and my BF % is not going down and I have not increased my calories.
@Fred
Fat is emergency storage for your body. If you don’t eat the body will hold on fat, and end up burning muscle. Muscle burn calories, so you don’t want to lose muscle. Best is to focus on body fat changes rather than body-weight. I eat 3000kcal daily to maintain 155lbs bw at ~10% body fat. 3x weight lifting sessions/week, no cardio & desk job.
I’m one of those people that doesn’t need motivation in the gym, I love going, it is like a spiritual experience for me or something, very peaceful.
One thing I have been researching lately is how to find energy for the rest of life? like work, socializing, chores, all this stuff. If we could transmit the energy and success of strength training to other areas of life we could become incredibly succesful in them as well.