I have AF from years of bad anxiety combined with working out. I've now got the anxiety under control, and I am on my way to recovery, but my workouts still really suck (low volume). My strength is fine, but I need massive rest times to keep up performance.

Does anyone have any insight in to what type of program I should be following? On one hand, I should be lifting heavy, in order to preserve muscle mass during the low volume phase, on the other hand, lifting heavy contributes to adrenal fatigue more than lighter stuff.

I know an author on t-nation said he was going to be doing an article on this, but I have no idea when it is coming out, and I would like to get a semi-decent routine going asap.

I would be more concerned with eradicating the root causes of your AF than trying to develop a training program to work around it. What are you doing, besides treating your anxiety, to take care of your AF issues?

Look into some adaptogens, learn to control your stress/anxiety, and reduce workout frequency, load, and volume for awhile. You're probably at the level where the stress pathways are out of the transient stage, so you probably need to chill for awhile.

"I would be more concerned with eradicating the root causes of your AF"

Good point.

ARe you sure you have taxed your adrenals? I mean seriously more than just being nervous?


http://www.mindandmuscle.net/articles/scot...us/relaxation-2

Look up great restorer advanced version best. work up to 20 min/day.

Good stuff in here as well:

http://www.mindandmuscle.net/articles/scot...elieving_stress

If you really have taxed adrenals then:

"lifting heavy contributes to adrenal fatigue"

you know that is a bad idea. And avoid stims.

Well I've been supplementing with HC cream orally, whenever I get the dead tired AF feeling. It has greatly improved my energy levels, and also my gym performance.

For the anxiety, I go to counseling, and I am on Cymbalta, Buspar, and currently tapering off Klonopin. I also take L-Theanine, Rhodiola, high dose vitamin C, DMAE, and L-Tyrosine.

I guess at this rate I will be cured pretty fast.

But just out if interests sake, would a high volume, low load approach be good? I'm talking lots of drop sets and lower rest times. I can still stress my muscles, without as much stress on the nervous system.

I know heavy lifting was a component of it.

The dead tired feeling I have started about two years ago. At the time, my anxiety disorder had just started to get really bad, AND I began training for a deadlift competition, and was doing lots of singles, AND I decided to do a cycle of clenbuterol. Bad idea, I know. People never used to talk about AF back then though.

Look in to niacin , it is a large component of nerve health. Also I have read that short interval sprinting training sessions do a lot for adrenal balance, among many other hormonal imbalances. I guess it is like an overall reset for the body. I know Bruce Lee was a strong advocate for it, among other more contemporary trainers.

I would recommend doing two to three sets not to failure rather than one set to failure. I stall out quickly and/or require large recovery periods if I train to failure. As I guideline, I stop when my rep speed slows down.

To help mentally with not training to failure do the following: I start out with 15 reps and increase the weight every session (by 2.5 to 5 lbs). I don't strive for any minimum rep target, I just lift as many times as I can without having to slow down and really strain (or until I hit my maximum rep target). Eventually my reps will be 3-5 for all exercises at which point I'll either microload a bit or take a week off and start over with 15 reps.

Casey Butt has a great articles in the science behind not training to failure (and how to put together a good routine):
http://www.weightrainer.net/training/failure.html