Source

Hi everyone!

So last month I wrote about how I figured out that my energy levels were tired tied to my sleep. I’ve been having a problem for years where I would wake up at 2am, 3am or 4am, not be able to fall back asleep, and then be both physically and mentally fatigued for days.

It’s a weird problem, because it lags over a few days… so I’m not necessarily dead-tired the day that I woke up super early, but I might be the next day or day after that… and when I’m tired, I tend not to make healthy food decisions or get my exercises done. It also affects my work, I struggle with the tasks that require a lot of thought, focus or concentration and they take me way longer than they should… or I just don’t even start them.

I thought for a long time I was getting too hot, or I was eating too late, or my routine was too haphazard, but I’m starting to think it’s related to stress and anxiety. Oftentimes I’ve woken up and my heart and brain are racing, not about anything in particular.

One a bad week, this might happen 5 of our 7 days, on a good week it might only happen once or twice.

What I’m realizing that even the good weeks aren’t good enough, and so I’ve made it my absolute job to make sure I sleep the whole night through. I can’t control it specifically, but I can control my sleep hygiene and habits. I saw in one article that a doctor called it ‘sleep pressure’ – all the things you do; like exercising, eating well, etc that will help you sleep properly, and so I think about building up my sleep pressure several times a day.

In the last 7 days, I had 3 not good nights, so I’ve still got a lot of work to do.

Alright, let’s get into the fitnessing!

Here are my previous tracking reports…

Figuring out the overuse injuries (Aug 2024)
Overuse injuries – 2 weeks later… (Aug 2024)
Overuse injuries – First month… (Sept 2024)
Overuse injuries and general fitness (Jan 2025)
Managing stress, exercise and diet… (Feb 2025)
It all comes down to sleep…(Mar 2025)

Here are the current injuries I’m working on:

Here are my reasons for rehab:

1.) Golfer’s Elbow in both elbows
2.) Plantar Fasciitis (heel pain)
3.) Stiff neck headaches
4.) Lower Back pain
5.) Hypertonic Pelvic Floor muscles

Sooooooo, I dropped 0.6kg in weight (which is nothing) and I dropped 2 whole years in Metabolic Age? It was 45 last month. So weird.

I did drop Visceral Fat from 7% to 6% (fat around the human organs) which put it on the cusp between Good and Acceptable, so maybe that was the cause OF DROPPING 2 ENTIRE YEARS OF AGE?!? Metrics, hey? Everything is totally made up.

Diet hasn’t been super great, it’s not just fatigue from lack of sleep, but work has been stressful this month as well. I expect the stress to ramp up but then dissipate pretty dramatically as I’ve got holidays planned for May.

Also, very weird, but I suspect the (admittedly high) broccoli intake might be making my left armpit smell… so I’m going to take that out and see if it makes a difference. TMI, absolutely.

I think I only had sugary foods once in the last month, which is a massive improvement, I’ve got it in my head that sugar is a sleep-ruiner so that helps me say no.

I’ve been very strict about not eating after 6pm thanks to @mikezillo’s comments last month.

My routine has stayed the same as last month…

2 sets:

• 10 pull ups
• 10 lbs dumbbells side press 10
• 10 lbs dumbbells front press 10
• 15 lbs dumbbells hammer curls 10
• 15 lbs dumbbells shoulder press 10
• 40 lbs dumbbells bench press 10
• 15 lbs dumbbells bench fly 10

The pull ups are getting easier. 10 still feels like a lot, and the last couple are a struggle, but I feel strong in the early ones.

I did this work out 7 times in the last month, which is +1 from last week, go me!

Last month I had done the following workout twice in the whole month. This month I did them 4 times, 100% improvement but it’s still obviously not my favourite:

2 sets :

• calf raises (x20)
• step ups (x20)
• 35 lb x 2 kettle bell squats (x10)
• lunges 25 lb. Dumbbells (x20)
• jump squats (x10)

I continued on my Zone 4 efforts in the last month, doing 30 minutes in the 130-150 BPM range 12 times. I had done it 15 times last month, and I think I’d like to get to a point where I’m doing it almost every day.

I’ve also being trying to do 5K once a week:

26:10
26:22
25:37

I was really rapt with that last time, I don’t think I’ve ever broken 26 minutes before, so that was awesome. I didn’t do it this last week because my plantar fasciitis recently went from a dull pain to a sharp pain, so I wanted to figure that out.

Speaking of….

I did my nightly rehab exercises 16 times this month, just over half as many as I wish I had done. I really want to get way more consistent with that routine.

1.) Golfer’s Elbow in both elbows

Mostly fixed… I do feel it slightly with pull ups and in some other movements, but it hasn’t flared up enough to affect mobility, so I’m really pleased with this progress. This might be as good as it gets, we’ll have to see.

2.) Plantar Fasciitis (heel pain)

Two weeks ago I stopped climbing my 15 flights of stairs completely. It’s a massive shame, I love the burn and breathlessness a couple of times a day, but I do think it’s probably the biggest contributing factor.

I think the Plantar Fasciitis has gone away completely in my left heel, but my right heel feels sharper and in more of a specific spot. I’ll keep working on it and see what I can do.

My good friend and Splinterlands arch nemesis @pardinus suggested I roll my feet on a golf ball… so I tried it, I have been using a baseball because that’s what I had lying around, and I think it helps.. but I have to be really specific to target the heel, if I roll around near the toes, it can actually make it worse the next day.

3.) Stiff neck headaches

Definitely been an issue this last month as I’ve been trying to finish up a lot of work before holidays.

4.) Lower Back pain

This hasn’t been as bad as it was last month where I had only done my rehab exercises once. So obviously that’s a huge amount of progress even though I’m only half way as consistent as I’d like.

5.) Hypertonic Pelvic Floor muscles

Huge problem still, just like last month. It gets so bad I think it keeps me awake sometimes, it’s super uncomfortable in sitting and a range of lying down positions. I know I got to a point where I almost completely defeated this monster so I just need to remember that 16 rehab sessions in a month isn’t enough to kill this one. I need to do the pelvic floor stretches a couple of times a day which I definitely have not been doing.

So, I’ve made a little bit of progress with my general health, my speed, my strength, my injuries and my overall consistency, but I’m still a long way from where I would like to be.

Hope your health and fitness are going well!
Thanks for reading!