5 Reasons Why You Have No Energy When Working Out

5 Reasons Why You Have No Energy When Working Out

5 Reasons Why You Have No Energy When Working Out

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no energy when working out

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Have you ever felt pumped to get into the gym and after doing only a few exercises you found yourself feeling completely drained of energy

Have you ever felt that you had no energy for a workout and wanted to leave the gym as soon as possible?
A lot of people might say, something like, “Oh you’re not in shape. It’ll get better.” While this may hold true for most people, even the fittest people can find themselves in a similar situation.
In this article, I’ll be going over the things I’ve learned that would hinder my workouts and how I fixed them.

#1 Not Eating Before You Hit The Gym 

One reason I found for getting tired so quickly when I start lifting was that I haven’t had a pre-workout meal.
 
Don’t go crazy and get a full stomach with your pre-workout meal but eat a sandwich or a protein bar. This is a light meal/snack that you eat about 45 minutes to an hour before you hit the gym. 
 
Make sure to give yourself enough time for it to digest before hitting the weights but also don’t wait too long to where you find yourself getting hungry again. This is why 45 minutes to an hour before is a good window to go by. 
 
Tip: Bring something easy to carry with you for easy pre-workout snacks. This can be a protein bar, bag of peanuts, or something like peanut butter crackers.
 
Most of us are on the move with work/school/kids before being able to hit the gym, something simple & quick allows us to get some sort of food in us.
 
Editor’s Note: This may not be applicable to everyone. Some people, such as myself, can function well on an empty stomach. However, when I first started lifting I used to come close to throwing up if I hadn’t eaten before working out so it is something to be aware of. 

#2 Not Planning Your Workout Routine Correctly

When you work the main muscle group like your back or chest, you’re also hitting some of the other muscle groups that are connected to those. 
 
Here’s an example of what I mean, when you do a chest workout, you’re also using your triceps. It may not be enough to get them sore but you’re still working them out. 
 
Well if you do chest on a Monday then turn around and do triceps on Tuesday then you may find that you’re not able to lift as much because your triceps still isn’t recovered from the previous days’ workout.
 
Try to find a good workout routine that focuses on hitting muscles groups together like (chest/triceps) or a routine that spreads those muscle groups out like chest on Monday & triceps on Thursday.

#3 Going Low On Your Calories When Dieting

This can be somewhat related to point number one but this point is more focused on your calorie intake as a whole. 
 
What I mean by that is you can have your pre-workout meal and go hit the gym but if you’ve been in a massive calorie deficit then you can still find yourself lacking energy even with the pre-workout meal in your system. 
 
The best way to avoid this problem is to find out what calorie range you should be at to lose weight by using a weight loss calculator to help give you an idea of what calorie range you should be at. 
 
Once you do this you just have to keep track of the calories that you consume during the day. So if the calculator says you’ll lose 2 lbs a week when consuming 1750 calories per day, this doesn’t mean to drop your calories to 1000 and try to lose 5 lbs a week. 
 
Doing this is a quick way to find yourself drained of all kinds of energy and cause you to be burnt out physically & mentally. 
 
If you have a workout trainer then they will usually help get you set up with your suggested calorie intake and dieting calorie suggestion. There are also plenty of free tools available now to help you get an idea of what range you should be at like this one.
 
If you have a smartwatch or a Fitbit then this can be even easier because you have a much more detailed look at your overall activity for the day.
 
Editor’s Note: Aim to be on a caloric deficit of around 400 calories below your maintenance amount. This varies from person to person so do your research, but again, this is a very important thing to be aware of. Especially amongst males as this sort of low-calorie dieting can affect your testosterone. 

#4 Having Music Can Make Or Break Your Workout

Interesting fact: music makes a huge impact on your workout!
 
Just look around when you go to the gym if you think everyone is listening to music because they don’t want to talk to each other? Well, that might be the case for some people, but music has a huge impact on your motivation levels. 
 
Having the energy to hit the gym is much more of a mental aspect than it is a physically tired aspect. 
 
Try to load up a playlist of songs that gets you pumped and try hitting the gym while listening to that to see if you notice any changes in your overall workout.

#5 The Temperature Of Your Gym

There is something that most people do not pay any attention to how it affects their overall mood for working out. 
 
I used to go to the gym that was great. It was small; great equipment; not too many people but the owner would always keep it like 65 degrees inside. This would cause me to almost get tired when I got there to begin my workout.
 
Personally, I need the gym to be cooler for me to feel more alert during my workout. I’ve spoken with enough people throughout my time in the gym to realize that the temperature does have an impact on how their workouts go.

In Conclusion

There are so many reasons out there why you might not have any energy in the gym. It could be a pure lack of motivation; this is something you will have to assess for yourself. 
 
To be clear here, everything I’ve mentioned in this article is what I found out myself through many trial & error types of workouts where I was dragging my butt. 
 
Even though my list is pretty straightforward, there can also be some more technical things that can contribute to having low energy in the gym, like low testosterone. 
 
I hope this helps you to continue to turn up the intensity of your workouts and stay in shape. Good luck!

Let us know your thoughts in the comments below and check out some more articles you may like to continue your self improvement journey!

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4 thoughts on “5 Reasons Why You Have No Energy When Working Out”

  1. Even on a hard cut (1700 calories), I get enough energy from creatine, bcaa’s, and a banana just before a workout. Might be worth a try when feeling in a plateau.

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