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How do you define fatigue?

post #1 of 31
2/12/09 at 6:46pm
Thread Starter 
I've been grappling with the concept of fatigue since I recently started training for my first marathon. As a kid growing up with severe asthma, I used to equate being tired or fatigued with shortness of breath. Over the years my asthma has improved and don't relate it necessarily to breathing issues.

Is fatigue more related to muscle soreness, lung capacity, or other physical limitations or is it more a psychological state of mind?

It seems to me to be increasingly more of a mental issue than anything else. I think my will and determination quit before my body does.

A colleague of mine stated that he believes he is not really fatigued unless feels nauseated and on the brink of throwing up after a good workout.

What are your thoughts on the concept of fatigue?
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post #2 of 31
2/12/09 at 7:04pm
I don't do long distance running, actually any running, so I cant imagine what running very long distances feel like. My workouts consist of 30-40 minutes of intense lifting that pretty much wrecks the muscle group that I'm working on. Fatigue for me is the 20 minutes after the gym and also the following day. One is getting home and feeling your muscles trying to suck up what it needs to repair itself and the other is sitting around the next day feeling how sore you are. Both though share this feeling in common where I'm aware of every inch of fiber that is in my muscles because I can feel their exhaustion or soreness; Its the fatigue that makes me feel alive and living like nothing else.
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post #3 of 31
2/12/09 at 7:06pm
for me i dont know how to define it specifically, but i would say im tired, if i am still able to function and go about my daily business,
but fatigued, if it is affecting how i think/operate, work, etc. maybe it is psychological, or somewhat psychological at first in part with physical, but that really messes up my mind if i dwell on 'how fatigued ' or tired i am. if i dont dwell on it, i find myself more able to just pull through
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post #4 of 31
2/12/09 at 7:11pm
A measurable decrease in performance below baseline.
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post #5 of 31
2/12/09 at 7:18pm
Fatigue is related to weakness. When you're fatigued, you're incredibly weak, is my experience. Not like "these hills are really hard", but more like "doors are so heavy to me, i may never be able to get out of this room".
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post #6 of 31
2/12/09 at 7:19pm
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by Coldsnap View Post
I don't do long distance running, actually any running, so I cant imagine what running very long distances feel like. My workouts consist of 30-40 minutes of intense lifting that pretty much wrecks the muscle group that I'm working on. Fatigue for me is the 20 minutes after the gym and also the following day. One is getting home and feeling your muscles trying to suck up what it needs to repair itself and the other is sitting around the next day feeling how sore you are. Both though share this feeling in common where I'm aware of every inch of fiber that is in my muscles because I can feel their exhaustion or soreness; Its the fatigue that makes me feel alive and living like nothing else.

Love that attitude and agree 100%

Quote:
Originally Posted by sho'nuff View Post
for me i dont know how to define it specifically, but i would say im tired, if i am still able to function and go about my daily business,
but fatigued, if it is affecting how i think/operate, work, etc. maybe it is psychological, or somewhat psychological at first in part with physical, but that really messes up my mind if i dwell on 'how fatigued ' or tired i am. if i dont dwell on it, i find myself more able to just pull through

It's the psychological componnent that I find interesting.

Quote:
Originally Posted by why View Post
A measurable decrease in performance below baseline.

Great definition of fatigue, but do you believe that the measurable decrease is more physical or mental?
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post #7 of 31
2/12/09 at 8:11pm
I find why's definition rather clinical and too fact-based for my preference.

I segregate mental fatigue from phsyical fatigue - mentally I just don't want to continue, and that pulls me down physically, sometimes long before any actual physical decline in work capacity.

One of the hardest things to do for the marathon was to train my mind to accept that there are a LOT of steps ahead, and even at the halfway point there's no reason to let up. Runnning 13 miles is hard enough, but to bang out 13 and then consider another 13? Takes a whole new mindset.

Ann Trason didn't even finish her first Western States because 100 miles was too big to fit into her mind. Once she broke it down incrementally and attacked each section separately, she was able to thrive. Too bad your normal marathons don't have weight stations and doctor check-ups every few miles.
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post #8 of 31
2/12/09 at 10:31pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by quevola View Post
Great definition of fatigue, but do you believe that the measurable decrease is more physical or mental?
Among real athletes it's usually strictly physical (including neural fatigue as 'physical'). It's sometimes mental as well but this is going to be something the coach or trainer would have to monitor individually because fatigue varies so much that any kind of statement one way or the other is going to be so imprecise that it's useless. That said, many top athletes get weekly blood tests to measure fatigue.
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post #9 of 31
2/12/09 at 11:44pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by quevola View Post
I've been grappling with the concept of fatigue since I recently started training for my first marathon. As a kid growing up with severe asthma, I used to equate being tired or fatigued with shortness of breath. Over the years my asthma has improved and don't relate it necessarily to breathing issues.

Is fatigue more related to muscle soreness, lung capacity, or other physical limitations or is it more a psychological state of mind?

It seems to me to be increasingly more of a mental issue than anything else. I think my will and determination quit before my body does.

A colleague of mine stated that he believes he is not really fatigued unless feels nauseated and on the brink of throwing up after a good workout.

What are your thoughts on the concept of fatigue?

Fatigue in the immortal words of Kurt Cobain is when you are so tired, you can't sleep.
You should train even when you are out of breath or muscles ache or burn.
But you must stop when you feel pain.

After training, I just fall asleep involuntarily at night.

Before the next session, you may feel tired but you need to keep pushing it.
And no. By doing so would not affect your performance. You lift just as heavy and intense as if you had slept 10 hours the night before.
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post #10 of 31
2/12/09 at 11:53pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by why View Post
A measurable decrease in performance below baseline.

Just rubbish. If that is fatigue and you stop because of that, no world records will be broken. Just plain rubbish.
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post #11 of 31
2/13/09 at 12:10am
Quote:
Originally Posted by beasty View Post
Fatigue in the immortal words of Kurt Cobain is when you are so tired, you can't sleep.
You should train even when you are out of breath or muscles ache or burn.
But you must stop when you feel pain.

After training, I just fall asleep involuntarily at night.

Before the next session, you may feel tired but you need to keep pushing it.
And no. By doing so would not affect your performance. You lift just as heavy and intense as if you had slept 10 hours the night before.

Lots of potential world records are left in the training room or on the track. You don't train to knock yourself out, you train to elicit an adaptive response. Anything further loses too much time to recovery.
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post #12 of 31
2/13/09 at 12:17am
^not when your bones are made of adamantium and you are from aasgard
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post #13 of 31
2/13/09 at 12:20am
Quote:
Originally Posted by Thomas View Post
Lots of potential world records are left in the training room or on the track. You don't train to knock yourself out, you train to elicit an adaptive response. Anything further loses too much time to recovery.

No no no. You push yourself to your limit so you can get better.
If not, all football players would quit when they get winded and not gulp down tanks of O2 at the sideline. You think Phelps wasn't tired after getting his 4th gold medal? You think Lance didn't think of stopping when he is cycling through the high altitude French alps.

Limits and fatigue are excuses for losers. Push yourself and create new or no limits for yourself. I train till I am on the verge of retching. I don't because I don't eat nothing before my workout.
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post #14 of 31
2/13/09 at 12:21am
Quote:
Originally Posted by thekunk07 View Post
^not when your bones are made of adamantium and you are from aasgard

Arent you a father to 3 kids? Or is that what you read from their bed time stories?
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post #15 of 31
2/13/09 at 12:23am
^yeah, but they are not mutually exclusive.
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