Why You Feel WEAKER Some Days (And How to Fix It!)

We all have days where our workouts feel great, where the weights feel light and you’re able to lift more weight and do more reps than usual. On the contrary though, I think we can all relate to “bad” workout days where the weights feel heavier than normal, making it a struggle to hit the numbers that you normally do. Well, rather than just dismissing it as “having a bad workout” OR assuming that you’ve lost muscle mass, realize that there’s a few reasons that research has indicated help explain why the workout you’ve been doing suddenly felt harder and why you feel weak in the gym.

The first factor contributing to you feeling weak during your workout is going to be hydration. Research has indicated that dehydration of as little as 2% can negatively impact your workout performance. In fact, one study looked at 1RM bench press strength in subjects that were hydrated then put through a dehydration protocol. Their 1RM decreased by 7kgs as a result of the dehydration! Thus, what I’d recommend is aim to intake roughly a gallon of water a day (obviously this depends on various factors), but more importantly, drink at least a litre of water shortly before your workout and another litre during your workout. Doing so will ensure you’re adequately hydrated and don’t feel weaker at the gym.

Next, sleep deprivation is another major contributor to decrements in workout performance. You want to aim to get roughly ~7-9 hours of sleep a night. But, if you’re unable to do so, you have a couple options. One option is to avoid working out during an extended wake time. For instance, if you will be running on little sleep and have to wake up at 5am, then avoid working out past 5pm when you’ve been awake for 12+ hours if you want to maximize your performance. Another option as I’ve mentioned in past videos is to supplement with caffeine prior to your workout, which has been shown to boost performance when in a sleep deprived state.

Lastly, you want to make sure you’re being consistent with your calorie and overall carbohydrate intake. Even a few days of ingesting much lower calories (especially carbs) than normal can have a negative impact on your successive workouts. This is mainly due to the decrease in glycogen stores of your muscles. Obviously to correct this you’ll want to be more consistent with your calorie intake and avoid having days where you ingest very little carbs (unless you’re doing keto of course!).

Although there are several more potential factors that can affect your workout performance, these three typically have the biggest impact. Correct them and you’ll instantly start having better workouts!

And for an all-in-one evidence-based program that optimizes all your training variables AND nutrition, such that you’re able to progress as quickly as possible and maximize your efforts in the gym, then simply take my starting-point analysis tool below to determine which program is best for you:

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MUSIC:

STUDIES:
Hydration:
Sleep:
Food intake:

[maph]

Watching this after a disappointing day at the gym? Yeah me too

[theohun]

*Summary:*
- Hydration (drink a liter water before workout and a liter while working out)
- Sleep enough (7-9 hours)
- If you didnt sleep enough, then:
1. dont work out after you were awake for a long time, work out earlier in the day
2. ingest caffeine
- Eat enough (carbs are especially important)

[fg]

Some others possibilities:

- you overtrained on past workouts
- you're under a lot of stress
- you didn't recover fully from your last workout (e.g. killing it on deadlifts 4x a week)
- any injury that effects your workout (e.g. Joint injury)

[MichaelTheWayfarer]

I think that you forgot to add mood and motivation. When im sad and frustrated, i usually feel much weaker at the gym while when im happy i feel much stronger and much more motivated.

[Atypical_Chad]

Felt this just last night, trying to workout after work. Definitely was dehydrated and lacking sleep (6 hours of sleep, and 10 hours into the day). I could barely muster the strength to focus on any muscle tension, and overall felt weak.

Thanks for the big reminder as to why :)

[Aerochalklate]

I just read the description that's all I need.. because of putting the script in the description, you and Jeff Cavaliere are the GOATS

[themushybrain]

I’ve paid better attention to hydration, sleep, and recovery thanks to this video, and for the past couple months, I have had very few workouts where I feel weak compared to before

[shaybraggs]

Thank you for posting. Your content has help me in the progression of my workouts. I've been working out on and off for years but this time around it has been a whole lot different than before and will certainly be lasting results. It also makes it better that you can back what you are saying with certain studies rather than just telling everyone what works for you and telling them to do it.

[johnfakester]

Don’t ever change, honest good informative content like this will pay off for you so much more than cheap content. Thank you for the info bro🙏🏽

[thecorruptversion]

Jeremy, keeping it amazing. Extremely good content and well delivered. You know a youtuber is great, when delivers awesome info, and doesn't put garbage in it, to hit the 10 min mark.
Congrats, man.

[MahdSani]

This is the exact video I was looking for, you can just read my mind. Thanks man

[ammarbarri]

Jeremy is the only YouTuber I turn notification for. My Dawg 💪

[huncho]

This guy is a beast! Straight to the point and even supporting his points with scientific studies from pubmed etc. Stay strong 💯💪

[yaboi]

I know this is a older video BUT I have to thank you. I was struggling to progressive over load and could not seem why this was happening. This video reminded me of such a basic need I was missing... water. During my home workouts I decided to drink more than normal before and during my workout. My strength improved greatly today

[AquaLady]

This happened to me just last night. I did tricep pull downs with 55 lbs no problem. Had to decrease the weights. Now I know why. Thanks Jay!

[alfatihismail]

That's exactly what I feel now.. Thank you!

[Gazalii]

This guy has solutions to problems I didn’t know I have. Keep up the good work

[BasselgaProductions]

This helped so much!!! Just goes to show how important it is to take care of your body prior to the gym and after.

[joshuamclean]

I will take these into account. I also remember that the fact that my “weak day” is stronger than my strong day 6 weeks ago (with yearsof experience training) ks a victory in itself. But also a lesson to learn about myself for recovery and priming myself as best as I can before every workout.

[therepublicofdiarrhea]

Your videos are always informative and entertaining, Jeremy. Thanks as always.