Exercise Soreness Messing with my Sleep

[MoonstoneWolf]

Not sure which forum this going in but much as I love working out and even more oddly love the soreness that comes from it I notice that when I either pick up a new activity or up the intensity as the exercise is too easy, I lay awake at night tossing and turning.  I exercise at 5am and go to bed at 9PM.  I only drink one 4oz cup of coffee at 7am.  I don't drink anything else during the day except for water unflavored, unsweetened).  I finish my last meal of the day at 5PM.  All forms of any activity except a I casual stroll is concluded just before lunch.  I don't consume a lot of salt; I don't eat sweets; I don't eat chips; I get protein and veggies at my meal and maybe a serving of wild rice as I'm not fond of breads.  I don't consume alchohol, beer or wine (yuck) and I can't and won't take meds because all of it triggers my reflux (ironically even the so called meds that control reflux) and I don't smoke anything; weed or regular cigarrettes.  I am very unhungry when I go to bed.  I don't have any computer or phone on for up to 2 hours before I go to bed.  But I lay down, and the soreness seems to set in although it never bothered me earlier that day.  I do have a massage gun that I use periodically but the sleep score gets worse especially when I embark on a new exercise.  Please don't tell me to stop working out.  What can I do?

[NellyG · Accepted solution]

Hi @MoonstoneWolf I also get sore muscles when I try something new or increase the Intensity. I find the best two things that help me are stretching the sore muscles and my heat pack.  If I stretch before bed and go to bed with a heat pack on the sore bits it really helps me to sleep. Good luck finding so etching that works for you!

[MoonstoneWolf]

Thank you.  Well last night I got no sleep because I'm in the Midwest where we had damaging winds and tornados.  So yea my sleep score and readiness score are not good.  And I still have 2 stepbet challenges to do today too.   I will try the heat pad.  

[shipo]

@MoonstoneWolf, I've found as I have gotten older muscle soreness from new/increased workouts does cause me some sleeplessness compared to other times.  My "workaround" for this is to dial things up on an every-other or even every-third day basis and then do lighter workouts in between.  I'm in my mid-60s now and dialing things up slower than I used to ten or twenty years ago has definitely allowed me to stay fit, it just takes longer between starting a new workout program and reaching my goal levels of fitness.