A couple of months ago, I switched from working in an office to working in storage - in other words, I went from sitting on my ass for 8 hours a day to doing lots of lifting, carrying and generally moving about. I love the new job (not to mention the pay rise), but it’s taking it’s toll on my training, especially since I started commuting by bike (45 min each way, with some nice, steep hills…).
Workdays I’m pretty much beat by the time I get home. I have been able to bully myself into working out 2-3 times per week (mostly full body sessions; an upper body push and a pull, and a squat or deadlift variation, maybe at bit of arm work), but it’s getting harder. Progress is grinding to a halt; my strength has leveled out, and so has muscle gain. My legs have grown a tiny bit, but that’s it.
I assume matters will improve as my body adapts to the increased activity level, but in the meantime I could really use some help structuring my training.
I’m 35, somewhat ectomorphic (6’@190 lbs) and have a tendency to gain lower body muscle at a much higher rate than upper body muscle. My lifts are far from impressive; Front squat 250, deadlift 330, bench 210. I can do about 10 pullups and 25 dips.
Any ideas on what I should do? “Suck it up”, while motivating, really isn’t helping.
Should I use the weekends to train and really blast it, or would it be better to train at a higher frequency, but lower volume and intensity?
One way to keep from getting beat up is to back off on the training poundages a bit until your body adapts to the extra workload and then start bringing the poundages back up.
Or eat a bunch more during the day.
You are getting a ton of physical activity with the job and the bike riding. It sounds like You need short, intense workouts sticking with the compound lifts (squat/deadlift, bench/dips, rows/pullups). I’d stick to 3 or 4 exercises per session and not too many sets (2-3) with not too many reps (4-6) with a session about every 3rd day at first and as your body adapts, maybe add more exercises or increase the session frequency.
Don’t know much about your current training regimen, but it seems like the above ideas would work. The idea is basically to try and balance overall volume, where the workday and commute are considered as part of the lifting volume. If you have more work during a week, or bike faster you may need to scale back lifting a tad for that week. You kind of have to feel it out.
I sail in the same boat. My job is very labor intensive and I do a ton of cardio. I get to the gym on a regular bases but every now and then the body kind of shuts down for a couple of weeks. Which it is doing right now. I just listen to my body and it lets me know when to push it again.
You will gain a lot of good things from your life style change. Much less stiffness from intense workouts and an all around great energy source. There will be days and even weeks where your body will want to rest. Once you get over the first month or so you’ll flying at it. Hang in there and then hang on!
Sorry for the late reply - I lost my internet connection due to moving.
Thanks for the sound advice and motivation! I’ll try out brief, intensive sessions, and focus a bit more on the upper body whilst maintaining the legs. Summer’s just around the corner anyway, so…
skidmark’s advice is solid and should help. It sounds like you train after work, have you tried mornings? I thought I never could lift in the AM but switched and it has really helped my consistency.
Skidmark: No need for a thread… The tats are there - not much to talk about, really.
Wilba: You’re right, I do train after work. No gym around here opens early enough in the AM to do a session and then bike to work. Not to mention that I might be a bit less efficient once there… I guess I could do some dumbbell work at home, though. Maybe an AM/PM split could make it a bit more managable? I just might try that, thanks!
