How to Maximize Workouts During Lunch Hour?

Off Topic
1

I thought I would put this in GAL since it seems to be a general ? but I wanted to know if any fellow T-Nationers are doing any lunch time workouts due to time constraints & life circumstances;

Just under 4 months ago the wife & I had our first child; a baby boy & obviously he is the centre of our lives at this stage of his life; the wife & I have had some friction & arguments re: my gym hours after work so I’ve cut back with respect to her & our son so I can be the best Daddy I can be BUT I want to know if any other T-Nationers actually make their lunch hour their workout time… & if you are making gains or just maintaining…

(I work 9-6 basically & with transit time commuting I am out of the house 10+ hours daily)

I’ve found I am now trying to get workouts in when I can 1-2 nights a week & with a gym near work about 15 minutes ago via streetcar I can get in there to do my workouts but I have yet to do anything major bodypart wise; mainly shoulders, cleans, tris, bis, etc.

Wondering if people actually do ME workouts during their lunch? I.e., legs, ME DLs, chest/back splits, etc. Also want to try to incorporate running from the gym back to work as part of the cooldown since it is fall now in Toronto lol.

Sorry for the short novella but I would greatly appreciate advice & anecdotes on people that have been in the same boat re: work schedules & having a child. Thank you.

2

This might be a good time to start up your home gym… Figure out what you’re spending on gym memberships (I assume you have to pay for the gym near work), and what you would save in 1 year of membership. Try to see what you can buy off craigslist for that amount. You can probably get your bars, weights, and a bench for under $300 if you take a week or so to look.

The rack will be the harder part. You’re gonna want to have a GOOD rack which is certainly undamaged. EliteFTS makes a $650 power rack (although the shipping is gonna hurt a little), which isn’t too bad and you can trust EFS to not put out a bad product.

Between the rack, bench, and weights, if you can convince your wife to let you have a budget of about $1,500 you can have a more than decent home gym setup (get some Tractor mats from a hardware store if you’re gonna drop your weights). The disadvantage will be that you won’t have dumbbells, but if you can put more cash together over time, they can be added.

If she doesn’t like the price tag, you can tell her that it will all pay for itself in 4 years (assuming you’re paying around $30 per month for your gym), plus you’ll always be around the house and will therefore NEVER be out of reach. Plus, you could even start working out in the morning if that floats your boat.

3

1 hour for lunch
-15 minutes by streetcar to get there
-20 minutes to run back to work really fast?
-10 minutes to change clothes on both ends and get a quick shower
=15 minutes to workout

If your wife doesn’t allow you quality YOU time, I don’t see a happy future ahead.

Is getting weights at home an option? You should be able to get a set of used weights for cheap, especially if craigslist.com is popular in your area.

4

[quote]samdan wrote:
Try to see what you can buy off craigslist for that amount. You can probably get your bars, weights, and a bench for under $300 if you take a week or so to look.

The rack will be the harder part.[/quote]

I got my rack, weights, bar and bench for $300. It’s a cheap bench and a powertec rack, but it gets the job done. Right after I picked my stuff up, another guy told me he had a similar deal, but with a Tuff Stuff rack.

5

Congratulations on the birth of your 1st child. I made similar changes to my training schedule after the birth of my first. Now eight years later, I consider myself the master of maximizing the lunch time workout, but I’m also lucky I have a bitchn gym upstairs in the warehouse so I have no travel time too and from.

One hour is hardly enough time to get a workout in when you have to warmup, roll and stuff like that. What I do is sneak off and do about a fifteen minute warmup before lunch, then make an appearance back in the lab right before lunch. That way people assume I’d been working the whole time.

When I get up there it only takes me another ten minutes to get ready then I work hard for 50 minutes. I milk it fully by having lunch at my desk when I’m done. In effect I turn my 1 hour lunch into 1.75hrs and hopefully no one really notices.

I don’t bother with showers and no one seems to mind I’ve basically quit wearing work clothes and I now wear sweats everyday. I can’t find pants that fit anyway. (That’s a joke… kind of.)

I’ll tell you how I break it down in the chance it’s helpful to you. I train Monday, Tuesday, Thursday Friday. I try to schedule meetings and appointments for Wednesday so they don’t interfere with my training.

Monday
Squats

superset;
Glute Bridge
Gluteham Raise

Toe press if I have time

Tues
BB Shrug

Superset;
BB Bench
Supported T-Bar Row

Rollouts
Try to get in some grip work as well

Thurs
Deadlift

superset;
Hip Thrusts
Single leg Torso Extensions (I’m not a total knockoff on Brett C, I was doing these long before he started writing here)

Ab work with any time I have left.

Friday
superset;
DB Chest Press
One Arm Row

superset;
Pull Up
DB Overhead Press

I hope I’ve given you some useful ideas. Good luck.

6

I sometimes exercise at lunchtime, but I need to leave time to cool down and stop seating before I take my shower.
Even in TO wouldn’t you return to work sweaty?

7

[quote]leaftye wrote:
1 hour for lunch
-15 minutes by streetcar to get there
-20 minutes to run back to work really fast?
-10 minutes to change clothes on both ends and get a quick shower
=15 minutes to workout

If your wife doesn’t allow you quality YOU time, I don’t see a happy future ahead.

Is getting weights at home an option? You should be able to get a set of used weights for cheap, especially if craigslist.com is popular in your area.[/quote]

Sorry I should have expanded on the situation: The compromise for the sake of our son is that I lessen my time at the gym while he is still an infant (I used to away from home for about a 2 hour workout after work since I work in downtown Toronto & since I am all about lifting heavy PL style the rest priods need to be shortened, I guess)

& I’ve actually done a decent Oly style workout in about an hour + 15 minutes or so on my lunch break. I would say thats not bad…

The wife had some difficulty recuperating from a c-section & she did have some mild postpartum depression so I wasn’t helping things by not being home…

For those that said home workout, I’m sort of screwed on that since our apt. complex garage is barely enough room for the car & my wife’s teacher stuff since she is on maternity leave. This (mat leave) has left us poor as shit (I’m on on actual weekly allowance for now) but we are making do, & of course our son is a joy & blessing.

I do have some dumbbells but living above someone is not good when I want 100+ DBs (can’t exactly drop them on the carpet). Most I have now is 65 lb DBs & some resistance bands - I even gt one of those chinup/pullup bars, so I will make do while trying to get a decent lunch hour set in there here & there.

This I guess is my kick in the ass to really get my cardio in gear over always lifting heavy shit - I can always run when I get home. I’ll have to suck it up for now while Mommy & baby need me the most & get back into the gym when Junior is a little more independent.

I’ll think of it as another challenge & privilege to raise a son instead of dumbbells for now. The end payoff is worth some time away from the under the iron. Wish me luck, this is the impetus I need to make my workouts when I get them short, sweet & productive.

Thanks to on edge & others for the tips & advice, I do indeed prep myself before the gym; at work I am always stretching in my office & people look at me funny but then again I’m like a handful of guys that actually look like we lift…

the key remains to be stealthy Navy Seal like in terms of slipping off to do the workout & be back in time from an, ahem, long lunch. My dept. (Shipping) is always in demand so I just might try to incorporate more lifts of irregular objects into my daily work & it won’t seem so out of place lol

8

Well in that case, I’d say get a weighted vest and do some bodyweight stuff.

Go for runs, do weighted pushups, jump squats, bulgarian split squats, turkish getups, etc. You’d be surprised how much you can do with just bodyweight stuff, especially if you have a pullup bar somewhere.

9

When my kids were really young, I would get up at 5, in the gym pumping iron by 530, done by 630, showered and out the door on the way to work before 7.

Granted nutritionally I cheated and had an MRP shake on the way to the gym with coffee, and one around 7 -730, but it was the only way to control my time. The day didnt leave enough time for lunchtime or after work routines. I actually made really great progress on a 2 on 1 off 2 on 2 off split (M/T Th/Fr).

You can always take the kids for a walk after dinner or do sprint/conditioning at lunch or on weekends for cardio, or add 20-30 min at the end.

My money is on the early morning workout, plus you are in bed before 10.

good luck.