I was running starting strength, been on it 4 months. But now I am working 7-7pm driving and mowing and trimming lawns all day and im pretty exhausted by the time i get home. is there anything i could do to gain muscle while im working like this, what do you guys suggest?
i dont think i could handle that program and doing lawns 6 days a week. i was thinking of maybe doing 3 sets of a big compound exercise either in the morning or when i get home, something light. ex. mondays-bench, tuesday-?, wednesday-press, etc. or i could do one exercise in morning and one when i get home.
You have to be able to recover from your workouts and your doing a physical job for long hours so I would only do 3x a week. Your also going to be mentally fatigued, so spending hours in the gym or attempting max lifts probably isn’t realistic.
My advice do a circuit give your self 30-45 minutes to do as much work as you can.
Don’t waste time on things like chest flyes, front raises, cable crossovers.
do something like this
M
pull ups as many sets as it takes to get 20-25 reps
rest 1 minute
dips/ weighted dips 4 x 8
rest 1 minute
dumbell rows 4 x 10
rest 1 minute
push ups as many sets to get to 100-150 reps
rest 3 minutes and repeat workout as many times as possible in 30-45 minutes reduce sets reps if you need to
W
Military press 4 x 10
rest 1 minute
dumbell squats as many sets to get 50 reps
rest 1 minute
barbell curls 4 x 15
rest 1 minute
shrugs 4 x 10
rest 3 minute repeat as many times in 30 -45 min
F
Incline press 4 x 10
rest 1 minute
Pull ups underhand grip 15-20 reps total
rest 1 minute
Db chest press 4 x 10
rest 1 minute
db rows 4 x 10
rest 3 minutes and repeat as many times for 30 -45 minutes
Lifting in the morning would mean you’re fresh and if you’re not used to lifting in the morning you’ll get used to it pretty quickly. Best option.
Lifting in the evening wouldn’t be that bad, once you’re used to walking for hours and hours and hours and then performing some real work. Yeah, you might have some muscular fatigue but I’ve walked for 6 hours straight before and then performed a more than adequate squat session, without any build up to that at all. 12 hours is different, of course, but you did say you’d be driving for some of that time.
As for a lifting routine, I’d say 5/3/1 would be good while you’re mowing lawns, then switch to something else after the summer/whenever you stop doing lawns. I’d run 5/3/1 2-3 times a week and just see how 1 cycle goes, then evaluate from there.
I was thinking about this thread, and then it hit me, give dan john’s 40 day program a try. There’s an article on here about it.
Basically you train 5-6 days a week, using a lower body movement, a push, a pull, an explosive movement (like kettlebell swings), and a ab movement.
You keep the same movements throughout. The volume is low, and the weight is light. It would probably take 30 mins at the MOST to do it each day. Basically the idea is with more practice, you will get better at the lifts.
Thought it’d be a good idea since the stress from each training day is low, so you wouldn’t have to be worried about being sore the next day at work. It also have autoregulation built in.