I have just began an accelerated bachelor of science nursing program this week. It is intense mentally and a lot of work and mental stress/anxiety. On top of this I am trying to do a body recomp/drop fat. I know that stress is stress and even mental stress can have an impact on muscle growth/fat loss.
My question to you is how should I go about my workout plan to lose fat and still have enough mental energy/focus to study in school?
I’m pretty sure I am a type 2A as I need variation within training sessions/blocks to keep me motivated. I tend to try and chase 3 rabbits at once in regards to training. I can manage to train 4-5 times per week and was thinking of maybe doing your athlete lean athlete strong or maybe your zombie apocalypse routine and cycling through the workouts until I did each one 5 times.
For diet I am currently following Stan Efferdings vertical diet. Seems to be going good so far. Not sure if you are familiar with it just trying to provide as much info as I can. Thank you for any input!
Im not CT so take what you want from my reply. However I will say that I am 1B,2A and am a police officer so stressful at times. Generally if things start getting extra stressfull I have found it best for me to get into quick workouts 45 minutes to an hour , 2-4 a times a week depending on overtime at work. Full body workouts, “pairing” compound exercises, explosive work, and not necessarily grinding reps. When i get stressed I found it best to pick compound exercises that I enjoy, and workouts that leave me feeling better when I am done, not drained mentally or physically. I believe in the working smarter not harder slogan, induce protein syntheses and get out. There is a time and place for totally crushing your body and using lots of overload, but if you are already stressed out your accumulated fatigue over time is going to add up quick.
If you stressed already you may want to stay away from anything to horribly taxing and do what you can to keep your cortisol low through nutrition, supplementation, and training programs. Though you are going to be your own best judge of what is too much to handle. Thats my 2 cents, goodluck
Alternatively you can try a 3x a week full body old school 5x5 training. Hit the big lifts and some accessory. Really prioritize the off days for work (use intermittent fasting, coffee, just focus on dominating).
Every other day training is actually incredible. On your training days make sure you fuel up perwirokout and get good carbs afterwards.
Saves you time, stress. ANd i think ultimately EOD training gets you better gains (less fat, more muscle) than more high frequency…pains me to say it as I am such a stimulus addict.
I’m finishing my second career, I work, deal with some plans and also workout. It’s difficult, but you can make it happen… I plan my day from 5 Am until 11:30 PM and I will be honest with you, it will be difficult, you will want to quit and stress will dominate your days… However, if you plan your nutrition, work, and workouts you can make it happen. Honestly, sometimes I need to take power naps between activities to keep me on track, I plan my nutrition depending if the day is going to be a busy day or a normal one, you will need to sacrifice some things, like time that you spent on social media, time that you spent with friends, but everything is about prioritize things. Like Napoleon Hill say’s everything is about to have one goal and go for it until you make it happen.
Hopefully this work a little bit for you buddy, remember that it’s not about how hard you hit, it’s about how hard you can get hit and keep moving forward (Y).
@aabigrick I think thats an important note about grinding reps. Whenever I grind out reps on deadlifts and squats especially it takes a lot out of me the next day. I think maybe CT’s “look like a bodybuilder perform like an athlete”, might fit the bill for this situation.
Anyone ever try it and what were your results like?
Like I said I added on lower days 30 pull-ups first (adding weight when you can do it in 3 sets or less) and horizontal rows on upper days (but CT said that he did that for his athletes so not really a modification).
The second cycle I replaced muscle snatches by power snatches.