Balancing work with training

How do you balance work with training without getting burnt out?

Recently I started a part time (3 days a week) horticultural internship that involves lots of heavy lifting and manual labor, I'm on my feet all day. Before doing the internship I was training on average 4 nights a week plus weight lifting, stretching and cardio at home. Now I'm finding I can only manage half of what I was doing before. The first thing I want to do when I get home from work is sleep, not train. And I'm left feeling stiff. Now granted my fitness is not the best, so maybe that has something to do with it. I have been keeping an eye on my nutrition, eating lots of fresh fruit and veges as well as whole grains and lean protein.

 

if you've recently taken up 3 days a week manual heavy lifting with your internship, I'd drop the weight lifting at home for a few weeks at least, until your body has got used to the new demands of the internship.
Drop the cardio for now, and just get to in class training, sleep when you need too, in a few weeks start the cardio again, and slowly add in the weight lifting (or the other way round).

Make sure you have a low volume week at least every 4-6 weeks.

 

Yeah the lifting at the job will probably give more functional strength I reckon, have you seen scaffolds bodies? Lifting that steel all day beats some bicep curls i I reckon

 

I'm working 40 hours a week landscaping so I know your pain. Class is difficult to get to because I just want to lie down.

 

Oi you told me to man up, lol, and I'm older

 

Fusen told you to man up

I can make the classes, it's just a ridiculously hard job for relatively crap wages. Thinking about getting a new one.

 

Take cold baths after hard training. You'll be surprised how much they help.

 

At least you get paid in money, I get paid in fruit and vegetables.

But yes, I've decided the first course of action is to cut my home workouts in half, from 60 minutes to 30 minutes plus stretching. So I do three workouts at home a week made up of four compound exercises plus cardio in an HIIT style workout, taking short rest breaks when need them. I also do a stretching program at the end which takes another 15 minutes.

 

At least you don't HAVE to be there

 

Ah sorry man

 

I work in the MA/fitness industry and being in that environment all day/every day can be exhausting (more mental than physical) to the point my own training sometimes feels like a chore. I get around it by keeping constant reminders of my goals - photos, inspirational quotes, videos etc.

 

No one has to go to a job or study. But if you don't go you miss out on an income or the potential to get one. Then you'll be stuck on welfare. Kind of like me.

 

Changing your work/life situation can be really hard for a lot of people, by doing an internship your on the path to changing yours, nice one!

 

Thats incredible that you're able to do all of that. I guess some people are more kitted to high stress living than others. I have no shame in saying that I still live with my parents, and I'm not financially dependent on them. But much to my embarrasment, unfortunately I'm dependent on the tax payer.

I know this next part might sound like a string of excuses but I was very mentally ill and recovering from a major motorcycle crash which in total took 5 years to recover from, to get to where I am now to be able to do part time work. I am proud of the progress I have made dispite how small it is. I wasn't able to get a paying job because I lack experience and the educational requirements for the jobs in my area. So that's what I'm currently working on.

I workout at home as I don't have enough money to go to the gym, and I go to a cheap martial arts gym where is $40 a month for Boxing, Muay Thai, BJJ. Time isn't an issue for me, my physical stamina is.

 

I work 24hr variant shifts, plus overtime to finance my habit.

I sometimes would miss out on martial arts training for weeks, but like Simon I have access to a 24hr gym. So I can go before or after work.
However, after doing a week of night shifts, keeping my home clean, cooking and needing to rest...its understandabke as to why people take long breaks from training.

 

IMHO there are times when something has to give.

I know the "time" excuse is an easy cop-out, but I think it's hard when you have a serious job/course and other priorities. Sure, you can and should do SOMETHING, but you probably can't do EVERYTHING.

What stage are you at with your lifting? It sounds to me like you would struggle to fit in adequate rest time on your schedule even without the martial arts training.

 

If you're looking for work I recommend temp agencies. Just two shifts a week can get you £100. They almost always pay above minimum wage too.

If you have time of course

 

I remember the summer of my 19th year. Worked 50 - 60 hours a week, never set foot in a gym and was on my way to being in the best condition I would ever be in.

I'd taken a job as a mason's mate which meant days spent erecting scaffolding and heaving bricks and cinder blocks up to the brick-layers, mixing mortar and hauling 50lb buckets of cement up and down scaffolding ledges - and one couldn't move fast enough for the crusty old sods I was apprenticed to.

In addition to that, we were doing a job where it was physically impossible to get the bobcats and earth-moving machinery over to where the trenches and foundations needed to be dug - so we had to do it all by hand on that job.

Want to talk about full-body, functional strength training as well as all the lifting and body-weight exercises one could want? And the best part of it - instead of paying big money for all of that training - they paid YOU

If I'd only known then what I know now I could've taken inventory and done something with it :bang:

Anyroad, brick/stone mason, shipbuilder, etc., - there are unique job reqs out there that pay relatively well, can be done at the apprentice-level and keep one in fantastic shape all at the same time.