Physical job and adequate rest

[wanderponderman]

Hey all

Just wanted to get some thoughts/experiences of others about resting adequately when you have a physical job..

I'm 35 and just starting to dabble at the climbing gym again. I work on tower cranes so as part of that on any given day I could be climbing ladders, hauling up heavy gear with ropes, lifting heavy things, basically a fair amount of strong grippy tasks. Also my wife and I are days away from having our 1st child, so I'm really keen to avoid spending my diminishing time recovering from an injury.

Should I potentially factor in an additional rest day if needed? Would stretching out the season a bit and having an extra rest day or two a week/fortnight be a good idea?
I might be fine when I get started on the program, but have already had a couple RSI type niggles in my wrists in the past (from work, not climbing)

I'm yet to start the RCTM as am waiting for our Australian supplier to get stock again - mid next month so I can finally get hold of a copy. If it's covered, apologies, I'll just wait to read up about it.
Also apologies if there is already a thread about this, (did a quick search).

But can't wait to get started, I've heard and read nothing but positives from the book and program. Really looking forward to finally seeing what I'm capable of, grades aside.

Cheers

[MarkAnderson]

Your eagerness is great.

To your question, I think building in an extra rest day periodically is a great idea. I recommend checking out the post in this thread by andytheblacksmith .  He is a blacksmith (duh) and writes about how he manages training with a physical job.

[wanderponderman]

Awesome, will do.
Thanks heaps Mark, and special thanks for all you and your brother have contributed to the climbig world.

Cheers

[climbnkev]

From my previous experience as a carpenter and occasional production rigger I would take a different approach personally. It is always easy to start a new program that someone else has laid out for you and the RPTM does an excellent job doing this. The challenge lies in when we shock the system with a sudden increase in training volume. If your body already carries a heavy load of systemic stress from your work it is really easy to over-do it and end up with an injury. My recommendation is to look at your current training volume and schedule your new plan with a gradual increase in volume/intensity over the course of several months. So if you currently train/climb 2 days a week start your new plan at 2 days a week. If you are only climbing once a week consider starting with two very abbreviated days. Look for a very slight increase in intensity every week. This is very hard to quantify at first. Also be very wary of endurance based training (ARC) at first because it's pretty taxing on the body.

From my own experience just taking a week off from work would give my climbing a huge spike. It's better to under train by 20% than over train by 1%. It's really easy to get into a over training spiral when you never truly have days off to let your body recover. Best of luck on your journey.

[wanderponderman]

Thanks heaps climbnkev, good advice to start off slow. Hardest part will be keeping the excitement under wraps.