Anyone here train while working a physical job?

[acmesalute76]

Last season I completed my first training cycle, following the “beginner” plan to the letter while working a semi-physical job (trim carpenter). I was able to take time off during the performance phase which allowed me to put 100% effort in, and I saw amazing results. This winter my job is a little harder but I have a sort of flexible schedule. I would be able to train three days a week on days I don’t work. Here is what I’m thinking, and pros and cons:

Base fitness: climb three days in the gym or outside. Pro: not having to train after work when I’m tired and have to wake up early and do it again. Con: possibly not enough volume to work properly.

Strength: Hangboard twice a week instead of every third day. Pro: same as above. Con: adds one day per week to my overall cycle.

Power: train two days a week. Pros/cons same as above.

Performance/PE: three days a week fits into my schedule perfectly.

Am I accurate with my pros and cons? Does anybody have experience with this sort of programming? Obviously it’s best to work at a desk on your rest days but I’ve done it and couldn’t stand it, and I’m not sure I could go back to it (unless they would let me work three days a week...I asked at my last job and they laughed at me!)

I guess my biggest questions would be which is better: adding the fourth day to base fitness or not, and is there any downside to doing two days a week for strength and power other than stretching out my overal schedule? I could maybe shuffle work around a little to save a day here and there too.

[Chris W]

What are your hours like?

[acmesalute76]

Hours are fairly standard, 7:30-4ish but it’s a long commute and I generally ride the bus to save money, and if the roads are bad my 2wd truck won’t make it. So I’m up at 5:30 and home around 6, usually asleep around 8. I could get home up to an hour earlier if I’m able to drive and maybe save a half hour in the morning but that’s not often.

[Chris W]

What does your week look like? Days per week? Married, kids?

[acmesalute76]

Working fri sat sun and tues, single no kids.

[Chris W]

I would probably work within your schedule to get the training done. This would be easier to do if you have a wall at home. If you're in bed by 20:00, you could get up at 03:30 of 04:00 and still get 7.5-8 hours of sleep. Alternatively, you could stay up until 21:30 and still get 8 hours of sleep if you're up at 05:30. 

Also, there is a lot of rest built into the Rock Prodigy program, so I'd try to shuffle my sessions around so that some of my "rest" days are days that I'm at work. If you can train on one or two of the days you work, you won't have to compromise on your training. 

My job is not physically demanding aside from being on my feet for 7-14 hours, but it seems to fatigue me more than when I was younger and working manual labor jobs (or doing heavy manual labor at home to try to keep the roof over our heads). Because of this fatigue, I plan my training sessions to be first thing (early) in the morning, when I'm most fresh. By the end of the day, I feel so wiped out that I just want to read a little and go to sleep. 

Does that help?

[cozisco]

Jan 5, 2019 21:05:25 GMT -7 Chris W said:

Because of this fatigue, I plan my training sessions to be first thing (early) in the morning, when I'm most fresh.

I think this is really great advice. I'm not a morning person, but when I was working a semi-physically demanding job (10-12 hrs walking), it was the only way I could get quality training sessions in on work days. For me, the hardest thing was having the discipline to go to bed early instead of socializing with friends/family.

[rockmoose]

Yep, early morning is definitely the go. I'm a morning person anyway, always waiting for the sun to get up, but when I was rehabbing from back surgery, I was always at the gym waiting for them to open the doors at 6. There were a couple of aging builders who would come in to get on the machines. They both said an early morning workout was the only way they could get their battered bodies through the rigours of a day on the tools.

[acmesalute76]

Early morning is not an option for me. 5:30 am already seems way too early and I’m going to bed at 8. The gym doesn’t open til 9 anyway.

This Saturday I did the first ARC workout after work, which was fine, but because of my schedule I had to train right before bed, and was unable to sleep well. Working on Sunday completely sucked. This is a known problem for me and generally I avoid any kind of exercise that late.

Next week I’m going to try training Sunday night after work and then on Monday on my day off. I’d rather have a rest day in between but that doesn’t seem like an option.

For the strength and power phases I’m going to only train on days I don’t work. I will try and switch my schedule around if I can to avoid stretching the training cycle out too much.

[daustin]

I don't work a physically demanding job, but I can relate to not wanting to wake up earlier than 5:30am. If that's how early you need to wake up for the sake of your job already, then squeezing in any meaningful training would probably mean waking up at 4:30am. Woof.

If I was you, I'd probably try doing the bulk of your training on off days. For base fitness, I'd do aerobic training 3x/week on the off days. For the other phases I'd probably do 2x/week (e.g. strength/power/PE sessions on Monday and either Wednesday or Thursday depending on intensity & rest needed), and then maybe add a 3rd day (Friday/Saturday) to do like 30-45 mins of hangboarding at home after work. And if you really think you need a 4th day of aerobic training during base fitness, you could do some very low intensity hangs at home on a workday instead of shlepping to/from the gym.

As Chris mentioned earlier, having training apparatus at home is critical -- a home wall is ideal, but at least a hangboard and some weights/bands is essentially mandatory, IMO. With the advent of super compact, portable boards (e.g. Tension Flash board), there is basically no excuse not to have some kind of home training apparatus these days, if you're really committed.

[acmesalute76]

So here’s an update. I just finished my third week of base fitness. I was climbing in the gym Sunday night and Monday, then outside Wednesday and Thursday. It was tough but last week as the workouts got longer it felt like too much. I had a good workout Sunday night, but slept poorly afterwards and then had a sub par workout on Monday. Wednesday and Thursday were also mediocre since I still felt beat up, and not only did I not get the prescribed mileage in, I was feeling tweaks in my wrists and fingers. Not good.

So this week I’m dropping the Sunday night session in favor of good sleep, hitting the gym Monday and Wednesday and going outside Thursday. I’m prioritizing gym time because I feel I get more of a benefit from it fitness wise vs outdoor pitches, and I’m a stronger technical climber than physical.

Looking forward, Monday and Thursday will be great for hangboarding/strength sessions. The only question mark is going to be the power phase. If I climb only Monday and Thursday it will extend the phase about a week, on top of the few extra days gained during the strength phase. I see three potential options:

1. Do four power sessions over two weeks. I’m not sure if I should be concerned about it but I’m wondering if by gaining an extra week in the power phase, I will be slightly weaker being farther from my strength phase. My hardest redpoint is 11c (did my first two last fall) so im not really limited by power, however dynamic climbing is a big weakness that I’m hoping to train this phase.

2. Do six power sessions but over three weeks instead of two. Concern is as above: is there a negative to extending the phase?

3. Rearrange my work schedule for two weeks. I listed this last because it would kind of suck. But it could enable me to take the normal amount of rest days without training after work.

[Chris W]

If, for whatever reason, I'm not able to do all the prescribed sessions within a given phase, I've moved on to the next phase rather than extended that phase. The exception to this has been the strength phase. If I miss a hangboard session (due either to illness or the labor and deliver of one of my children), I pick up that session as soon as I can to continue the full strength phase.