I have had physical jobs all my life, and i currently have one now, does that interfere at all with your training, or does it make it even better in a way? Cause i’m working in a warehouse right now, its pretty physical shit, but not brutal, i’ve worked in the mines a while ago, and man that was the most brutal job i ever had, physically and breathing in all those fumes and crap, holy i had to put it up with that for 8 years, but man it got me in shape. Anyone got any anything to say about jobs they had, and about my comment on training…thanks ahead.
I think Ian King has written about this quite a bit at T-mag. Basically, yes, a hard labor job can negatively affect your gains in the gym. Many need to cut back on their volume to compensate. However, the question is: how are your gains? Any signs of overtraining? If you’re progressing nicely then I wouldn’t worry too much.
Mike: I also work in a warehouse AND train. I also have diabetes. I have to train before going to work. I find I need more recovery time. I stick with mostly the basics, which is working.
The worst interference I have had has been from so called diabetes “educators” who put me on low protein muscle wasting diets. Train, and train hard.
from about 19 untill the age of 29 i was a structural ironworker. let me tell you that is one physical job. the tools you carry on your tool belt alone would wear a lot of men out, my belt weighed 28-30 lbs depending on what i had on it. the worst of it was climbing the steel beams all day. see we didnt have elevators. we were actually puttin the steel up, most of the jobs i worked were 350 -450 foot tall steel structures. we worked 10 or 12 hour days, and most of the time 5 and 6 days a week. i and all my co-workers were in great shape trust me and we thought we were some badass dudes too hehe. i tried working out off and on during those days but could really not handle it but about 6 weeks at a time and i’d have to quit for a month or 2. it made me feel like crap and i really stayed tired all the time. i used to tell my workout partner it felt the next day like i was pullin a sled behind me. that sled didnt help any when i had to climb a 30 foot steel column straight up either trust me. another thing, and i hate to sound dramatic but one slip meant death or serious permanent injury. i personally knew many men who died and were screwed up for the rest of their lives doing iron work. i was personally injured several times myself, the worst injury being an steel aligning tool weighing about 3lbs (called a 13 in. bullpin) was dropped on my head and neck from30 feet above me. i’d recommend reducing your volume and taking frequent breaks in your training and hey sleep all you can and eat good!!! oldiron
ya man i know what you felt, my brother is still an ironworker and man it is one tough job. In the mines i worked 16 hours a day, through christmas, and shit like that, that place never shut down, it couldn’t anyways. I would come home eat like a madman, and go to bed and wake up in the morning yada yada…someone can only do that for so long. For hours and hours you work like your on the line, repetitive thing over and over again, piling 80lb. slabs fast paced, and if you slow down the other guys get pissed at you, and ofcourse you screw everything up, and the crap you wear for a facemask so your not breathing in too much of the fumes and shit down there, its brutal i’ll tell ya. You would never have a fat guy working in a place like that, but say a fat guy got in somehow, he wouldn’t be fat for long, you had to be at least 165-170 just to get in.