Enough time to lift

Bigbear

The Kodiak
Trusted Member
If I work fulltime hard labor job. Can I workout 3 days a week and still gain from it? My job is very hard work so I don't imagine any muscle recovery will happen during the day,
 
If I work fulltime hard labor job. Can I workout 3 days a week and still gain from it? My job is very hard work so I don't imagine any muscle recovery will happen during the day,
It might actually be better only going 3 days a week imo. Especially if you work hard and long hours. Before I ever touched gear i eas working out 6 days a week never gained a pound until i switched to iron addicts 2 day a week plan. It worked wonders for my shitty recovery.
 
Thanks man. I'll look into the iron addicts. My other issue is sleep its impossible getting 10 hours a night I'm lucky I I get 8 lol
 
Thanks man. I'll look into the iron addicts. My other issue is sleep its impossible getting 10 hours a night I'm lucky I I get 8 lol
Melatonin helps, also shut off all electronic devices half an hour before you plan on being asleep. I even turn my digital clock around so there’s no unnatural light
 
Yes. Just do upper/low split.

i do that split 3 days per week plus train jiu jitsu hard 2-3 times per weak. I am 50 and gained almost 9 lbs this year. The upper/lower allow you to hit everything every 5 days but not so much volume that with t the added stress of your job you will still be able to recover.

John Meadows has a great upper lower program called Warlock
 
Thanks man. I'll look into the iron addicts. My other issue is sleep its impossible getting 10 hours a night I'm lucky I I get 8 lol
8 hours is fine, depending on your age. For whatever reason I find I need less sleep the older i get. I function fine on 7 hours
 
If I work fulltime hard labor job. Can I workout 3 days a week and still gain from it? My job is very hard work so I don't imagine any muscle recovery will happen during the day

how long do you have to train these days?

you could do some sort of PPL routine
 
Last edited:
Whats ppe routines? I could workout 1 to 2 hours but I try to keep it to 1hour so I don't over train
 
Thanks man. I'll look into the iron addicts. My other issue is sleep its impossible getting 10 hours a night I'm lucky I I get 8 lol
8 hrs? I’m lucky if I get 6. I’m up at 4:30 to get to the gym otherwise it won’t happen.

Ive got a pretty labour intensive job as well. You just need to find time.

I switched to Mike Mentzgers Heavy Duty program a few years back. High intensity low sets. Train 3 days a week. The key is the intensity.
 
Thanks man. I'll look into the iron addicts. My other issue is sleep its impossible getting 10 hours a night I'm lucky I I get 8 lol
I'm lucky if I get 6 between long hours, frequent start changes, and staying in hotels. Make do with what you can dude.

My day usually involves work 12-14 hours. Get back to hotel, rush to gym, get back toss meat in insta pot. Shower. Take it out. Portion with whatever else I'm having, pack it up. Pass out. Wake up, and repeat for 6 more days.

Make do with what you can man, try 3 days a week, see how you Do. If you don't make progress or can't recover, up your cals, if that doesn't help, reduce lifting volume. I personally would rather tweak nutrition before training but that's also because I live for my time spent in the gym
 
@Jerbear I think you are learning that a big chunk of us have hard labour jobs , work long hours and only get like 7-8 hours of sleep.

I like to train to keep motivated, so I split my body parts up. I don’t train back right now because it gets a lot of training at work.

Chest
Arms
Shoulders
Legs
2 days off

If I’m really sore, I’ll take a day off.

I just train hard but not a ton of sets. For example I trained chest so hard last night that I woke at 5am because it ached so bad. Only 12 sets total.

I found my biggest issue was getting in enough food. Now I’m older so I can get fat, so that became easier.
 
where did you get the idea you need 10hrs sl

where did you get the idea you need 10hrs sleep?
I've read that 6 hours a night will cause sleep deprivation, that and knowing we grow and recover during sleeping just figured it'd be essential to get as much as possible. Plus I'm always stressed so I'm constantly taking magnesium and sleeping whenever I can to reduce cortisol or any stress hormones that are catabolic
 
8 hours is a good nights sleep for me. I don't think i remember the last time i had 10 hours of sleep. I wouldn't worry about the sleep issue, IMO
 
Top