Does your job impact your training?

[Gammmmo]

Ok, so we all gotta make a living and I've done a wide range of jobs. Right now, I work part time as delivery driver (hopping in and out of the vehicle many, many times) and it's therefore all wear and tear on the body. It also creates some asymmetry as well - driving and jumping in and out of the same door etc. I feel sometimes it does impact my sport in terms of the total volume I can do but if I schedule things properly for a PB attempt I usually feel things are OK. you?

[edinborogh]

Ok, so we all gotta make a living and I've done a wide range of jobs. Right now, I work part time as delivery driver (hopping in and out of the vehicle many, many times) and it's therefore all wear and tear on the body. It also creates some asymmetry as well - driving and jumping in and out of the same door etc. I feel sometimes it does impact my sport in terms of the total volume I can do but if I schedule things properly for a PB attempt I usually feel things are OK. you?

having following your posts for some time.. i am sure you will know what your body is saying and how you feel and adjust your training accordingly. i just think that exiting a delivery truck time and again for many times will not / should not de-condition the less active part. its a small action and i do believe i read once about UPS drivers and how the body adapts to those changes.

for me - i work long hours at the office. so i cant erg in the morning ( i gave it a try but i didnt like it ) so i erg in the late afternoon - i would leave the office at 5PM and be back by 8PM the latest. having said that, i have a little son and i want to rush home and see him and be with him and play with him, so sometimes i would skip training all together, or cut my training shorter then i have planned. today for example i wanted to do a pyramid of 1K-2K-3K-4K......10K and then drop back to 8K-6K-4K-2K -1K.. and i ended up looking at the clock after 10K and i stopped and went to the shower and back home.

this is why i want to buy a rowing machine so i could erg at home, this way there are excuses, but C2 are very expensive and i wish to be able to find a 2nd hand one. where i live rowing is not so popular and there is no 2nd hand market..

[lwtguy]

I try my best not to let it impact training. I am fortunate that my company culture is very into fitness, and they actually give you an extra 15 minutes during lunch if you want to go to a gym. I found a rowing club 15 minutes from my office so I can get on the water before or after work relatively easily. There is a gym right around the corner that I also use. But all of this is 40-50 minutes from my home so it all revolves around my work.

However, I travel a fair amount and when I'm on the go I have to figure it out on the fly.

[nick rockliff]

Time more than anything, mid week early starts with late finishes are not good for training. Just need to make the most of the time I can get on the erg.

[Carl Watts]

Yes it does so I quit work to Erg.

Have not been working now for over a year and there is no way I would have completed the 7500m+ a day last year working. Regardless of the job being physical or not it cuts into your time and makes you tired to the point its just not sustainable. Long travel times just suck it out of you and being able to row in the daylight makes a big difference, your not designed to row at night.

Yes you can still row but working impacts your training to the point you cannot even row if your doing certain types of shift work.Worked at a casino on a 4 day on 4 day off roster, two 12 hour days followed by two 12 hour nights. The first day "Off" is not really off as you get home at like 7am and try and sleep. Basically the rowing stopped completely and was not able to row a single meter, your either working or trying to recover from the job alone.

[GJS]

I'm a carpenter. Unless I'm roofing in unpleasant weather the work is rarely hugely taxing but the constant activity and frequent lifting does slow recovery from workouts.

Worse, I think, are the injuries you sustain - back normally - and the inability to give your body proper rest when you're injured.

[Gammmmo]

having following your posts for some time.. i am sure you will know what your body is saying and how you feel and adjust your training accordingly. i just think that exiting a delivery truck time and again for many times will not / should not de-condition the less active part. its a small action and i do believe i read once about UPS drivers and how the body adapts to those changes.

for me - i work long hours at the office. so i cant erg in the morning ( i gave it a try but i didnt like it ) so i erg in the late afternoon - i would leave the office at 5PM and be back by 8PM the latest. having said that, i have a little son and i want to rush home and see him and be with him and play with him, so sometimes i would skip training all together, or cut my training shorter then i have planned. today for example i wanted to do a pyramid of 1K-2K-3K-4K......10K and then drop back to 8K-6K-4K-2K -1K.. and i ended up looking at the clock after 10K and i stopped and went to the shower and back home.

this is why i want to buy a rowing machine so i could erg at home, this way there are excuses, but C2 are very expensive and i wish to be able to find a 2nd hand one. where i live rowing is not so popular and there is no 2nd hand market..

I have generally found my best performances on the erg have tended to be during the first half of the week following on from my job day off. Later in the week the fatigue can build up not just from work but because sometimes I go into sleep debt as the week wears on. It sounds simple but I'm also very aware how I carry out reptitive activities such as getting in/out of vehicles - I vary the way I do this to spread muscle loads. Sitting down alot can shorten hip flexor muscles but I've found this no issue with my current job - I'd say it's more of an issue with office work and long hours - again though that can be offset by genuinely buying into a stretching programme.

I have had several jobs where I've been able to get access to an erg at lunchtime (or in others been able to go running/biking) and this has worked well...at the time though I wasn't pushing my limits and can see if one was then this setup would work well when training twice daily.

When I was doing competitive cycling and added running (for triathlon and running for it's own sake) I was training up to 15hours/week. Do I think this was compatible with a full or even part time job? Yes. It's possible BUT I think you're far more likely to miss or cut short sessions. In cycling, as you get to an ever higher competitive level you'll start to find you're competing with people who have no job or have specially selected their job so as to be compatible with training/racing. Historically, alot of very good competitive cyclists have been postmen...you'd think being on your feet would impact things but getting one's work done early in the day to allow time for training/recovery later would seem to outweigh this.

[Rod]

No...I'm retired!

When I worked as a sales rep I worked during the day and rowed in the evening....simple.

When I was younger and a runner only (not a rower as well) I got up early to run before work then again in the evening.

The point being that if you are determined enough you can usually fit training in around your job. Yes, some days that's harder to do than others so some sessions need to be shorter but faster and some missed but extra effort put into ''catch up sessions''.

It's about commitment.

[Rowan McSheen]

I've recently quit, or retired from, 25 years as a journalist/sub-editor/translator. So sitting on my bum all day. Which is why I took up running and latterly erging as well - I was fat and unfit. Fortunately, my shift pattern allowed me to mostly exercise in daylight.

No physical impact on the training but the job was mentally taxing. One thing I found was that the best workouts were when I had to overcome fatigue or CBA to put on the shoes or sit on the erg.

I say no physical impact but I suspect that many hours sat at the computer and possibly poor posture might be instrumental in what seems to be a lower back or hip niggle.

Must be great to have a job that you can combine with training - my postman is a marathon runner, he does his rounds at the double.

[lindsayh]

I've been able to do it for 35 years around work 4 to 6 sessions a week. Run a 7 day a week business (veterinary practice) with 15+ staff but able to train around it ok most of the time. Mainly late afternoon and morning on weekends when not working although it takes a bit of focus and selfishness/discipline. It is just part of my normal life. Weirdly (or stupidly) the hardest time I have had for ages is the past 10 weeks!! Missed 5 days training last week alone. Unplanned staff absences has been a perfect storm - total of 4 days off work since my return Feb22 but it is starting to get better now. Just call it an opportunity to back off a bit and live with the lost meters.

[jackarabit]

Biz going to the dogs, Lindsay? Being the boss AND the floater sounds like a recipe for no training time. I took up IR in retirement so no problem finding the time. When I was working (same gig as Gary), seasonal "full" employment meant anything from 32 to 70 hrs per week and peak demand overlapped the outdoor cycle training/touring/club riding season. In 12 yrs., my best yearly total was 4000mi. A pro would laugh but riding nearly every weekend thru an unusually mild winter, fighting the dying light of daylight savings on Wednesday evenings, and suffering thru weekends devoted to "back before noon" 60 milers and centuries takes its toll in bonedeep fatigue. I still have my mag resistance rollers and zero desire to use them. Not certain why I haven't developed a screamng aversion to erging in three years of almost daily sessions. Maybe I will?

[dck3]

If I didn't have to go to this job, I could be training .... rather do more training than work

[nick rockliff]

Seems to be quite a few retired 50 something year-olds on here. Not sure I'd know what to do if I didn't work, would hate to vegetate.

[H2O]

It does. Encourages degeneration (sitting all the time), collegues are disease vectors.
We have to accept the fact that circumstances are not always optimal.

[Carl Watts]

Seems to be quite a few retired 50 something year-olds on here. Not sure I'd know what to do if I didn't work, would hate to vegetate.

The secret to life is you need hobbies and something to get up for in the morning, OTHER than work. If you have turned your life into just work you have been institutionalized.

As they say when your work interferes with your hobby, quit work.

Actually I thing the original statement was "When work interferes with your Golf, quit work"

Ideally turn your hobby into your work ! You need a number of interests outside of work and then the transition to not working is easy.