For those of you who work a manual labor
job, you are probably well aware that your occupation can
really put a damper on your weight training. You lift heavy
weight all day, you sweat in the sun, and you labor rigorously
to make ends meet. At the end of the day you enter the gym
to exert yourself even more. Rest, like nutrition, is important for every weight trainer, but for the manual laborer it is a bit more difficult to achieve. The office employee, while likely working the same amount of hours as you, is probably getting a lot of rest at work. This person sits at a desk all day and rarely experiences anything that is physically taxing. While they may endure a lot of mental stress, there muscles are able to rest and recover for the most part. You, on the other hand, must get all of your rest outside work as well as outside of the gym.
In addition, you probably have to mow the yard, hedge the sidewalk and do other physically demanding household chores. This leaves only a small window of time for you to recover from the physical demands that have been placed on your body. The most advantageous thing you can do with this time is get plenty of good, quality sleep. Get 8-10 hours of sleep per night if you can. On the weekends or your days off try sleeping until you just can’t sleep anymore.
Quality of sleep, however, is just as important as quantity. If you’re having trouble getting to sleep or you wake up several times during the night, try taking a natural non-addictive supplement that contains valerian, L-Theanine, or melatonin. A variety of commercial products are available that contain these and other ingredients. I use Schiff Knock Out, which contains all of the above ingredients. If sleeping problems still persist, discuss this problem with your doctor.
The third component of achieving success despite a manual labor job lies in training. There is no clear-cut training plan for manual laborers. Instead, you will have to take into account the physical demands of your job and adjust your training around this. If you know that certain days are going to be more strenuous than others, then alter your training based on this.
For example, don’t plan on doing squats or deadlifts on days you know your body will have been sent to hell and back because of work-related duties. I have a certain amount of predictability in my job. I generally know what days are going to require massive amounts of lifting and I plan my workout schedule around this. When I’m moving 50 mattresses and bed frames into the storage building there is no way I am going to be working my back at the gym that night.
If you work in a physically demanding occupation, don’t be frustrated if you are making slow gains or even no gains at all. With a proper strategy that optimizes your diet, increases the quantity and quality of your rest, and fine-tunes your training routine and schedule, you can allow your training to co-exist with your job and improve your gains. I know the frustrations of training hard Monday night, getting little sleep, and then going to work where I toil away for 8 hours before hitting the gym. This is why I had to devise a course of action that allowed me to make ends meet while pursuing my training goals as effectively as possible. Don’t give up. With the right knowledge and planning you can succeed just like anyone else. Good luck!
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