Very Heavy Labour Job and Programming

[Smith K]

Hey Andy,

I am working as a lobster fisherman at the moment and will be for the next couple of months. The job is very strenuous so far. It is just me and the captain on board and I am hauling in heavy traps or moving them all day long (from about 5am until 3pm or 4pm depending on conditions). As you can imagine combining this with the cold and constant rolling of the sea leaves me pretty beat by the end of the day (couldnt sit down properly for the first few days haha).

My question is how would you program around a job that is so labour intensive. My back and hamstrings are pretty much destroyed at the end of the day, but I do seem to be getting more acclimated to it. I work six days a week as well.

[Andy Baker (KSC)]

I don't know dude. That sounds like some serious shit. Maybe just focus on work for the next few months and do a bunch of push ups before bed or something each night. I don't know that I would want to squat/deadlift and then go do your job the next day! Wish I could be more helpful.

If you are going to lift, I would just do 1 or 2 lifts each day:

Monday: Press & Squat

Thursday: Bench & Deadlift

or

Monday: Press
Tuesday: Squat
Thurs: Bench
Fri: Deadlift

Just throwing some ideas out there but you get the concept. I wouldn't try doing a fullbody routine 3 days per week. That sounds like a bad combo with your job.

[Joe Kirsch]

Smith K,

I don't know how old you are, but I ran the advanced novice version of SS while I was working for a landscaping company last year (age 25); it was a very small company, and we did a lot of in-ground installations (read: digging) and a lot of stone work. The company's owner was a 6'4", 300 pound chain-smoking Polish guy with a deficit of professionalism and sadistic expectations of his employees.

My advice is this: steer wide away from deadlifts, but keep squatting. I could squat until failure and still be okay for the next day, but deadlifts were absolutely crippling with all that extra back work.

One thing that's important to note is that for the first several weeks, I stalled and stalled again - I actually had trouble getting up to 2 wheels, which seems absurd in retrospect, but I think my body was simply adapting to the extra stress, and eventually my persistence paid off; my numbers began to rise, slowly and surely. Even while doing 4 tens a week, I still managed to bring my squat from 170x5x3 to 295x5x3 unbelted over the course of 4 months or so... but I also was never afraid to tuck in an extra rest day or deload when it all got too unbearable. It felt like total shit at the time, but looking back, I'm somewhat awed by the amount of volume the body can become adapted to.

The -really- interesting thing was that, as soon as I quit the landscaping job, I gained 15 pounds almost immediately, pant size remaining the same, and my deadlift went up about 50 pounds in just under a month. It was a good lesson in the value of nutrition, when I had formerly thought I was eating more than enough.

[jackallen]

I grew up on fishing boats, and lobster was among the species we went for. Defiantly not something that goes well with strength training. If it was me (knowing what I know now) I would just hold off until the season's over, its only a couple of months.