Planning HLM around Work Travel

[jwagner]

Andy,

I tried searching for some insight on this, but only found posts related to missing days on LP. I'm just starting HLM (starting with the General Strength Training (Program #1) template in PPST:3), so I'm not sure how to deal with inevitable missed days.

A little background: My job has me traveling occasionally, usually in bursts of 1-3 day trips, typically in the middle of the week. These trips usually involve getting up at 3am and taking the 5-6am flight, working all day and then jumping on the 7-8pm flight home and getting home at 10pm or later. Depending on flight availabilities, sometimes I end up flying out the night before losing two evenings (when I normally train).

The question: What is the most optimal way to deal with missing any of the days in a HLM program? I assume the response is different for Heavy, Light and Medium days. I usually have at least a week's notice, so I can plan accordingly with schedule changes (i.e., if I know I'll miss Monday, I could try to get in a Heavy day on Sunday if that would be better than delaying until Tuesday or skipping all together.). I'm really interested in your thoughts on this. The reason I ask is I originally had one of these scheduled for this month, but it was canceled this afternoon. Still, I have 4-5 of these trips popping up in January and early February.

Thanks,
Jonathan

p.s., Congratulations on the new baby. My first is due in late February.

[Andy Baker (KSC)]

Nothing special, if you can't train you can't train, and those days get missed. So maybe some week's you get in a Heavy Day and a Medium Day and that's it. You can always swap out exercises though. For instance, say your pressing scheduling has you doing this:

H-Bench; L-Press; M-Close Grip Bench.

If you have to miss Wednesday, then get your Presses in on Friday and skip your close grips for that week. Just try and make sure you get in Squat/Bench/Dead/Press and you'll be okay. Do the best you can with the other stuff

[Andy Baker (KSC)]

Nothing special, if you can't train you can't train, and those days get missed. So maybe some week's you get in a Heavy Day and a Medium Day and that's it. You can always swap out exercises though. For instance, say your pressing scheduling has you doing this:

H-Bench; L-Press; M-Close Grip Bench.

If you have to miss Wednesday, then get your Presses in on Friday and skip your close grips for that week. Just try and make sure you get in Squat/Bench/Dead/Press and you'll be okay. Do the best you can with the other stuff