Soldato
So heres my predicament, i work 12hr night shifts from 7pm to 7am on a 4 on 4 off rotor, it takes me 1hr each way to travel to and from work so thats a 14hr day before i can even think about doing any form of exercise, add to the equation that i take my missus to work most days when i get home, then have a bit of breakfast when i get back, it leaves me about an hour to unwind and i usually get to bed around 11am, my alarm goes of at 4pm and i start the cycle again.
Is it possible/advisable to do a 4 on 4 off workout plan, that fits in with my work pattern, or is that to long a break between workouts ?
Or try to fit in workouts on my working days and risk burning myself out, with only limited sleep, i know that this is very subjective, but just wondered if anyone else is in a similar situation and how they deal with it.
Due to my work schedules long hours was thinking of starting a 4 day split routine, 4 days cardio, 4 days weight training, good idea
If so i need help setting up a routine for my lifting days to include all body parts, so arms, legs, chest, back.
I will be working out at home and have the following equipment, dumbells, barbell, bench, squat rack that includes dip, tricep bar, curl bar, and about 100kg in weights, i will also be getting a chin up bar as well.
So now i just need the exercises to do, any suggestions as to what will give me the best bang for buck, and what days i should train certain body parts, as soon as i get my program sorted im good to go!
Cheers
Dean
I work 12 hour rotating day/night shifts and my commute is about 90mins. I have to travel to a gym too. It can be done. That said, when I do nights I tend to only train the first day (i.e. before I have to go in) and once I wake up from my last night shift. I get less sleep than you!
You have the stuff you need to do a proper routine w/the big compounds in at home, which makes me jelly.
You can either make time and do a x3 a week type program where you're spacing training days out, or perhaps something like this:
(Work) Mon - train before work
(Work) Tues - rest
(Work) Weds - rest
(Work) Thurs - rest
(Free) Fri - train
(Free) Sat - train
(Free) Sun - rest
(Free) Mon - train
(Work) Tues - train before work
(Work) Weds - rest
(Work) Thurs - rest
(Work) Fri - rest
(Free) Sat - train
(Free) Sun - train
(Free) Mon - rest
(Free) Tues - train
Doing this you could do an upper/lower split (e.g. Lyle McDonald's Generic Bulking Routine is a classic template) where you can get away with consecutive training days (always do lower first though).
You can have either identical upper/lower workouts or dedicate one of the big lifts to each day e.g. I squat and deadlift on both my lower days but alternate which is the main movement, with the first day being heavy back squats and a lighter/less taxing deadlift (RDL) and the second being a heavy regular deadlift and lighter front squats and one of my upper days is bench/rows and the other is OHP/pullups, so everything gets hit x2 every 7-10 days even if the exercises are slightly different.
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It hurts to just touch my quads!
D) gains by sapping energy and introducing different muscle fatigue.
