Maintaining Muscle

[Andeh13]

I was a pretty avid gym goer, went to the gym 2-3 times a week and then played football once a week (but I ran myself senseless - I was there for the exercise & laugh more then the football). After almost a year of this I am at a pretty high level of fitness, both stamina wise and muscle mass wise. This was all alongside a fairly healthy diet & virtually no puddings/high sugar drinks etc. At the gym it was all free weights and then swimming.

However, my career needed a step up and I have changed jobs. My new job means I am working on average 10 hours a day, 5 days a week. I then have a 45min drive home to see the girlfriend. My weekends consist of seeing my daughter (300 mile round trip, same day), seeing my family (300 mile round trip, over a weekend) or spending time with my girlfriend. Once upon a time I used to have free time!

Now I am paranoid about loosing my fitness and muscle mass. I know this might be impossible due to the current lifestyle but I want to minimise it as best i can. I wont be able to get back into the gym seriously for at least 3-4 months so would like tips on hows to minimise my muscle mass.


I currently skip breakfast (well, have a big class of fruit smoothie), get to work for around 8am and have a banana and vending machine coffee. A few hours later I will have a couple of tuna sandwhichs (brown bread, no butter) and a packet of crisps. few hours later 1 more tuna & brown sandhwich and after that have the last tuna sandwhich. For snacks I eat apples & bananas during the day, alongside vending machine coffee & hot choc. A glass or wine or two most evenings.

I get home around 7pm and have a home cooked dinner, usually one of these Jamie Oliver 30min meals. Then go to bed for an early night. In short I have 4 small meals then a dinner when I get home. Apples & bananas as snacks during the day.


Can anyone advise on what I could to do prevent muscle loss, or weight gain over the next few months? I am going to try and do push ups every few nights, but I seriously do struggle to find any real time 7 days a week that isn't spent catching up on something, or doing odd jobs I've put off!

Cheers guys

edit: Just to add at work i spend 80% of my time wandering around a manufacturing line with safety boots on, crawling over vehicles and up and down a flight of stairs.

[kalniel]

No chance of wearing one of these to work?





More seriously, work out what time you do have. For preventing muscle loss create a rolling program that targets different muscle groups so that over the course of several weeks you've covering them, rather than trying to do everything in one go. That will probably be enough. For avoiding weight gain you'll mainly have to watch what you eat - infrequent sessions aren't enough to significantly up calorie burning in a meaningful way (you'll just eat more after those odd sessions). Replace the crisps with something else for eg.

[melon]

I was a pretty avid gym goer, went to the gym 2-3 times a week and then played football once a week (but I ran myself senseless - I was there for the exercise & laugh more then the football). After almost a year of this I am at a pretty high level of fitness, both stamina wise and muscle mass wise. This was all alongside a fairly healthy diet & virtually no puddings/high sugar drinks etc. At the gym it was all free weights and then swimming.

However, my career needed a step up and I have changed jobs. My new job means I am working on average 10 hours a day, 5 days a week. I then have a 45min drive home to see the girlfriend. My weekends consist of seeing my daughter (300 mile round trip, same day), seeing my family (300 mile round trip, over a weekend) or spending time with my girlfriend. Once upon a time I used to have free time!

Now I am paranoid about loosing my fitness and muscle mass. I know this might be impossible due to the current lifestyle but I want to minimise it as best i can. I wont be able to get back into the gym seriously for at least 3-4 months so would like tips on hows to minimise my muscle mass.


I currently skip breakfast (well, have a big class of fruit smoothie), get to work for around 8am and have a banana and vending machine coffee. A few hours later I will have a couple of tuna sandwhichs (brown bread, no butter) and a packet of crisps. few hours later 1 more tuna & brown sandhwich and after that have the last tuna sandwhich. For snacks I eat apples & bananas during the day, alongside vending machine coffee & hot choc. A glass or wine or two most evenings.

I get home around 7pm and have a home cooked dinner, usually one of these Jamie Oliver 30min meals. Then go to bed for an early night. In short I have 4 small meals then a dinner when I get home. Apples & bananas as snacks during the day.


Can anyone advise on what I could to do prevent muscle loss, or weight gain over the next few months? I am going to try and do push ups every few nights, but I seriously do struggle to find any real time 7 days a week that isn't spent catching up on something, or doing odd jobs I've put off!

Cheers guys

edit: Just to add at work i spend 80% of my time wandering around a manufacturing line with safety boots on, crawling over vehicles and up and down a flight of stairs.

Why do you want or need to ukeep your level of fitness / muscle mass ?

m

[mitchgixer6]

I would want to maintaing the muscle mass/fitness too after all that work! It takes alot of work to get it back melon, and that's why I presume the OP is asking the question.

Unfortunatley I don't think there is an easy fix to this problem. I too get frustrated when I don't get time to visit the gym or do some cardio work. A wife and 3 young boys makes sure of that for me! I must admit though that the muscle mass always comes back much quicker than the fitness levels, so maybe if you do get any spare time try and get some swimming in as this will work you arms/stomach/legs as well as your lungs.

Other than that all I can suggest is maybe doing sit ups/push ups/tricep dips off the side of the bed etc as much as possible to try and keep the muscles in shape.

Good luck mate.

[melon]

I would want to maintaing the muscle mass/fitness too after all that work! It takes alot of work to get it back melon, and that's why I presume the OP is asking the question.

Unfortunatley I don't think there is an easy fix to this problem. I too get frustrated when I don't get time to visit the gym or do some cardio work. A wife and 3 young boys makes sure of that for me! I must admit though that the muscle mass always comes back much quicker than the fitness levels, so maybe if you do get any spare time try and get some swimming in as this will work you arms/stomach/legs as well as your lungs.

Other than that all I can suggest is maybe doing sit ups/push ups/tricep dips off the side of the bed etc as much as possible to try and keep the muscles in shape.

Good luck mate.

But what is the work for ?

If you dont have time to apply to sport or whatever , then why not just reduce it to suit what you can use it for , or is it because of something else you want or think you should be ?

m

[mitchgixer6]

Believe it or not, but some of us like to try our best to stay in shape, fit and healthy. Personally I do a lot of cycling and it's what I would call my main hobby. Yes I will never be a pro, or maybe even a good amateur, but it's something I enjoy doing. I'm sure the OP feels the same way.

[melon]

Believe it or not, but some of us like to try our best to stay in shape, fit and healthy. Personally I do a lot of cycling and it's what I would call my main hobby. Yes I will never be a pro, or maybe even a good amateur, but it's something I enjoy doing. I'm sure the OP feels the same way.

I'm always silently amused at the fact the health club in my town happens to be right next to Harry Ramsdens - and trust me Harry Ramsdens was there first

m

[baby_ice]

uk muscle.co.uk

easy way? honestly? 250mg of test every week or 10 days. lol

eat every 2 hours
make sure each meal has protein or just use protein shakes inbrtween meals
dont overtrain muscles

[Rave]

Just do some heavy squats or deadlifts once a week.

[abaxas]

Got to the gym more often, but for a small stint.

4x 30 mins a week is better than 1x 2 hours.

[Hoonigan]

When you go to see your daughter, curl her. That's your biceps done.

When you're making your breakfast, while the smoothie machine is whizzing round, do some tricep dips, and that's your triceps done.

While you're watching TV and the adverts come on, do some press ups, and there's your back and chest with a bit of arms thrown in as well.

Run up and down the stairs for 10 minutes once a week; you'll soon find yourself exhausted from that, so there's your little bit of fitness.

Just try and do little things when you can squeeze them in.

Good luck mate

[dreamcat4]

Go to work even earlier, eat more before / after lunch and/or make more time around the lunch brake. Find whatever informal clubs might already exist or help to create new ones. Turn things around to use all / as much of the lunch break as you can for sporting activities. Encourage participation with work colleagues.

Whatever is possible do it. Don't be fussy. Be it jogging, work out, or just stretching. Whatever opportunities are available. Talk about and around these possibilities openly and positively with your colleagues. Because nothing else could ever be more important.

Encourage figures around in your wider workplace to can see the benefits to help accept that sporting activities should occur during lunch break. Encourage others to feel that there is very easy access to these opportunities. It can be as simple as bringing some running shorts and a T-shirt to work, say three times a week. We have a very mild climate here in the UK.