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new job weight training

J

jim87

Guest
hey guys,

i'm just about to start a graduate position at an investment bank in Sydney which means long work hours. i've heard that some of the guys in the team go out for a gym session before dinner but don't know if this is a guarantee.

just wondering if anyone had been in a similar time constrained situation and had any advice for when i should train and what kind of routine i should adopt. ideally im looking to build muscle but i'd still like to sneak in a little bit of cardio to keep my fitness & heart health up.

cheers
 
Nice score in terms of employment. I'm looking at top tier law, so keep me posted on the effect long hours have on you.

I'm guessing you'll get at least an hour to workout so I'd suggest to you what everybody else does - a full body session x3 a week. This is my favourite and is well known for its extremely good results:

Guide to Novice Barbell Training, aka the Official RIPPETOE-STARTING STRENGTH FAQ - Bodybuilding.com Forums

to gain a more complete understanding, check out Mark Rippetoe's 'Starting Strength' and 'Practical Programming'. The books are worth their weight in gold.

As for cardio x2-3 sessions of interval training a week will do you best, will fit your time constraints too.
 
Hate to break it to ya boys but Investment Banking/Big 4 Accounting/Top Tier Law is almost certain to kill any fitness you have and I'd be very surprised to see any time in your schedule for getting it back.

I've worked Mid Tier law and even there 60+ hour weeks are the norm (8-10 billable hours a day), I have a very good friend who spent 3 years as an Investment Banker and he ended up working far more than that (and usually at odd hours too - apparently IB offices like to keep in sync with market timings outside Aus?).

If however you are a machine who can manage a gym session after 15 hours at the office (I've met some people who can - which challenges the certainty of my initial assessment doesn't it? :)) I recommend having a read of Dan John's article on barbell complexes. Fast and efficient ways of getting a very good cardio workout while disrupting homeostasis enough to increase size/strength (well up to a point). You'll never be the strongest guy in the gym training like that but it might be a good compromise for the busy professional.

As an aside, well done Jim on securing such a competitive job in such competitive times - kudos.

Oli - my advice as a recent law grad (now cruising as a government lawyer) is not to buy too much into the law school heirarchy what says Top Tier law is the ducks nuts and everything else is not worth doing. Top Tier will work you to the bone and will not pay as well as everyone thinks, and if ever you want to be anything but a one dimensional lawyer (e.g. a property lawyer or an insurance lawyer) you're in trouble (BigLaw is not about diversity of expertise)

With that said though if you can stick it out long enough and you're a white male (I presume you're OK there?) you have a shot at making partner and then you'll actually be making the sort of money everyone thought you were from the outset.

Cynical rant over :)
 
well done! i have a mate who started in a similar kind of role and rose through the ranks pretty quickly. they used to have meals catered in the office so they didn't have to leave. 15 + hours were the norm and he worked just as much on weekends as during the week. He was supposed to be working from Melbourne but they had him in Sydney for 3 month stints at the time - they'd fly his gf up on weekends but she'd never see him. The only down time he had was when goes to the pub with his work mates for a drink on friday. It's cost him a lot of friendships but he is now a fund manager in NY on ridiculous money and he loves it.

i don't work those hours regularly and I wouldn't now, but there are occasions when i do in stints of 3 or 4 weeks. Over the years I 've come to know how much sleep I need, how much of my time my wife needs, my kids and then I look at time for training. I reckon you should be able to find time, unless you have kids.
 
I've worked in the Big 4 envorment for as long as I can remember. The only way I can reguarly get to the gym is in the mornings. Get it out the way, then you can work your nuts off for the rest of the day. My jobs is busy in peaks (i.e. leaving at 3am) and troughs (leaving at 5pm) so I make full advantage of quieter times, and try my best to get to the gym during times when I'm being bent over. The reality is though, when you're going through a prolonged busy spell for months, then somehting has to give. Worst case seanrio is maybe 2 morning vists and a weekend visit would still get you three solid stints.

Without the gym as an outlet, I would go mental, so in a way the gym helps improve my work at the office.
 
Jim, before you lock in plans or join a gym on a contract, get into the job for a few weeks and get a feel for it. I work in IT, and have for several big 4s, telco, IT and government. All good team and managers should be promoting work-life-balance, and will encourage you to have a life outside work.
My advice is to start your job and get a starting understanding of it. I bet there will be no problem to make some time for gym. I used to go at 6am before work. Now I go in the evening after work. Guys I work with go during lunch time, and are allowed to start early or finish late to make up for the long lunch. This often works out convenient for the business too, as they might like to have someone in early, or back late.
 
im with faff on this.. give yourself say 4 weeks to really settle into the new job before commiting to a gym. Most of the time if your working 60 hours a week i can say 2 of the basics of training will not be fullfiled.

1. your meal patterns will be out as meetings/long hours affect the way your appetite functions and this in turn will effect your recovery and also your workout
2. Sleep patterns will not be the same. Some days you might finish at 7pm some at 10pm. The amount of stress u encounter will also effect the number of hours u sleep a night (some people can cope with stress and sleep ok. Some dont. Myself if im stressed have a hard time sleeping at night).
Alot of people forget that sleep (8 hours min a day) is a major factor in this sport.
 
pseudonym said:
Hate to break it to ya boys but Investment Banking/Big 4 Accounting/Top Tier Law is almost certain to kill any fitness you have and I'd be very surprised to see any time in your schedule for getting it back.
Click to expand...

I briefly worked in one of the Top 4 Accounting firms - these organisations have high quality human resource departments, which enable great flexibility in working conditions - (including start and finish times, as well as lunch break lengths and times) - so, generally speaking, there should always be time for even a 30 minute training session of heavy lifting, or high-intensity cardio.
 
thanks for all the replies

hey guys,

thanks for all the advice. from my understanding after talking to a few people who are in similar positions, it seems that pretty much everywhere will allow you to take some time off either in the form of an extended lunch break (and make it up earlier or later) or with an hour or so off before dinner.

i think to start off with I will take advantage of those "free 7 day passes" that a lot of the city gyms give out (and maybe just give out fake phone/email addresses so they don't annoy me afterwards) to both scope out the best gyms around my work and so I don't have to commit while I am getting a feel for what the working week will be like.

to begin with I think I will just go a few times in the morning before work but ideally I think the idea of breaking up a long work day with a gym session is probably the way to go long term once i've sussed out what the attitude is towards it.

at this stage I am young (22), have no committments or family so I should have time. working out is a big part of my life and does keep me sane during stressful periods so i'm sure i will make an effort to get it done.

if anyone here works (or has worked) at an IB in Sydney and knows what the drill is i would greatly appreciate any further advice.

as far as the diet goes with BB, I think the hardest thing is going to be the dinners that get ordered in (from what I understand) and i guess not knowing what is in them as far as nutrition goes. i can easily take my own food in during the day, but obviously if the company is paying for me to get a meal every night its financially worth taking that up...just as long as I know what i'm having. any ideas on this would also be appreciated.

Cheers
 
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