Training Plus Working

[don chi]

Hey all, newbie here. My name is Keith and I'm 37 years old. I've worked out on and off my whole life, but I'm fairly new to grip training. My question concerns manual labor. My hands are in decent shape from cement work and carpentry. Any of you guys who do this type of work find it affects your training? If you have a particularly brutal day do you still train if you were supposed to? Sometimes I feel guilty missing training because of certain goals that I set. I was just wondering how some of you guys handle it. Thanx for listening.

[Bearcat 74]

My Dad was a deisel mechanic, I worked with him and on the side I changed big truck tires, seals, u-joints, brakes, and greased around 40 trucks with a hand squeeze grease gun. I usually only did this on the weekends and I would never train then, it just wore me out. I have never done cement work, I have hammered a few nails, and if I came in and my hands were beat up tired I probably wouldn't train. If I did train it would be a very low workload.

When I was doing that sort of work I trained 2x per week with heavy stuff one day and moderate the other. If it were me I would go by feel.

[Sean Dockery]

I've worked some pretty rough manual labor jobs, and if I came home from a real rough day and felt dead tired I'd skip training and count all the dirt I shoveled, miles I walked, concrete I pushed, etc etc as my training for that day.

[DAN PRAYDIS]

this is my opinion and im starting to believe it my self i have had a manual labor job since i was 14 now 46 i still work hard and use my hands at work and to work out . i believe that your body over a time of that long finds a strength to stop at in grip only and holds it meaning you always have . above normal but not great it but i cant find a way to make it increase it i have been trying to close a no 3 gripper for over a year but have had no success . but all my other lifts have inproved and i can see the strength if i hit my hands hard in training i take a step back i really am getting disgusted with this if anyone has an answer to this id like to know i hope you can make better progress than me in the grip area ps. some of these guys are still in there prime so they still have some time to find there level i wish i found this board 20 years ago it might of made the difference

Edited January 7, 2006 by DAN PRAYDIS

[Rick Walker]

Up until the day I graduated college, all of my jobs were manual labor. It started on the beef and dairy farm feeding cows, milking, cleaning stalls, and haying in the summer. Then a plastics factory breaking molds for plastic chairs and shutters. Finally a lumber yard stacking the rough cut wet and dry lumber onto carts, banding stacks of lumber for shipping, and driving the Yale forklift.

I was a young pup when I worked the farm so recovery wasn't a problem. I would ride my bike the 5 miles up the road to hay all day in the hot sun, then ride home and lift. I worked the factory the summers after my senior year in high school and freshman year in college. That was a 10 hour a day 100+ degrees job, but still 4 days a week I went to the gym right after work and lifted and made great gains. Again, I was a young buck. The sawmill was the worst. It was also 10-12 hours a day in either the sweltering heat or the freezing cold (the building I worked in had a roof, but no sides!) Moving heavy wet lumber all day was a workout in and of itself, but I always stopped at a hole in the wall gym on my way home and got an hour in with the weights.

Being older, you should listen to your body. If you feel wrecked from the days work, then of course, lifting makes no sense. However, try to not make it a regular thing (skipping workouts) because that may lead to the couch and a bag of chips after work instead of the weights. If your job is extremely taxing, try a 2-days a week routine for the body and grip-mix them together.

Good luck-

-Rick