Third year and workout routine

[Derivations]

As a 2nd year currently in the depths of step 1 studying, I am becoming increasingly frustrated at how little time I've had to workout this year. Our school has 2 tests a week and it is not a pass fail school, so when you add the class studying + board studying + eating + sleeping there are simply not enough hours in the day without making serious sacrifices. I've been lucky if I can workout once a week, and I have had many stretches where I just cannot find time to get in the gym for 2 weeks+. Over this past summer I had a great thing going where I would workout 3-4 times a week and I felt great, and to look in the mirror now and see my muscles slowly atrophying away is demoralizing.

My question to you third years or those who have experienced third year: will there be more time available to make a consistent workout routine feasible? I'd like to workout every other day.

I'm thinking that while the hospital hours are quite a bit more intense than classroom hours in preclinical years, you can start to treat it more as a job where when you leave the hospital you are "done" for the day and can take some time off to do whatever. I realize that this is not always true and there will often be reading and shelf exam study to do, but I'm hoping the day to day stress of constant tests will calm down a bit, am I wrong to think that? Is it rotation specific (e.g. harder to find time on surgery than psych, for example)?

Thanks.

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[Psai]

Do some free weights while you watch lecture

 

[mimelim]

As a 2nd year currently in the depths of step 1 studying, I am becoming increasingly frustrated at how little time I've had to workout this year. Our school has 2 tests a week and it is not a pass fail school, so when you add the class studying + board studying + eating + sleeping there are simply not enough hours in the day without making serious sacrifices. I've been lucky if I can workout once a week, and I have had many stretches where I just cannot find time to get in the gym for 2 weeks+. Over this past summer I had a great thing going where I would workout 3-4 times a week and I felt great, and to look in the mirror now and see my muscles slowly atrophying away is demoralizing.

My question to you third years or those who have experienced third year: will there be more time available to make a consistent workout routine feasible? I'd like to workout every other day.

I'm thinking that while the hospital hours are quite a bit more intense than classroom hours in preclinical years, you can start to treat it more as a job where when you leave the hospital you are "done" for the day and can take some time off to do whatever. I realize that this is not always true and there will often be reading and shelf exam study to do, but I'm hoping the day to day stress of constant tests will calm down a bit, am I wrong to think that? Is it rotation specific (e.g. harder to find time on surgery than psych, for example)?

Thanks.

There is something wrong if you don't have time to work out as an MS2. As with most questions like this, it all boils down to time management and priorities. You either are losing time with inefficient habits, simply prioritize other things over working out, or some combination of the two. For starters, you have 168 hours in a week. Assuming you sleep 8 hours a day, that is 112 hours free. Assuming you need to be physically in class 15 hours a week, you have ~100 hours of time to study/do other things. Where is that time going? It is understandable that during Step 1 studying you are going to have less free time. But, most people do not do focused Step 1 studying until much closer to the exam date.

These are not things that will change after starting MS3, if you have bad time management, it is going to haunt you no matter what you are on. For whatever it is worth, I sustain (like most surgical residents) more hours/week than any medical student does across the country and I rock climb 3-4 days a week and run every single day. I can appreciate that I am more extreme than your average person/resident, but my argument is that it is simply a matter of figuring out what is important to you and becoming efficient enough at what you do so that you can do those things.

 

[Derivations]

Do some free weights while you watch lecture

I have actually done this and it works well but I'd like to do more bench, squats, etc.

There is something wrong if you don't have time to work out as an MS2. As with most questions like this, it all boils down to time management and priorities. You either are losing time with inefficient habits, simply prioritize other things over working out, or some combination of the two. For starters, you have 168 hours in a week. Assuming you sleep 8 hours a day, that is 112 hours free. Assuming you need to be physically in class 15 hours a week, you have ~100 hours of time to study/do other things. Where is that time going? It is understandable that during Step 1 studying you are going to have less free time. But, most people do not do focused Step 1 studying until much closer to the exam date.

These are not things that will change after starting MS3, if you have bad time management, it is going to haunt you no matter what you are on. For whatever it is worth, I sustain (like most surgical residents) more hours/week than any medical student does across the country and I rock climb 3-4 days a week and run every single day. I can appreciate that I am more extreme than your average person/resident, but my argument is that it is simply a matter of figuring out what is important to you and becoming efficient enough at what you do so that you can do those things.

Our school has the most absurd testing schedule I've ever seen, we have a test almost every Monday and Thursday, so if you decide to take even a few hours off you're already behind for the next test and it becomes a stressful race against the clock to get enough passes through the notes. Maybe I'm a slow reader? I don't know, but I'd say studying for each test takes ~10 hours to watch the lectures at 1.7x speed + ~30 hours of review so around 40 hours. x2 tests a week = 80 hours. Lets say 1 hour a day for food = 7 hours. Already up to nearly 90 hours + I need time to chill, relax.

I've heard the fairy tales of pass/fail schools with exams every 4 weeks and it sounds like a dream. Study at your own pace, study for boards when you need to, and maintain a healthy lifestyle. Our school runs us ragged.

 

[mimelim]

I have actually done this and it works well but I'd like to do more bench, squats, etc.



Our school has the most absurd testing schedule I've ever seen, we have a test almost every Monday and Thursday, so if you decide to take even a few hours off you're already behind for the next test and it becomes a stressful race against the clock to get enough passes through the notes. Maybe I'm a slow reader? I don't know, but I'd say studying for each test takes ~10 hours to watch the lectures at 1.7x speed + ~30 hours of review so around 40 hours. x2 tests a week = 80 hours. Lets say 1 hour a day for food = 7 hours. Already up to nearly 90 hours + I need time to chill, relax.

I've heard the fairy tales of pass/fail schools with exams every 4 weeks and it sounds like a dream. Study at your own pace, study for boards when you need to, and maintain a healthy lifestyle. Our school runs us ragged.

80 hours/week sounds absurd for pre-clinical studying. I'm not sure how it takes 30 hours to review 10 hours worth of lecture, especially if you just watched it. My suspicion is that you need to figure out how to be more efficient with your studying. Even with a terrible school system (which I don't think anyone doubts you have), schools just don't cover that much in 3 day windows. You really have ~34 hours worth of lecture per week?

Also, keep in mind that again, "I need time to chill, relax" is a priority choice which you are making over working out. This isn't a judgement, and for a medical student, it isn't something that people generally choose between, but it is not uncommon in surgical residency for that to be a sacrifice people choose to make.

 

[Vexare]

Also depends on what you mean by "working out." For some people this means running every day, yoga, kickboxing, hiking, biking - the possibilities are endless. If you meant weightlifting, then start on a routine that yields results and isn't a huge time sink. I recommend stronglifts 5x5 (http://stronglifts.com/). No better way to build strength and muscle with minimal time commitment (each workout runs between 30-60 min) and you only work out 3x/wk.

 

[SBem2]

eat, study, lift bruh

 

[Yaravan]

moderation is key. every other day is doable. make it into a side gig

 

[sliceofbread136]

You will almost certainly have significantly less time as an ms3

 

[epsilonprodigy]

I remember being worried about this too, but I (non-judgmentally) second those who have suggested that it comes down to priorities. You can find time for working out as many days/week as you want, even on the worst rotations, but this doesn't mean you won't sacrifice something else. Sometimes, this will be some sleep. This isn't the right choice for everyone- for me personally, I can't function without a lot of exercise- I get dumber, bitchier, sleepier and just generally less like a person you'd want as your doctor. Knowing this, I worked out 5x/week even on my worst rotation, where I was illegally pulling 110 weeks.

Two key components are splitting up the time and finding something really high yield (running>>>>exercise bike, etc.) One thing that's worked for me is squeezing in even 15 min in the morning (which you can do no matter what time you have to be there) and then doing a 30-min or so workout in the evening 4 times a week. This was enough to trick my body. The downside: you either shower way too much or way to seldom ;-)

 

[URHere]

How easy this is depends on what kind of workout you prefer. During my PhD, I did a lot of MMA training and I was in the gym for 2-4 hours 6 days a week. During MS3, I couldn't make classes or open mat times, so I basically went down to maybe 1 hour/week of gym time. I could have easily taken up running or cycling, but that was never really my thing.

That being said, I'm trying to make it my thing so that I can burn off some of this new MS3/4 fluffiness. Unstructured exercise is doable if you really want it, and I miss my abs.

 

[TypeADissection]

It'll depend largely on the rotation you're on. Surgery and OBGYN come to mind as rotations where it was difficult to get a regular workout in. Peds, psych, FP and anything very outpatient where the days end around 1600-1700 made getting to the gym very doable. You'll be fine. Just accept you won't be winning Mr Universe during your last two years of med school. Cheers.

PS - Doing CPR during code blues is a great way to workout your shoulders and arms. Just be sure to roll up your sleeves beforehand to flash them triceps. If your sleeves don't roll up then take off your shirt. Nurses will love it. Everything is more intense when you take off your shirt - street fighting, making sex, and pooping.

 

[frosted_flake]

Do you meal prep? You could easily cook for 1.5-2 hours MAX 2 times a week and have meals for the rest of the week (breakfast, lunch and dinner). Also, it makes "grabbing and going" much easier.

Not to mention you won't be eating a bunch of fast food/junk food.

 

[Patho_logical]

There are a lot of quicker workouts you could do.

I think the popular p90x program has a newer p90x 3 with 30 minute workouts. Surely you could wake up 30 minutes earlier to squeeze one of those in.

Sorry about your schedule. I was definitely in a lot better position to study as a M2 than a M3. We had a couple weeks between tests. But then had a full week of tests (Monday-Friday). Test weeks were rough but in between it was better than M1. M4....I could probably train for and complete 10 marathons if I wanted to.