Weightlifting in EM

[Swingman]

I'm an MS4 with tons of time on my hands and I've recently been getting back into a semi-serious weightlifting routine (mostly functional push/pull movements and Olympic lifts).

Any residents/attendings out there with similar interests? If so, I'm curious how you incorporate training, meal prep, recovery, etc. into the crazy schedules dictated by our specialty.

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[Erek94]

Fellow gym bro here. Also Ms4 so maybe not what your looking for but I've come to learn that cutting down to a 3 day split instead of 4-5 allowed me to get most of my main lifts in with good time for recovery and mixing in cardio whenever. I feel like anybody can fit 3 days a week into the craziest of schedules otherwise you're just making excuses.

I do need to be more committed to meal prep as I'm sure this can only make things easier. Luckily I have a fiancé that likes to cook.

 

[Amazingmuzmo]

RU aware?

 

[dotcb]

I've been working out 30-90 minutes, 5-7 days/week for the last 20 years. Little has changed during any phase in that time. It's just about priorities and for me - I find that being active makes me better in the rest of my life (better mood, more alert, stress relief, etc.). As an attending, I have plenty of time to sleep well, eat well, and get things done around my ED shifts. I cook a lot of my own food and try to bring it work in order to avoid the many break room temptations.

 

[Janders]

I made the mistake as an intern of not getting a gym membership to save $$.

Not worth it. Staying physically active-- I always liked lifting-- pays off in a multitude of ways.

As an attending, even with kids, its not THAT hard to lift. I have a (dank, ugly) basement now. Its got a squat rack and bench and pullup bar and such. I can lift any time. EASY to get an hour in a few times a week.

 

[Angry Birds]

I used to be in great shape in college and medical school. Residency killed me. I had to pick between sleep and family life or gym. I chose the former, but I'm still battling the weight from residency and trying to get back to hitting the weights. My body doesn't respond the same way any more to weight-lifting, and it's frustrating. I don't keep gains easily and it takes a lot more effort for less benefit.

However, I know plenty of people in EM who managed to keep going to the gym during residency. Being single helps a lot in this regard.

My advice is to NOT do what I did and make sure to maintain good eating habits and going to the gym.

 

[hundreddaysoff]

I second the weight rack in basement idea. Your schedule will be totally random and being able to lift any time 24/7 to adapt to whatever sleep schedule you're on is key. I'm actually lifting more now as an intern than when I was traveling all over as an MS4.

 

[BAM!]

I feel like anybody can fit 3 days a week into the craziest of schedules otherwise you're just making excuses.

Wait till you have multiple young kids at home and see if you feel the same way.

 

[hoot504]

If ortho finds the time, you can too.

 

[Angry Birds]

Fellow gym bro here. Also Ms4 so maybe not what your looking for but I've come to learn that cutting down to a 3 day split instead of 4-5 allowed me to get most of my main lifts in with good time for recovery and mixing in cardio whenever. I feel like anybody can fit 3 days a week into the craziest of schedules otherwise you're just making excuses.

I do need to be more committed to meal prep as I'm sure this can only make things easier. Luckily I have a fiancé that likes to cook.

I think a lot of self professed gym bro's think everyone else is just making excuses, but as someone who has been a gym bro before, I can tell you that the gym takes up a big chunk of one's time, which you can be dedicating it to other things. In my case, it was to my scholarly career outside of EM.

Having said that, I do need to shunt time back to the gym and will be doing that. But it's not as easy as I was just making excuses before. Rather I had to pick between one thing and another thing as far as divvying up my time, which is precious.

 

[DeadCactus]

I weight lift for general fitness. I find it much easier to stick with it on months I'm not in the ED (even though I generally work more hours) just because of the more consistent schedule but still doable in the ED. It would be even easier if I had a convenient 24 hour gym or bought my own stuff for home. It really comes down to your priorities. I stay busy with academic pursuits and prefer to get outdoors for my exercise so I cut down from doing weights every other day to only twice a week and I don't follow a strictly engineered diet. The Stronglifts 5x5 program previously mentioned is what I've been doing. I think it's easy to cram into most schedules and should at least maintain things when you hit rough patches that preclude making progress.

 

[Hercules]

Wait till you have multiple young kids at home and see if you feel the same way.

This is completely true. In college and med school I would work out 5-6 days a week with 60-90 mins of weights and another 60+ mins of cardio. It was a ton of fun and I was in great shape. Now as an attending, husband, and father of 4 kids, I quite simply don't have that type of time to spend. I still lift and probably make it about 3 times a week most weeks (although between clinical shifts, admin meetings, and parenting duties there are weeks where that's not going to happen). Now the workouts are a lot shorter. I lift for 30-45 mins with much lighter weights. Unless I have a long race coming up I rarely do cardio for more than -45 mins. As I've gotten older the diet and meal preps have become much more important, too.

As quoted above, kids change everything.


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