Years of training ruined by months of sedentary living?

[University.Kid]

Alright guys my training has been going very well, I have managed to bulk up to over 205lbs at 5'10 with a fairly low BF% (~10%). I've been at the gym for years but I have enjoyed my best results over the past 8 months when I've taken a power lifter type approach to training.

Now here's the problem.

Being a University student, I was looking for a way to make as much money as possible through the summer in order to be able to pay off my student loans. Although training is a huge priority of mine, being financially independant and graduating University debt-free overide my love for training.

With these financial goals in mind, I took a job driving a gravel truck for a road construction company out in the Prairies. I will be on a road crew which travels around small towns working on roads, staying in motels for usually only a few nights before moving. I will be sitting in a truck driving 14 hour days 7 days a week, having to pack meals with no way to cook them. Obviously there is no way for me to get into a gym.

Keeping this in mind, I was wondering what is the best way to preserve as much muscle as possible? I get to bring around a suitcase with me so are there any training devices you can recommend? What type of exercises should I be doing? So far I have thought of sprinting, push-ups, sit-ups, planks, foot raises, bench dips (use a chair and a bed) any other ideas? Any ideas for food?

What kind of muscle/strength lose can I expect over a 3.5 month period? Will I have to work as hard to get it back come September when I re-dedicate myself, or is 'muscle memory' for real?

I know this is a very bad situation training-wise, but in just 1 summer I will be able to pay off 2 full years of school and with jobs being so hard to find with the economy as is, I simply cannot afford to pass up this opportunity.

Any tips/advice/past experiences would be really helpful.

EDIT: I head out May 1 and will return mid to late August.

 

[speed dawg]

You're young, dude, don't even sweat it. You need to work and make the money, sounds like a great opportunity.

As far as staying in shape, do bodyweight exercises at night, wherever you stay. Pushups, pullups, lunges, situps, running, sprinting, just doing those will keep you in shape to where you don't lose very much. As far as eating goes, that will take planning but can be done.

 

[Bible_Belt]

As far as staying in shape, do bodyweight exercises at night, wherever you stay. Pushups, pullups, lunges, situps, running, sprinting, just doing those will keep you in shape to where you don't lose very much. As far as eating goes, that will take planning but can be done.


I was thinking the same thing about the body weight exercises. I was also wondering if sandbags can be made out of gravel...

You could also bulk up like crazy to add as much mass as possible before you go, and then think of your summer as one long cutting phase. Body weight exercises will drop body fat all that you want if you manage your diet.

 

[magickarl]

I was also wondering if sandbags can be made out of gravel...

Fantastic idea.

If you were to get a cable, and a collapsible bar stand (you could build one with steel pipe for around $50. The whole thing would fit in a lawn chair bag) You could fill a bag with gravel. Attach the cable to the bag, and utilize your home built stand. Possible exercises include curls, pull-downs, wrist curls, etc. With a little imagination you could even engineer a sort of leg press.

The beauty of the whole thing is that after you are finished, you can wind up your cable, dump the gravel back in your truck, and break down your stand apparatus in to the gravel bag.

Another plus is that instead of carrying around an entire set of weights, you can simply just fill the bag up to the necessary weight. Gravel adds up fast. A punching bag full of gravel probably weighs several hundred pounds.

 

[Paintballguy]

When I don't have time to make it out to the gym, I just do as many bodyweight exercises as possible. I picked up one of those door pull up bars. They are great.

 

[shock]

Also, alot of hotels (maybe not so much motels) will have a small workout/fitness area. I think you are on the right track though....you'll be able to maintain quite a bit with just BW exercises and decent diet.

Don't fret it man... Sounds like a pretty sweet gig. Good luck

 

[University.Kid]

Alright thanks for the replies thus far guys. I went into a Wal-Mart today to check out if there was anything that I could buy that would help me out.

I plan to buy an adjustable pull-up bar so that I can do pull-ups/chin-ups in any doorway. Also I believe that I am going to buy one of those tensor things (not sure of the name). Basically it's like a long plastic tube that stretches, the guy told me that if you step on it with both feet you can do bicep curls, the wider you set your feet apart, the more tension and the higher the strain. Also I would think that if I put it around the foot of the bed, I could do a sort-of cable chest press.

The gravel bag thing is a good idea, but unfortunately we park the trucks at the site at night then come back in work trucks, so not alot of time to be filling bags with gravel. So for right now I would say it's not an option, but I will see what I can do when I arrive. As for the gyms, I talked to a guy who did the job last year and they usually stay in cheap motels, so I doubt I'll be seeing many of them.

Just wondering, if I'm not getting into the gym and simply doing bw exercises, should I still be only working out 3 days per week or should I increase the frequency of work outs? I'm thinking if I was going to do a split it would be something like this, however I have no idea how many sets to do, since for the reps I will just be doing as many as possible.

Day 1: Chest/Tris
Bench dips
Push-ups
Cable chest press (w band thing)
Shoulder raises (w band thing)

Day 2: Back/Bi's
Pull-ups
Chin-ups
Bicep Curls (w band thing)
Back flyes? (w band thing)

Day 3: Legs/Abs/Shoulders
Lunges
1 Legged squats
Crunches
Planks

I'll probably incorporate sprinting and possibly burpees a few days per week, any suggestions with how to handle this?

I think I am going to try to cut (hate to say it) since bulking is going to be hard/impossible to do. Although I still have the abs that I had at 130 lbs a few years ago, there is a new small layer of fat over them and I am no longer vascular at all (even lost my bicep vain ). I'm truly not interested in cutting right now, but I know that on the road to 220+, I am eventually going to have to cut some of the fat, so what better time than when I can't gain weight?

Any/all suggestions are welcome guys whether it be about the routine/diet or just general tips.

 

[Throttle]

maintain the protein in your diet as close to what you've been getting while training as possible. do some searching for tips on how to pack high protein food and keep it warm/cold as appropriate.

 

[mrRuckus]

When I don't have time to make it out to the gym, I just do as many bodyweight exercises as possible. I picked up one of those door pull up bars. They are great.

Yes, pullups and chinups beat the hell out of your entire upper body. I doubt you'd lose much strength hitting these as often as possible. Probably even gain some.

I have an Iron Gym. It works great.

I got it because my gym doesn't have anywhere to do chinups. It's nice to be able to bail out of the gym early on chinning days and be able to do the chins at night, especially with a few hours rest between the workouts to really give the chins my all.

Day 2: Back/Bi's
Pull-ups
Chin-ups
Bicep Curls (w band thing)
Back flyes? (w band thing)

I wouldn't even bother with that other stuff. Just do a lot of pullup and chinup sets. Chinups are great for biceps.

 

[Quagmire911]

Weighted pressups (if you can chuck anything on your back, maybe a gravel bag) one arm pressups, one legged squats.

The most important thing is a enough protein and calories to keep the weight up. Once you hit the weights properly again, you will get back to your old numbers fast on account of muscle memory.

 

[dispatch]

I was talking to my mate the other day, who should back me up here. He's studying exercise science/physiology etc and apparently there is no such thing as muscle memory - according to his lecturers. It's all a misconception. Your brain keeps its old connections regarding the movements, but your muscles don't remember the actual stress of the exercise.

On a more helpful note - one leg squats are probably even better than two legged ones if u can grab something heavy while doing them. Do as much of these as you can, the rest of your plan sounds good.

Feeling your pain - dispatch.

 

[Hooligan Harry]

I was talking to my mate the other day, who should back me up here. He's studying exercise science/physiology etc and apparently there is no such thing as muscle memory - according to his lecturers. It's all a misconception. Your brain keeps its old connections regarding the movements, but your muscles don't remember the actual stress of the exercise.

On a more helpful note - one leg squats are probably even better than two legged ones if u can grab something heavy while doing them. Do as much of these as you can, the rest of your plan sounds good.

Feeling your pain - dispatch.

Those are the same people that used to say low carb dieting was bad for you and all fat intake was bad for the heart.

Muscle memory is a fact. Once you have achieved a certain size, it does not take long to get back to that point.

http://www.thinkmuscle.com/articles/haycock/muscle-memory.htm

 

[dispatch]

HH,

I don't have the expertise to argue the fine details, I would believe that muscle cells retain characteristics of hypertrophied states - I'm sure no-one is arguing that - I just think the term 'muscle memory' may be a bit misleading or a misnomer of some kind.

But yeah, I'm no expert so I can't say anything for sure.

 

[Hooligan Harry]

Dispatch, when it comes to building muscle, its by no means a myth.

Half the people studying this crap have never set foot in a gym. They are years behind bodybuilders and athletes when it comes to understanding the dynamics of nutrition and the individual. These are people that live it, not study it.

Muscle memory is due to the fascia surrounding the muscle being 'pre-stretched'. The fascia is a rubber like tissue that surrounds muscle fibers. It is very much a limiting factor in how much muscle mass one can produce in a given time period. When you stretch or do a motion like dumbbell flyes and you feel that burn thats not actually the muscle but the fascia hurting. The fascia influences the growth of a muscle so much that some people will incorporate movements in their routine specifically for stretching the fascia to allow for more muscle growth. When a muscle undergoes hypertropy the surrounding fascia has to stretch to compensate. If at some point that muscle atrophies the fascia will still remain relatively the same size, so when the muscle begins growing again the fascia is much less of a limiting factor up to a certain size.

That equates to rapid growth on a comeback.

 

[Quiksilver]

the dynamics of nutrition and the individual.

This is what everyone look to other people, namedly "experts", for help with. Sadly it's a waste of time because the only way to figure this stuff out is to do it for yourself and see what works & what doesn't for YOU.

 

[mrRuckus]

I was talking to my mate the other day, who should back me up here. He's studying exercise science/physiology etc and apparently there is no such thing as muscle memory - according to his lecturers. It's all a misconception. Your brain keeps its old connections regarding the movements, but your muscles don't remember the actual stress of the exercise.

Talk about taking it literally...

Do they object to the phrase "i love you with all of my heart" too?

 

[Dannyrt34]

I was talking to my mate the other day, who should back me up here. He's studying exercise science/physiology etc and apparently there is no such thing as muscle memory - according to his lecturers. It's all a misconception. Your brain keeps its old connections regarding the movements, but your muscles don't remember the actual stress of the exercise.

No sh't

That's what muscle memory means. I'm sure most everyone knows that their muscles don't actually have memories.

 

[Quagmire911]

No sh't

That's what muscle memory means. I'm sure most everyone knows that their muscles don't actually have memories.

:yes:

 

[dispatch]

thanks for that contribution man.

 

[Fuglydude]

First of all, congrats on the progress.

You say you're going to be driving a gravel truck around...I'm sure your crew wouldn't mind if you helped them haul gravel and other crap around like you gotta do at construction sites. Its a different type of full body workout that you can get if you have a highly physical job. If you're used to going to the gym all the time, working in a physical job is a different type of workout that forces your body to adapt to a different kind of exercise.

If you can't haul stuff around, I agree w/ the guys that said focus on doing bodyweight movements, and keeping your nutrition high in protein, and as clean as you can. I'd definitely invest in a large 10-20 lb bucket of protein over the summer. Keep a shaker bottle and some of the protein in your truck and have it w/ meals.