Who here works a hard labour Job?

[Hannibal]

I have an extremly hard job ...well now that I have 8 years seniority it is only hard 2 days a week...the rest of the week I get to do relitivly easy jobs...but the tough day ...I pick orders for a magor grocery store chain ...you lift 30-50000lbs each day ....depends on the orders ...for instance an order in the bakery aisle ...where bags of flour and sugar and cake mix ..weigh in a 50 lbs a piece ....a 5000lbs order and 30 minutes to do it in is not unusual ....I don't know how the hell the little guys at my work do it! ...and to top all that off you walk 6-8 miles per day! These numbersa I am quoting are not bullshit ...at the bottom of the page of and order sheet it tells us how much the order weighs...you have to guess on the walking distance ...but i have measured it out with a pedometer.
As for how this affects my training ...you are pretty beat at the end of the day so preformance in the gym is usually not 100% of you best. most people that start at my job lose 10-15 pounds the first month ....the skinny and the fat.

Deepsquat...I did the same thing for a couple years. And yeah it will make you or break you. Have to keep drinking water ALL DAY...and up the caloric intake. Your body adjusts to it overtime as your work capacity increases. In fact I am about to go back to selecting next week. So I know it wont be a great week in the gym because I will be sore. But your body adapts.

 

[WarriorPL]

I think you would benefit from a hard labour job. I know many people who have never lifted a day in their lives, but have been in construction for years and are stronger than the average Joe. I saw a friend lift a 250+ lb man one handed by his neck. Forearms are huge!!!

 

[argent]

For the past four summers I've had a labor intensive job and it CAN drain you at times. It doesn't have to though. I actually started using some of the work as high intensity cardio workouts. For instance, trying to load 40 bags(80lbs) of concrete into the back of a truck bed in 3 min. Just stupid stuff like that.

Anyways, you can still make good gains, just don't expect to hit PR's every week.

 

[Haz]

I used to unload and load trailers for up to 40 hours a week back in my college days. It was grueling work, and I had ALOT of trouble maintaining mass let alone building any. I was making sure I ate a ton, but it never seemed enough. In the summers it was especially rough, i would go through a gallon of water every couple of hours or so. Then after lifting heavy ass boxes for 8 hours (I had to work like maniac because they would always put me in the toughest trailers) I would go to the gym and try and lift heavy ass weights. Ephedrine and caffeine were my friends back then.

So I wouldn't recommend going my route if your goal is to build lots of mass. However, i was cut to shreds and still eating alot of junk food, so I guess its not all bad.

 

[MidwestJ]

Man definately think about this one. I've had labor jobs for like the last - summers when not in school and depending on the job, it makes it awfully hard to get in there and lift. Man...1 job I had workin on a tree crew/landscape outfit COMPLETELY drained me. Man I probably lifted 10 times that summer it sucked so bad. If you don't have to man, definately reconsider. I cringe everytime I see/hear a chipper/chip truck.