As a Self-Employed handyman spring and early summer are my busiest time of year.
This is by far not the optimal plan for health and fitness, but it is one I can be consistent with. Right now I have to get to work. Improvement is always the goal, but it’s to maintain my fitness this season.
This is the stripped-down “most bang for your buck” version.
Weekends are the most important days.
Usually, I take Weekends off though Sometimes scheduling doesn’t allow it.
Any two days you take off will work even if they aren’t consecutive. but days with the lightest load are best. I schedule the highest-value activities then. These two days are interchangeable to allow for weather and availability.
These two days are intense but allow the rest of the week while you work to be easy days.
Saturday
Weightlifting.
On this day we make time for a quality Full body session. This won’t be our only strength training session but the goal is to be intense enough that it can be if necessary. My favorite for this is a 5×5 Full body session. I also like to perform this in an alternating superset fashion for the sake of time efficiency.
If you aren’t used to this level of intensity, work your way up to it slowly or you will be sore for half the week.
Sunday
Sprints or HIIT.
For Cardio, again our goal is intensity. Look for workouts to increase V02 Max. I’m doing 4 x 4-minute intervals with 4-minute rest periods. A good warm-up and cool-down are crucial. again, don’t go straight to this if you aren’t used to it. Go easy at first.
This is the end of part one. In two days we have covered two out of three of the most critical aspects of fitness. In part two I’ll cover a simple daily routine to round out the program. Also, Let me know if you are interested, and I will post some specific workout examples.
This is Part 2. The weekday edition. In part 1 we filled our weekend with the highest-value activities. This way the work week is less stressful.
Weekdays
Mobility is essential for manual laborers.
Those little niggles that pop up from time to time turn into injuries. Compounding injuries end careers. Many of the people I know that had factory jobs wound up completely broken and on disability in their 50s. my plan to avoid this has two parts
- 10-minute mobility daily on weekdays
- 2nd 5-10-minute sessions focused on any problem areas.
The first mobility session is a part of my morning routine and acts as a warm-up for the day. The second session is done at night 2 or 3 days a week on whatever problem area needs the most work at the time. this can be done while watching TV.
Calisthenics builds functional strength
Add 15 minutes of calisthenics on Tues and Thurs. This will round out the strength part of the program. This is a full-body workout including chin-ups, push-ups, and lunges. If you prefer, a dumbbell workout could be substituted here also.
Afternoon walks to round out step count
Some days I hit 10K steps long before the workday is over. On other days I’ll add a walk in the afternoon or after dinner so that I hit that target. This is an easy way to ensure you hit a certain level of activity every day. There are many other benefits of course but we’ll save that for another day.
That’s it. A quick and basic routine that should get you a long way with little time commitment. There have been times in my career when even this is too much. The Saturday strength workout should be enough to maintain your strength and muscle mass. If you wind up skipping some of the strength workouts during the week, that’s ok. I encourage you not to skip the mobility ones though. Let me know how it works for you.
