Work and swimming

My son works in animation too, and his schedule has always been crazy. Luckily he is now a contractor for Uncle Sam & has more regular hours, but his trick was to do some sort of exercise three times a day - some drylands before work, up & down the stairs at lunch, and then a solid workout after work, in the evenings. But he is single. And not a swimmer. I'm a medical sort & have very long hours once I show up - so I don't usually get a lunch & when I'm off, the pools are closed. So, I workout at 5 or 5:30 in the morning. When I was doing odd shifts, sometimes I would workout at lunch or in the evening, but always first thing after waking, so I couldn't put it off. I am way too old & tired to be doing workout once I get home in the evenings (or mornings, depending on the day). You need to find a pool and hopefully a workout group that has workouts at lots of different times of the day & then plan your life around your swimming. Make the swimming a priority, and you'll always find time to do it.

& then plan your life around your swimming. Make the swimming a priority, and you'll always find time to do it I like it! I'm basically this way now. I actually talked my boss into starting me 30 minutes later at work (which allows me to get a full hour of swimming in the morning), and then rush straight to work. :) If I swim in the evenings, I'll do it while my kids are at swim lessons, or (thankfully I have a live-in mother-in-law who can watch my kids for an hour or so on other evenings.

500 yard swim is much better than not swimming. Take a 2 minute break every hour. Each hour can be 2 minutes of plank, pushups, situps, or whatever. Doing this might even sharpen productivity. Try to avoid sitting there too much without a brief break. Also, Eat vegetables, and protein drinks.

Make the swimming a priority, and you'll always find time to do it. Don't get me wrong, I've always done that. I worked on numerous TV series and feature movies and always kept up my swimming 5 days a week. When I worked on a major feature movie once that lasted for a year I always went swimming after work around 9pm. Now I'm working for an animation company(free-lance at home) and doing my own animated short films on the side which often has me working 12 hours a day, often until 4-5 in the morning. To get that extra concentration I am purposely not going swimming because I know I won't be as crisp to do my work with the same concentration, if you know what I mean. It's kinda a catch-22 situation: if I work out I will be generally fitter but will always feel drained from the workout at some point of the day and less concentrated for my work, and if I don't work out, I gain weight, feel unfit, get back pain from too much sitting, feel sluggish but I have more concentration for my work. I don't know if anyone can relate.

Lui, I think many of us can relate as we deal with a similar balancing act. For me, I find myself most productive on the days I swim first thing in the morning. Fitter = more focus, for me, at least.

I was wondering if others take a break if they have too much work on their plate too. I can train hard and work hard on the same day, but I can't sustain both simultaneously for weeks or months at a time. To the central nervous system, stress is stress, and it's cumulative. If you spend more time with your HR and BP up than you can recover from, you will become overtrained, and then both mentally and physically unhealthy, no matter whether the elevated HR and BP are from working out, or from listening to a client yell at you while you try to figure out how to get off the phone so that you can complete four other things for four other clients who are not currently yelling but who will be soon, or from grief over bad events in your family, or whatever else. As Allen suggested, for me swimming easier and less is a better approach than not swimming at all. I see my friends, and I focus on technique and flexibility, but I slack. The swimming becomes a recovery exercise, not a high-intensity physical stressor. I spent most of this year that way, which meant I competed seldom and poorly but at least I am still alive and reasonably healthy.

To get that extra concentration I am purposely not going swimming because I know I won't be as crisp to do my work with the same concentration, if you know what I mean. It's kinda a catch-22 situation: if I work out I will be generally fitter but will always feel drained from the workout at some point of the day and less concentrated for my work, and if I don't work out, I gain weight, feel unfit, get back pain from too much sitting, feel sluggish but I have more concentration for my work. I personally think you would benefit from breaking up your day with a swim. Not, perhaps a 4000 m super charged, super fast workout, but like Allan said, perhaps a 1500. Getting up and out of your chair will not only help your metabolism, avoid back pain and that sluggish feeling, but going to the pool may refresh your brain as well. Sitting for too long makes more than your skeletal muscles stagnate, you know. You might have to set an alarm clock for 1/2 way through your work day - I know how easy it can be to get lost in your work, and then suddenly realize that it's dark outside and the day is gone! Sometimes I have taken a break from swimming too - but not a complete break - in grad school I had to satisfy myself with swimming twice a week, by myself, for about 2500-3000 - but at least I kept my feel for the water. Competing and improving in swimming wasn't my priority at that time, but it was a good physical outlet for frustrations!

I also have quite hectic days. I run from work back home to be with my 3 very energetic boys (3 of them) and after dinner, bath and bed time story I have nothing left in me not to mention a workout. So what i do is to wake up at 5 AM and swim before the gang wakes up. I think that intensity of the workout makes a huge difference in the way i feel later on that day. If I do intensive intervals I will feel it later on. But if I have a day that i need to be fully concentratede at work then I would have a moderate workout. you can swim for 3000 yds in a moderate pace and feel great after. Keep the intensive workouts for the weekends.

Didn't mean to come off as a "Debbie Downer" but sometimes go through these waves of emotions....even more so during the holidays. Allen is completely right. Since I got back in the water 3-1/2 years ago (after not swimming since college 17 years ago prior) its made a world of difference physically, mentally and emotionally. I'll be back in next week....in all my fatness.:D Hey, Lump, good luck! :cheerleader: I hope you will decide to go to the Auburn meet, but, if you don't, it's understandable... Good luck with your job search! :chug:

It sucks, but life throws you curveballs. I know what you mean. In my animation career I had no work shortly after 9/11 because it had influence on the economy(or maybe a coincidence). Although I had much more time, I didn't train at all because I could hardly afford the pool fee after a few months and I wasn't focused. My priorities was to find work. I have to swim,it is not a luxury,it is a very important part of my physical and psychological well being,just like eating,sleeping and breathing. Sure you can take off the 10 lb later,but what if later is in 2 yr and it is 30 lb. If 4000 yd is unworkable and is draining of energy instead of energizing try 1500 three times a week. You're 100% right. I'm only doing this short-term. Long term it will backfire: weight gain, back pain and other aches, plus the psychological factor, like feeling more depressed. Normally working out should be an important priority and I'm glad that I managed to keep it up most of my 20 year work career. Your suggestion of at least training 1500 three times a week makes sense. I feel a bit embarrassed though because I gained weight. I know it's silly but I was never over-weight:o I can train hard and work hard on the same day, but I can't sustain both simultaneously for weeks or months at a time. To the central nervous system, stress is stress, and it's cumulative. If you spend more time with your HR and BP up than you can recover from, you will become overtrained, and then both mentally and physically unhealthy, no matter whether the elevated HR and BP are from working out, or from listening to a client yell at you while you try to figure out how to get off the phone so that you can complete four other things for four other clients who are not currently yelling but who will be soon, or from grief over bad events in your family, or whatever else. I remember once when I worked on a feature movie that was pretty stressful, I went swimming every lunch hour. In addition to that I went to 3 hour life drawing classes after work 2-3 times a week(which were offered by our company). I also went to Wing Chun(Kung Fu) lessons 1-2 evenings a week and did a lot of bodyweight training. After about 6 months I felt like a wreck and got a cold about once a month. I dropped the Wing Chun and only went to life drawing once a week after that. That was seriously too much.:D