I just posted in the nutritional forum that I was losing weight, making gains, and enjoying my training. And now I am probably going to have to stop again.
I’m a University Professor in Agronomy. I’m busy and I travel a lot. I don’t have a home gym, but I lift three days a week during my lunch “hour” at a very well equipped gym. It takes me about 2-2.5 hours do get a lifting and cardio session in the same day. This works for me most of the time.
But I am traveling next week to do field research where I won’t have access to anything other than a hotel gym. Then I will be traveling about every other week for the next three months with similar restrictions.
What ends up happening, and it’s been happening for years, is I start making good progress lifting, and then I stop barbell training for several months. During these seasons of life I end up doing kettlebell and dumbbell circuits, burpees, anything really to keep active. But I stop getting bigger numbers in the big three.
When these seasons pass, I find I have lost zero strength, but then it’s back to six to eight weeks of barbell training and then back to doing something else.
I can not make it to the gym on weekends so if I am traveling for work I am looking at maybe just one day a week, at most, with a barbell.
I’m kind of always vacillating between “one day I will be able to consistently barbell train” and “I should just embrace the flexibility and variety of constantly switching between body weight, barbells, and kettlebells for life”.
From a health standpoint I don’t think it matters, and I have been at my leanest when I was not doing the barbell training but embracing other forms of lifting.
A normal hotel workout would be dumbbell or kettlebells RDLs/ squats/ Rows / cleans/ and presses for anything from 10-20 reps depending on the weights available, and maybe five sets. I get a pump, I’m winded, and then I jump on a rower, treadmill, or jump rope for 30 minutes. I’m out of the gym in a good hour or so but I’m not very strong considering the number or hours I spend training.
If I am doing this sort of programing, or lack thereof, when I do get access to a barbell I kind of just pick weights on how I am feeling and work up to a heavy set of 3-5 in the squat, deadlift, and press knowing it might be a few weeks before I get the opportunity again.
Is there a way to program for this or should I just embrace my lifestyle, and be consistent in getting in lifting days that involve inconsistent access to equipment?