I am helping a friend get back into the gym, and using this opportunity as a stepping stone to get into personal training. My friend works a 14 and 14 day rotation away as a roughneck on a drilling rig and has no access to gym equipment. His main goal is hypertrophy, and while he is on his 2 weeks home he has asked me to train him. My go to thought is to introduce him to one of the hypertrophy templates. Only having the ability to train 2 weeks at a time, is there a better way to get more training “bang for his buck” or would you recommend sticking to a 3 or 4 day a week style of training?
He is under-weight with little body fat which is the result of his job on the rig being quite physical. I’ve already told him that while he is away he needs to concentrate on a high protein diet, while watching his calorie intake until he sees an uptick in his weight and regulate from there. He understands that the “gainzZz” won’t come easy, but that its just the nature of his job. Do you have any recommendations for someone in this type of situation? Any help is appreciated!
Thank you everyone on the BBM team for everything you guys do, I love all the content ya’ll put out. Keep up the outstanding work!
If there is absolutely no way for him to get any training in for two weeks at a time while away, that will present a substantial challenge. He can still make some progress, but there will likely be issues related to soreness upon his return from being away, particularly if you throw too much training volume at him (given his goal of hypertrophy). You will just have to be cautious with the dose of training and see how he responds before making adjustments to things like training frequency or volume.
I agree with your general dietary recommendations.
i have a hard time thinking that there is no way of him training at all. How about goblet squats with heavy tools, squatting with someone on your shoulders, curling with some heavy tools, push ups with someone sitting on his back, rowing something,…
Sure, its not perfect, but shouldnt this help with soreness when he comes back? Perfect programming it is not. I get it. As i understood he wants to get more jacked “somehow”, so we need to think out of the box and try to make the best of it.
I do get that he is working long shifts probably. Like 12hrs on and 12 hrs off. but how much more taxing will the new training regime be if he is already doing his job for (maybe) years anyway?
What would be drawbacks to my approach: 2 weeks in the gym and “proper” programming and the two weeks at work doing some exercises somehow?
Thank you very much for answering Austin. I am never sure whether i would be “allowed to answer” or whether you like to see some members throwing in ideas in your moderated threads.
I thought of:
Doing exercises like that, after a 12hr shift (i just continue with the idea of 12hrs on 12hrs off shifts) might be problematic in the sense of “load management” i.e… Totally wrecked dude, doing 12hrs shifts and then has to do, idk, 4 sets of push-ups with some dude on his back and squats with some tool boxes,… - RPE might be difficult to judge maybe.
I am saying: I dont know what i dont know why my approach would not be the best in this case
I’ve trained when working a 12 on / 12 off schedule, and you make the best of it. RPE is not “more difficult to judge” when you’re tired, it just is what it is. An autoregulated program should take care of the load management within reason.
Hey guys, thanks for all the replies. After talking with him once he got to his new location, he does have access to some weights such as free weights and kettle bells. He does stay fairly active during his 12hrs of work and he does try to maintain his calories. Being his job was physically demanding, I emphasized the need to eat enough to maintain his body weight and to keep his protein intake high. He’s doing everything he can, and I will take Austin’s advice and hold the reins back on his two weeks home in the gym to avoid major soreness. Best part about it is that he’s very motivated and wants to do everything possible. Thanks for everyone’s replies. Nothing but good info on this forum!
