PSA to gymcels: focus on the summer internship
This is a light hearted post so don't take anything by it!
It's targeted to a small group of people here who like going to the gym and view it as a top priority in their lives AKA gymcels
One of the reasons why I didn't get a return offer from a BB coverage group was because of my gymcelling antics.
I wanted to go to the gym so much that I used to wake up at 5 am, get to the gym by 5.30, hit the gym for an hour max doing giant sets. I would then leave and get changed to be in the office by 9. I commuted to the office too which is why I got up so early (please don't commute like I did).
That routine stopped REAL quick. Once you start leaving late at around 2 am, there's no way you're going to the gym early in the morning. Somehow, my analyst was able to do it...dunno how. I should've checked out the office gym but heard it was always packed smh
But I always felt really off and weird if I didn't hit the gym. I felt as if my muscles would atrophy from sitting on my ass all day so I was always looking for ways to get to it somehow. If it hit 11 PM and things were really quiet (quiet to me was a maximum of 2 analysts still in the office + checking there's no work), I would go, hit the gym and continue WFH if need be.
Stop. Don't be like me. Just get the idea of going to the gym out of your head. If you want that return offer, it should be the only thing you focus on (without saying it aloud). Of course I wanted it. Actually I vividly remember thinking constantly to work harder. But I didn't really move priorities around. I thought I could balance it and it just didn't work.
Focus on the internship, stay if there isn't work and leave when everyone else leaves including the other interns. I had a really great guy as the other intern and he left later than me most of the time (for other reasons, he wasn't a sweat).
The gym will always be there on the weekend. It will be there when you finish. Your return offer won't be there if those of you who are gymcels keeping being one. Just imagine it's return offer day and you're walking across the lobby to get to a private room with your staffer and intern buddy. You've awkwardly had to shuffle by the people crying because they find out they didn't get it (yeah it happened in my case which was sad). Do you want that conversation to end with your staffer telling you to leave your ID on your desk before you leave?
Ofc there were other reasons too lololol
Enjoy the summer internship! Lots of fun
Yeah screw your health, get the return offer to work inhumane hours
Yes
as an intern yeah, you can switch up and focus on gym when you start full time (just assume your bonus might suck / you might get fired sooner, but worth it imo)
It’s so you don’t have to end up going to B-school to recruit for corp strat
Whenever I don't hit the gym regularly I physically feel my muscles atrophy. It's super weird, and I mostly get it in my legs (pain, weakness for a couple days in my legs if I haven't done cardio or gym in a while). I will still grind in the gym, but I'm also going to stay realistic and aim for ~3 days a week, and maybe just go twice on a Saturday/Sunday to keep in shape. Going to be tough to cut over the summer, but 1.5 meals per day might do the trick, going to see in a couple weeks I guess
I think you can do 4x tbh
Friday, Sat, Sun and Monday
Contrary to popular belief, Mondays are pretty dry w/ ppl leaving early. Mostly because they work on Sat and Sun lololol
Cutting will be hard only because those meal allowances will have you eating stuff you've never tried before. I was eating Indian curries and protein pizzas every night
I get it for sureee. I've alr have a an internship or two with the meal allowances and its so nice for bulking... 99% of all the meals you can get are 1000+ calories, but so hard for a cut. My maintenance is just over 2000, so I might just go on a strict baked chicken + veg diet at lunch, no breakfast
How you never tried Indian food or pizza is beyond me. Indian food is the best cuisine to exist and I’m glad you found out about it.
I suffer from the same thing, been out of the gym for the last 5 months and feel like I'm 90 yeras old. I stopped because my schedule brought me to sleeping abuout 4-5 hours a night which WILL kill your gains
This isn’t just a “gymcel” thing. Pre director level IB is atrocious for your health. Think about it - at MOST you will be able to get 3 solid workouts a week (Fri/Sat/Sun) and sometimes not even that. If you are doing more than that you are likely either sacrificing sleep quality or work product/goodwill in your group, which is dumb as fuck I know, but it’s true. Then on top of that you are eating out for probably 75% of your meals which means inaccurate macros and shitloads of sodium. Bottom line is if you are serious about lifting or your health more than the normal American then IB is not for you.
3 workouts + eating healthy should be enough, no? harms on health are more likely coming from stress & bad sleep
I'll tell you how he was able to do it. He was one of those analysts that looks 35 after two years.
I'll never forget this phenomenon on my first day of training as a summer. They gave us an agenda of all the training sessions and the names of the bankers leading them. It didn't include titles.
First session: two guys walk in, I assume they're at least VPs. "Wow, they're committing senior time to teach us how to do a profile . . interesting". They introduce themselves as analyst. "Hmm . . I guess those guys just look old".
By the time the day was over, I'd seen about 20 analysts present different modules to us, and maybe 5 of them looked to be in their 20s. Everyone else looked 35.
My advice to SAs and FTs: make sleep your 2nd priority after work. If you love the gym, fine, make it your 3rd priority. Same goes for family, going out w/ friends etc. Let all these things compete for 3rd place, 4th place etc. But make work #1 and sleep #2 unless you want to age like Ozzy Osbourne.
Unrelated but there is no better feeling than hitting the gym at 4:30 and heading out around 5:15-5:30pm while the rest of the crowd shows up.
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