How to Fit in a Workout when You Work from 9 AM to Midnight?

I hear you! I've gained around 5-6 kilos over the last 5 months. I eat well during lunch and also when I get home, which is around 11-12. I tend to skip breakfasts. I'm still OK cause I'm fairly tall and thanks to my good digestive system I don't think this will get much worse. While little buffer is starting to accumulate around my now-gone abs. I was in good shape in early summer.

The only way out I see is a Saturday morning jog to the gym and then back. Also I think it gets me well fired up for the evening. Not sure if one day will be enough though but I guess it's better than nothing. Doing any exercise on Sunday is begging for a heart attack.

Although you say that you are not a morning person, I would definitely recommend to hit the gym before going to the office in the morning. If waking up early is the worst for you, you can always change from a 2-split workout plan into a 3-5 and go for shorter work out sessions, i.e. MI40. Find a gym close to your office. Workout for 60 min (warmup, lifting, shower, etc.)

The best solution I can give to a person who has a hard time waking up early is to get into a routine.

Me? The way I handled it over the summer was that I got a membership to a gym that was about a block away from where I lived. Even if I was tired I'd run over and knock out one or two sets of lifting. It doesn't take much to do a lot, and if your time is limited I'd recommend focusing on heavy lifting. You need to run a lot to burn a lot of calories, but if you exercise a heavy muscle hard enough to make it sore it increases your energy burn for the entire time it's recovering.

I feel like you could've searched for a topic like this and found a few pages' worth of relevant posts. Try tabata, man. Four minutes is all it takes. I sound like I am going to have a heart attack after doing tabata burpees.

Get a wii if you can. Very inexpensive way to do cardio indoors.

Morning the way to go. Even if you're not a morning person now you will get used to it. Key is to make it a routine so you do it no matter what. Personally I will make sure i do every morning apart from if have been drinking the night before - even if it means getting up at 4 I will do it. Big believer in habit and routine- can be tough at first but after a while you think nothing of it.

100% agree with everyone about making it happen in the mornings. I do empathize though as I work in a sweatshop where 2-3 AM isn't uncommon and mornings are often unrealistic if you are a normal human being. I usually do a weekend routine where i run from chelsea piers to battery park city without eating anything and power walking back up. That way I get in cardio and a fat burn. Haven't picked up a gym membership yet as I am looking to save a ton before getting into more recurring expenses but this works well for me. Also regardless of when you get home, do 50 pushups.

I was the same way when I first started. Be careful because it will catch up to you quickly. I have said this a million times on this site but pre-workout works wonders. Keep your shaker next to your bed with some water in a cup. Mix it up and chug it down, you will be so amped to get to the gym. I typically workout for one hour a day and go as fast as I can while still leaving recovery time between sets.

If weight gain is a problem, I recommend C4 ripped (no creatine) stacked with Evlution Lean Mode. C4 will give you the rush in the gym. Immediately following your workout take one serving of Lean Mode (3 pills), which is stimulant free, and will boost your metabolism, reduce appetite and keep your energy levels up.

For diet / recovery, I drink a Lee Labrada Lean Body protein shake (half serving or one scoop) 30 minutes after my workout, which also counts as breakfast and allows you to get your necessary carbs. For lunch, I drink an EAS 100% pure whey protein shake because its lower in carbs, curbs my appetite and supports muscle growth / recovery. 30 minutes before dinner I take another serving of Lean Mode. I will typically eat whatever I want while trying to keep the carbs as low as possible. I have seen great results on this plan and hope this helps.

Once I reach my target weight and I attempt to build some mass, I plan on using the Jym pre, post, and protein stack.

Also, working out in the morning has made me more productive at work.

The best advice I can offer is to shift your mindset. Stop making it optional. You'll miss fewer workouts if you start thinking about it as if you're missing a meeting.

Oh I know this one! Go at 8 Am or 12:15 AM!

Intermittent fasting.

Skip lunch and go run 1-2x week, the only thing that beats mid-work day runs is airport showers (unless you're in First on Etihad). I also don't have clients so I can sit around the rest of the afternoon in workout clothes or go take a quick shower downstairs.

If you want a good shape but have limit time to workout, try to eat healthy. What you eat is more important than how much time you put in gym. Also, High intensity interval training (aka HIIT) may help you to stay in shape. It only takes less than 30 minutes but burns lots of calories.

I am a runner so as soon as I get home I toss my shoes out an get out there for a quick. Try to run 4-5 days a week at least a few miles with one day being a speed interval day ie. 6x200m. Then I also do pushups 4-5 days a week either when I get up, and before or after the run. Utilize weekend morning to get a quick workout. Clean the diet up a bit and you should be good to go. I like running because 1. i ran in college 2. its not as time consuming as the gym

I joined a gym that's a few blocks away from my office. I workout from Monday-Friday, usually either at 11am (beat the lunch rush) or 3pm (after the lunch rush). I'm pretty realistic with myself in the sense that I don't try to fit in too much during a workout. You basically only have ~1 hour to walk to gym, workout, shower, and get back, so you have to be really efficient. Limit your workouts to just 4 exercises per day, but reduce your rest time and increase your intensity. For example, if Monday's are chest days, you could do bench, incline bench, dumb bell bench, and dumb bell incline bench, resting 45-60 sec between sets. Trust me your muscles will be fried afterwards and you'll be done quickly. You'll still be getting a great workout and believe it or not, you'll definitely get stronger over time. It's not the same as the meatheads who spend 2+ hours at the gym everyday, but its better than nothing. If you keep it up over 2-3 months, you'll see noticeable progress. My actual workouts only last about 35-40 minutes or so, but I always feel like I've worked my muscles hard. When I get back to the office, I always feel like I have so much more energy to finish off the day.

One last thing...back when we were in school, it was easy to workout for so much longer. You can't try to mimic that same routine once you're in the working world (or at least it's incredibly difficult to). If you think you'll be able to do these crazy long workouts consistently while working in banking, you'll burn out by the second or third week and stop working out. Be realistic and shorten your workouts to be more manageable, and you'll find that it's way easier to stay committed over the course of several months. Also, nobody likes doing legs but I encourage you to add a leg day at least once a week (squats, deadlifts, lunges). Sitting all day in a chair is awful and I find that working out my lower body really helps with my posture.

I lift every morning for like 45 min to an hour. Just force yourself to do it to get in a rhythm. As someone else said preworkout works wonders.

Adderall!! (Kidding)

Morning work outs suck but they don't suck as much with pre-work out. I usually go in the morning around 6-7am. Its the only time I know I have control over.

I don't like the 25-30 wasted minutes of walking to the gym, changing, working out, showering, getting dressed and walking back to the office that consumes the 1 hour during lunch. How do people feel about just doing it before or after work, thus eliminating the transition time, and thus sleeping 1 hour less... but making up that one hour of lost sleep with a one hour power nap during lunch in the office. Is this seen as bad by colleagues, or since it is your hour you can do what you want with it? Also what affects do u think it has on your body with substituting one hour of bed sleep with one hour of office sleep, but ultimately, essentially transforming your 30 minute workouts into 1 hour workouts?

How have you managed to survive working those monstrous hours?!

Third year analyst here. As alluded to by a couple others on this thread, the most important thing here is mindset. Thinking of it as something I need to do to create my best work product, helps me justify taking 1-1.5 hours a day when possible. I'm flexible in when I go but goal every week is to run outside before work twice a week, hit the gym on two other days in the evening (~6-7pm), go on a long run on one weekend day. I have one weekday and one weekday built in for recovery.

I work until midnight more often than not but I've found it's really easy to sneak out to the gym in the early evening right after MDs leave and right before dinner. In most shops, realistically, if you're working from 10am-midnight people aren't consistently looking for you or work from you that whole time. If they are, give estimates for when you'll get work to them that incorporate you taking an hour at the gym. Do you have a project that if you worked straight through you could get to your associate at 10pm? That's great, tell him he'll get it at 11:30pm. Sometimes there are situations where it really is time sensitive and you can't do that but I'd be very surprised if that was the case every day.

Saw you asked on another response if working out in the morning makes you tired in the evening. I'm not going to lie, it does slightly but not enough to effect your work performance, especially if you're drinking coffee or another stimulant. We've all had weeks where we've pulled all nighters for work and had to work into the evening the next day - this effects your work performance much more. If you can manage that, you can manage getting up an hour or two earlier on a normal week. Also, I've found that when I work out before work, I hit the ground running (pun not intended) as soon as I get in. On other days I'm more laissez-faire about actually getting started on the important tasks of the day.

Look, burn out is real. There is something about going and running or going and lifting that just releases all that built up anger from the day. It releases your mind from the monotonous view of your computer screen. I know it makes me more pleasant to work with and more effective/efficient. It's worth it to put on the top of your priority list. You have to take care of yourself before you can help others.

There have been some good posts in this thread, but I'm going to give a slightly different answer. If you are working out to keep in shape, but are having difficulty finding the time to do so, consider focusing on your diet instead. 90% of what happens in the gym starts in the kitchen. You can work out every day of the week, but if you eat like crap (like most analysts do), you're wasting your time. So, if you're hitting the gym to do some cardio, but cannot find the time to do so, try cutting back on the calories and eat more wholesome food.

If you're in the gym to make gains, like others have said, it's all about the mindset. I was very fat in high school and college, so I hit the gym hard now to never go back there. I just feel great after 45 minutes of weight lifting and then being able to see my results. You really do have to want it.

Does anyone actually work in a place that allows them to do a 1 hour gym session during the "lunch hour".

I don't feel like my office would ever let me get away with that.

You can do full body workouts for 45 minutes and maintain good strength. You can also run for 30 minutes 3x a week and work on increasing the distance in that time period. Unlike taking classes doing your own workouts provides more flexibility in terms of time.

A big drag about the gym is traveling to the gym, changing, showering, waiting for equipment etc. If you find a gym that is close by and set a system to cut down the time with all the other stuff you can spend a bit more working out. Realistically this other stuff could be another 30-60 minutes depending on the person.

If you can get out of the office try 10-11am or 2-3 pm, google your gym and look at when the popular times are. REPE8 While networking I have had 2 people tell me they leave and go to the gym then come back to work. The companies they worked for were pretty relaxed though, so long as everyone got their stuff done.

I wrote a post for WSO earlier this year that you may find helpful: "How do I stay in shape if I'm sitting in the office all day?"

It covers some ideas on the best exercise methods for bankers / consultants, but as other people have mentioned, diet is also extremely important.

Easiest way is to go in the morning. Get up at 6, haul your ass to the gym and train. Once you've done this a few times it'll become second nature because you'll feel great.

Do cardio in the morning for just half an hour, it can be very helpful to you and you have to be specific about your diet plan.

I'm at my desk 9-4:30 and it feels like an eternity. How you guys do those kind of hours is beyond me.

Agreed, I am not a morning person nor can I be a morning person when I typically get out of the office at 11-12pm. That would mean I would be putting exercise as a higher priority over sleep which would result in a weakened immune system and falling asleep at my desk.

On the rare occasion I get out before 10, I head straight to the gym. I don't eat dinner now because intermittent fasting fits the schedule and I don't want to be bloated during my workout. I eat 2-3 chipotle bowls for lunch and will snack on protein bars until 6pm. Before 12 and after 6pm I just drink a ton of coconut water / unsweetened tea.

I do two a days on the weekends (four workouts) and I sprint/jog to the gym. last weekend I did a ton of cardio because I had to leave the gym twice to make revisions (thanks to the associate).

call me a slacker / unmotivated / lazy, but if you're in the prime of your life (20-50ish) working those hours, you really need to reconsider your priorities.

I've been able to find a decent 5-6 times per week rhythm despite working some pretty brutal hours. I essentially set up my life to allow me to almost always work out. I live 10min from work, have an Equinox practically at work and one in my building at home.

I always work out on the weekends and use those days for longer workouts since I can almost always find a couple hours on the weekends, even when slammed. During the week, I find quieter days and I go between 6-8pm for about an hour and then head right back to the office and pick-up some sweetgreen or something on the way back to the office so it's essentially a dinner break. Rush over there, workout for 30-40min and shower quickly, order sweetgreen from the app and pick it up right next to my building.

Takes planning and dedication but not a morning person and I've made it work thus far. As people have said, diet is really the most important piece of not getting fat though. In terms of that, I've been living on Quest bars basically. One in the morning instead of breakfast with my nespresso on the way to the office, often another one late morning, sometimes in the afternoon if I can't order dinner until later. I never eat desert and have been focusing on quick and healthy places like sweetgreen, Dig Inn, etc for lunch as much as possible. For dinner delivery, almost exclusively for stuff I get ridiculed for, and/or sushi/japanese. It's a hard life but you can get it done.

Definitely was a struggle for me when I first joined banking so I’ll propose a few things I focused on to work out more:

Weekdays: 1) Assuming you are busy all day...at around 8-9pm when things start to get quiet, just go get a workout in. Make your team aware that you will come back and crush whatever that needs to be done afterwards. Over time, people will get used to you leaving around then, and unless you are working on a live deal at a critical junction, they will be fine with you leaving (assuming you have shown to consistently finish your work and with high precision