Staying fit and running in banking?

I’m only 6 months in and have only been remote so I’m curious if people *really* don’t have time to go to the gym at least a few times a week? Literally for 60-90 minutes a day, you don’t have downtime? Before work, afternoon lull, etc? Is it really that bad?

I really prioritize my fitness (e.g. I’ll deal with an MD sending me an email to chase work if I go to the gym, or I’ll squeeze in workouts at inconvenient times or on relatively low sleep)  and like to think I’ll be able to hit 60 min workouts on most days. Is this unrealistic?

During my WFH internship, the best times I found for getting a quality workout were before 9am and after 12am. However, the cumulative fatigue makes those become more and more difficult as times passes in the role.

Another thing that scared me shitless was a thread on here a few months ago how the combination of aggressive weight lifting and IB hours is very bad for your health. Once I begin FT, I intend to do more cardio and less heavy weight lifting, but I still plan to exercise regularly in some shape or form. 

Another thing I noticed is when you know you have limited time to get a workout, you become much more efficient (less time being your phone in between sets or texting people) so you don't need as much time as you might think.

I’m at a very sweaty boutique that looks down on taking time out of the day to go workout. Also have been in-person for a while and there is no expectation of WFH again even with new spikes. The two best times to work out are in the morning and right before dinner. I usually try to get a walk/run in or go to the gym in my office building and lift before I start work if I’m exercising in the morning. This is okay as long as you are on time to work because when you work out at the office, seniors will not be happy if they see you changing in the locker room and then you are late to your desk. In regards to before dinner, place your order for somewhere that won’t deliver quickly. Then go workout, change, pick up your meal and go eat and say you were in the bathroom then picked up your dinner but it was running late. Only issue with this is that it takes a long time to change in and out of your work clothes and shower so be cognizant of time. Also, any free time on weekends should be used for a more intense workout.

If you prioritize it, getting solid workouts on weekends is possible at near any shop. You might have a few weeks where it isn’t possible, but no one is doing 100+ hour weeks for their entire stint that isn’t screwing something up with how they internally communicate. A sweat shop might look like consistent 1/2/3ams Sunday-Thursday with Friday you getting off at 7pm and Saturday you having like 4-8 hours of work. For context this would be 90+ hours and you could still get a dinner with friends on Friday, sleep 12 hours to catch up on sleep, get an aggressive workout on Saturday, and potentially an early Sunday workout. 
 

From my experience when I was an analyst in a sweatier group, barring a few nightmare weeks, my schedule was generally such that it was impossible to get a workout in during the week unless I wanted to wake up early, which would make my work product suffer and the lack of sleep make the workouts pretty ineffective, but it was very possible to lift/run Friday after 7pm before going out, Saturday morning (I rarely had more than 6 hours of work on Saturday, so it was mostly open), and Sunday morning (usually worked from 11am-midnight). 3 workouts a week is enough to build strength even with the lack of sleep if your nutrition is solid and you don’t drink too heavy. I got way stronger as an analyst, but I also think it might have been impossible if I had a girlfriend during that time because I didn’t do much else besides lift and do work.

I work at a sweaty group and taking an hour either around 8am (assuming no 3am night) or ~30min before/after dinner if no work is needed imminently, is completely fine. You will definitely have crazy weeks with no workouts, but on average I've been able to workout for an hour 3-4x a week consistently.

First year in a coverage group, and was able to train for a marathon during the fall. This occasionally involved reshuffling/cancelling workout days, but for the most part, was able to fit in ~40 miles per week without issue.

Getting a gym by the office is a game changer. IMO it’s a lot easier to roll out of bed and commute if you can postpone showering/shaving to right before work. Unless you’re in a grind week / the sweatiest of sweatshops, week-end mornings you should easily be able to do 10K+. It’ll involve cutting some of the alcohol intake the night before, but this job is about sacrifices after all.

I work out like 3-4 times a week and I used to be in M&A and PE. Nowadays I have even more time because my job (politics) is all bullshit.

My buddy said he was so unfit he was averaging 120 steps a day in his coverage role so don't want to end up like him

How is this possible?