After seeing the reception a recent comment received, I chose to make this its own thread with the hope of reaching more people.
Fitness is an incredibly important thing in life, both the elements of it you can see and those that you can't. It's also something easily ignored and definitely not spoken enough about.
People paint too bleak a picture of your ability to exercise (or generally run your life) while a junior in banking.
Yes, it's true that the job is incredibly demanding, particularly if you're in a competitive group. It's true that the hours are unpredictable, that you'll be surrounded by a mix of sycophantic, self-serving, narcissistic jerkwads, and that your mental and physical health will be under constant duress.
What's also true is that there are easy, manageable steps you can take to maintain control in your life and exercise some discipline around health.
Physically
Your hardest adjustment to make will be the sedentary lifestyle. You go from walking across campus, playing ball with your friends, whatever lifting schedule you might have been on, and the caloric burn from whatever sex life you led as a college senior to a human blob parked in a chair for 12+ hours daily.
This is countered easily.
(i) Adjust your diet. Weight control follows a simple formula: [calories in] - [calories burned] = [gain/loss]. Also important is what you eat. Be mindful not only of your caloric intake but also of what its made of.
Cut the processed, packaged foods that are loaded with MSG and chemical preservatives. Eat as much raw food as possible. If you struggle with this because you don't know how or where to procure healthy foods, it's gotten easy enough with the advent of fast-casual health franchises. Stick to the basics and crush Juice Press and Sweetgreen. Before you immediately go "Oh my God, I'm not a chick, I'm not "juicing" bro," just try it sometime. All of Juice Press' stuff is delicious, only about one-fifth of what they offer is something you'd really raise your eyebrow at.
(ii) Exercise the right way. This has two components: what you do for exercise and how often. You need to be really efficient in terms of time, try to put your body under a level of stress, and hit your major muscle groups. Said simply, you need anaerobic exercise (Google this). I mean this with no offense, but aerobic work like jogging, swimming, or the treadmill is going to make negligible or no impact for the majority of people in banking. The exception would be those with an extremely high metabolism or a strictly ectothermic body type.
You want either HIIT classes (or their self-directed equivalent, no need to think that this can only happen at Tone House or Barry's) or a solid self-designed program rotating across the major muscle groups (e.g. one day each on legs, chest, and back where you're blasting squats, bench, and deadlifts for 30-40 minutes).
For frequency, shoot for 4-5 weekly. If you hit both weekend days (easy because even in groups with awful hours, you at least control your schedule those two days) you're halfway there. If you hit three out of five weekdays, you're at a 5x weekly schedule.
This is massive. Regular anaerobic exercise is amazing for you. It lowers cortisol (the silent killer in your body), improves your resting heart rate, gives you better mental performance, can help combat moodiness or depressive symptoms, helps you sleep better, benefits your sex drive (and performance), and obviously helps fight fat and build muscle.
(iii) Maintain a sleep schedule. Yes, it's banking, the hours will be both unpredictable and demanding. That doesn't mean you can't exert some control over how you make the time for your body to recover.
Snag the low-hanging fruit. Make a habit of prioritizing sleep. Try one month of going straight to bed when you get home. Coming back after an entire day sitting on your ass in a chair and sprawling on a couch or your bed to watch Netflix is not conducive to your health. It's easy to let an easy night at the office where you got out at 9:30 end up affecting you just as negatively as a rough night where you left at 1:00 if on both nights you're falling asleep at 1:30. Don't let your weekend days ruin your sleep schedule by sleeping in past noon; you fall asleep too late the following nights and start your work week with a slight sleep debt that then accumulates across the week.
Mentally
Internalize that you own your life. Work does not define us. No matter how terrible your personal situation is, how many (or few) people depend on you for the paycheck you earn, how much social fallout you think you may endure, it is just a job. It's a place that takes your time from you and gives you back money in exchange.
Find some mental practice that helps you center yourself: breathing, visualization, meditation, music, or anything else. Practice this any time you find yourself struggling. Also practice it when you're not struggling; you may find that the dividends are richer when you aren't under stress.
Take this idea of ownership and look for how you can implement it in your work. Be respectful.
This doesn't mean you grumble at a bad staffing. It means you figure out whatever tangible learning that staffing will provide, maximize your understanding of it, and after it's over, tell your staffer over coffee how strong a learning experience it was, both on its own merits and for how well you now know it isn't something you enjoy too much.
It means that when you get the classic "Fw: RE: RE: re: FW: Re: Corrected numbers" at 8:50pm, instead of raging internally or letting another sliver of your soul slip into permanent oblivion, go back to your mental practice and center yourself.
I found that all these things are self-reinforcing. When I ranked my order of priorities in life, self-care came first. That meant that I exercised first thing in the morning nearly every single day. On the days I didn't, I left in the middle of the day to exercise. Some people found it strange at first, but I backed it up with solid work product plus some candid conversations with people about my willingness to stay late, start early, or do whatever was necessary to get the job done as long as I could dip away for an hour a couple days a week. It didn't hurt my reputation; it actually helped. I received direct feedback that my proactivity and 'maturity' having those conversations was appreciated.
To sum it up, exert some ownership and also acknowledge that people are reasonable and manipulable. Don't do dumb shit (eat poorly, sleep poorly, exercise ineffectively), commit to fitness if it's an actual priority for you, and back up that commitment with good communication and work product. Your seniors care about getting the best work out of you. If you demonstrate that that best work comes when you take care of yourself, they won't make any noise.
Good luck. Remember, it
. We're all gonna make it.
Mod Note (Andy): top 50 posts of 2017, this one ranks #46 (based on # of silver bananas)
Comments (128)
Good shit fam
Really helpful post. I am very happy to get this post. I will definitely share this post with others
I really appreciated this post but was at work so didn't have time to elaborate.
some great stuff in here, just would expand on the diet stuff an be careful telling people to
...I'm sure you agree with all of this, but I think it's important to emphasize.When you're extremely sedentary, diet and especially limiting the amount of simple carbs is critical
This means simply stay away from foods that SPIKE YOUR BLOOD SUGAR: 1. No rice 2. No pasta 3. No bread (this includes tortillas and/or wraps) 4. No sweet sauces 5. No fruit or juices that are high on the glycemic index 6. No starches like potatoes
As much as physical and mental exercise can help you cope with the new job, if you are eating a diet high (or even moderate) in simple sugars, you are likely going to either:
Good luck!
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You are really a great writer. Keep writing
...
I'm on a nutritional ketogenic diet. I shed about 40 lbs. You absolutely don't lose energy, I'm not sure where you got that except the initial indoctrination called Keto "Flu" which is anywhere from 2-7 days. It is a great diet but you have to plan and prep meals, but that goes for anyone looking to lose weight or maintain weight. During this high fat diet my blood lipid profile actually decreased to an amazingly low 45(mg/or whatever).
It's not just carbs, I think you miss the point that carbohydrates are quickly digested as glucose which has the same effect as sugar and spikes insulin which over a short(years) period of time has your body storing this energy as fat. I think low carb would drain your energy without sufficient levels of fat to produce ketone bodies.
This is good advice.
I would say priority 1 is to avoid all refined sugar.
Fruit is much better than fruit juice as it has fiber to slowly release natural sugar into your bloodstream
Potatoes aren't the worst thing. I would avoid grains first then potatoes.
Avoid/limit fried foods.
"If you always put limits on everything you do, physical or anything else, it will spread into your work and into your life. There are no limits. There are only plateaus, and you must not stay there, you must go beyond them." - Bruce Lee
hooolllyyyy shit so much has changed
I now eat whole bars of chocolate and drink coke and eat fries and am so much faster
504 miles on the bike last week
![https://i.imgur.com/Z2bZACp.jpg][https://i.imgur.com/Z2bZACp.jpg]
"If you always put limits on everything you do, physical or anything else, it will spread into your work and into your life. There are no limits. There are only plateaus, and you must not stay there, you must go beyond them." - Bruce Lee
Apologies if I'm misunderstanding something, but why does it matter if the calorie is from a simple carb vs. complex carb/fat? If you're burning 2000 calories a day (basal), and eating 1800 calories a day, why should it matter whether 1200 of those calories are from simple carbs vs. complex carbs/fat? You're still at a 200 calories deficit either way.
Oh, it doesn't matter if that was realistically what happens in practice. The problem is the spikes and crashed from your blood sugar and insulin levels from simple carbs makes it incredibly difficult to stay on any sort of calorie restriction because you become starving and crave more carbs after only a few hours.
The higher fat/protein + complex carbs makes sure you have more fiber in your diet so that you feel full for much longer (OTE) and it's much easier to eat less calories (or stay under some set goal).
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Solid post. Ronnie Coleman is the shit too.
Love this point. Another good habit is to eat Ginger or similar roots in the morning. And don't forget coffee --> remembers guys: Coffees for closers only!
I wholeheartedly agree with the premise of this post - though there are some minor details that I won't bother to quibble over (specifics of nutrition - keto v. juicing v. paleo, etc.)
I would also add that cutting back on the boozing will really help. When you leave college, you no longer face the peer pressure to chug half a handle of Karkov. But there is still the temptation of getting absolutely obliterated on the weekends. I have found that this significantly hampers my productivity and mental sharpness during the following week, to the point that I don't feel 100% until Friday - which of course is when the whole cycle repeats.
If I abstain from binge drinking for over a week, I begin to feel invigorating levels of motivation and focus. As in, I actually have energy to get up at 5am for a quick lift session, the mental capacity to understand the broader implications of my work rather than just be a processing monkey for my deals, and the sheer force of will to grind out practice lbo models or PE case studies in my down time.
Try not to stay seated for extended periods of time. Even if you're deep in the weeds, stand up for 15-20 seconds every so often, stretch your spine/hips, then get back at it. Or use a small cup/bottle for water so you'll have a reason to briefly get up and walk to refill it. Chairs are horrible for you, if you sit relatively motionless in them for extended periods.
and let's not forget the benefits of intermittent fasting!
See my Blog & AMA
Yeah, my friend who has her MS from Columbia U in Nutritional Science has helped me to Intermittent fast in an appropriate way.
It has increased my energy levels dramatically, I'm burning fat pretty easily, and feel great all of the time.
Basically, if you fast for 16hrs and eat in an 8hr period, you're good.
What works best for me is I eat between about 8pm - 12am every night. I wake up, have an espresso (doesn't count), then have green tea / mate during the day (about 10 cups), and if I workout, i'll eat before I workout at night, then eat after.
"If you always put limits on everything you do, physical or anything else, it will spread into your work and into your life. There are no limits. There are only plateaus, and you must not stay there, you must go beyond them." - Bruce Lee
I follow the same 16/8 schedule. It works really well. But sorry...you're having ten cups of green tea a day?
See my Blog & AMA
IF is the bomb ! Try eating within a 8 hour windows, which leaves the body 16 hours of fasting time
Great topic and great post. Thank you.
I doubt anyone here does but quit masterbartion. Since I stopped I've had so much energy to lift heavy and consistently (5 days a week). I don't work FT and no where near anyones age here but just my suggestion.
I have never heard of masterbartion. Is that an Olympic event that tires you out during the week?
"If you always put limits on everything you do, physical or anything else, it will spread into your work and into your life. There are no limits. There are only plateaus, and you must not stay there, you must go beyond them." - Bruce Lee
Something like that.
Well, I could be wrong, but I believe Masterbartion is an old, old wooden ship that was used during the Civil War era.
oh, I just noticed I spelt it as "masterbartion" lol....
utter nonsense. if you want prostate cancer, abide by this. otherwise, clean your pipes
1-2 times a week is fine from what I was told. I wanna keep my energy and t-levels high at my prime so I'll pass. The only time I'll wack it is when I'm baked and it is 1000x better.
hmmmm I doubted you, but checked pub med ... seems to agree to 'decrease risk'
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmedhealth/behindtheheadlines/news/2017-…
"If you always put limits on everything you do, physical or anything else, it will spread into your work and into your life. There are no limits. There are only plateaus, and you must not stay there, you must go beyond them." - Bruce Lee
how do you guys feel about weight? Obviously being obese is unhealthy, but what if you're too scrawny?
Define too scrawny
See my Blog & AMA
not too scrawny but pretty underweight. I'm one of those guys who would really like to gain more mass but just have a really hard time doing so. 5'11 I try to target a 150-155 lb weight. Ideally i would be 160. Reality, it's really hard for me to maintain my weight so i'm slipping down to the low 140's very often. Yes I work out, I used to eat really healthy but now I just stuff myself to maintain my weight
Great post. It really comes down to a few things: nutrition, proper training and consistency. Supplements are not needed. The top 10 foods(no particular order) I recommend to anyone trying to add muscle: 1)steak 2)eggs 3)fish 4)chicken 5)rice(brown rice doesn't digest well, anyone in the bodybuilding game will tell you this) 6)oatmeal 7)vegetables 8)citrus fruits 9)blueberries 10)yams or sweet potatoes
You're body is a Ferrari, so give it the 91 octane!
Greek yogurt is an often-overlooked but good source of protein
Goat Kefir > Greek yogurt
http://www.redwoodhill.com/goat-kefir/plain/
http://www.redwoodhill.com/goat-kefir/blueberry-pomegranate-acai/
"If you always put limits on everything you do, physical or anything else, it will spread into your work and into your life. There are no limits. There are only plateaus, and you must not stay there, you must go beyond them." - Bruce Lee
Since it's been largely overlooked in previous posts, FIBER is incredibly important for maintaining a healthy blood sugar and digestive processes.
While I try to avoid unsprouted grains (Ezekiel bread rocks) and legumes due to high levels of phytic acid, potatoes/sweet potatoes are fine to eat. Full of fiber and micronutrients that would be otherwise be difficult to get eating only leafy greens.
For all you newbs, interesting and science-based article on phytic acid here: https://www.paleofx.com/grains-for-your-gains/
Dude you can get all the fiber you need from vaggies. Don't have to be just leafy greens.
Look at all these wannabe richies hating on an expensive salad.
https://arthuxtable.com/Do your best never to keep grounded for long lengths of time. Even although you should be heavy inside the weeds, then endure for 1520 minutes daily usually, elongate your spine/hips, then put straight back. Or employ a tiny cup/bottle for h2o therefore you will have an excuse to temporarily wake fully up and stroll into wash it. Seats are all dreadful for you personally, when you sit untidy inside these for elongated intervals. If you want more information related to your interest then visit Good Objective.
good point on sitting. curious if standing desks are common in IB? I know a few co workers have them where I sit in CB. Although you're still standing in place, it's considerably better than sitting.
Absolute gold. Although not in IB, this is exactly what I would preach to a T. We have the same exact methods. Good shit
Is it possible to stay fit as a first year analyst in IB? (Originally Posted: 01/03/2018)
Does anyone have any advice for staying fit as an analyst? I don't mean exercising - I already know that I'm not going to be exercising much. I just mean eating a light diet. During SA this past summer I gained about 10 pounds and that was only 10 weeks. I can only imagine what 2 years will do to my body. Has anyone been able to control their diet during their analyst stint? The only thing that's worked for me has been counting calories, but it requires so much work that I don't see it being possible while working full time. Has anyone had any success with meal prep companies that prepare food for you and then deliver it? If so, a referral would be awesome.
I was able to somewhat control my diet during my summer stint and successfully didn't put on any weight. Overall I basically avoided carbs / sugar as much as possible and tried to get in exercise during Saturdays. Breakfast was always granola and fresh fruit. For lunch I always opted for a salad with a good helping of vegetables, grilled chicken, and most of the time no dressing (ocassionally balsamic vinagrette). Dinner I tried to stick with healthy / lean meals (dig inn, muscle maker, roast e.g.) and allowed myself one "cheat" dinner on Fridays, such as pasta or burgers, usually shared with other summers in my class. It's really easy to add extra calories when ordering on Seamless / Grubhub if you're not careful, so try to find a good group of healthy dinner options. Also important - I avoided sugary drinks and drank mostly water and coffee at the desk, and if I was hungry between meals or late at night I snacked on something light and healthy, like almonds. Hope this helps!
I work out every morning if I can, but biggest thing is eating healthy. Don't pig out on burgers / pasta / other crappy foods with your dinner stipend and get a salad instead and snack on carrots instead of chips. Should probably significantly reduce alcohol but being drunk is too much fun.
Maintaining a Healthy Lifestyle as a SA (Originally Posted: 05/24/2016)
With the summer approaching I'm a bit concerned about my ability to stay fit for the whole 10 weeks. I understand that sacrifices have to be made but I was wondering if some junior bankers could share some tips on keeping relatively healthy. I can break down this problem into two categories, exercise and nutrition.
Before I get into the specifics here's the tl;dr: need tips on how to maintain weight-lifting progress without getting fat.
Exercise: I currently play on a club sports team and lift 2/3 times/week. I get it, that will change. My main goal for the summer is to lose as little muscle as possible. I think I can accomplish this most efficiently by following a push/pull split where I focus on core lifts (bench, OHP, rows, deadlifts, squats). I could squat, bench and OHP in ~45 minutes, not too bad. Throw in a little HIIT cardio when I have time too. Has anyone had success with a setup like this? What else should I be thinking of? Do you guys have the energy at all to lift heavy at like 11pm after a long day of work?
Nutrition: In order to maintain my lifts (and not get fat) I should eat ~2200 calories/day and ~130-150g of protein/day. I usually eat a small breakfast (greek yogurt + granola and a coffee) but have no idea what I will be eating the rest of the day. Are there certain restaurants I should look out for in midtown NYC? Do you guys generally end up eating too much (free dinner!) or too little (no time to eat)?
Anything else that comes to mind would be appreciated. Thanks.
Honestly, as a SA, I would focus far more on learning the most while you have access to resources you'll never have while you're in school. It's frankly pretty incredible what motivated and ambitious SA can learn just from rebuilding old models, actually paying attention on calls, or even studying pitch books. Particularly given how difficult it for FT recruiting if you don't convert your summer internship, that should be your number one focus (I suspect even worse this coming year because most of my friends in banking aren't that busy right now). Your muscles may atrophy a little over a 10 week internship, but you can easily regain it at 20 years old, especially when you're a senior with a FT offer in hand coasting through the best year of your life (I really mean this...).
That said, I do fully recommend getting in a work out whenever you can (this is also largely dependent on how supportive your group is). As an analyst, I used to lift and/or cardio at 11pm - 1am for a quick ~45min or so during the weekdays and try to squeeze in a little longer session on the weekends. My personal preference was to do heavy, core lifts (bench, squats, deadlifts) on the weekends when I had a little more sleep and energy, and emphasize cardio and lighter lifting on the weekdays so I didn't feel so sluggish all week. It worked better for me because I found trying to lift heavy late at night just too physically and mentally draining. A huge part of staying remotely fit is mental and just willing yourself to get to the gym after long, long days and night. I personally found that working out for 45 minutes gave me more energy the next day than sleeping an extra 45 minutes for the most part, unless I was running off of 2 or 3 hours of sleep. I was also pretty fortunate that I could function reasonable enough that I wasn't completely useless with only 4 or 5 hours of sleep - though honestly I wouldn't recommend this long term if you think you can do it. As far as nutrition, drink less alcohol....
Last point I'll make is sadly, but unfortunately, most of us that work in finance are a shell of what we were in college physically. This is just what happens when you enter the work force instead of spending hours at the gym, but certainly exacerbated when you're in finance. Between the unpredictable hours, limited free time to yourself, significant others, the very rare but needed binge drinking / going out, etc etc, it's honestly pretty hard to work out consistently.
I'd say this. First and foremost, I only read the first 2-3 sentences of your post and it is only 10 weeks, so absolute worst case scenario you can catch up on your fitness at the end of the summer when you go back to school. With that said, I went through this last summer and staying in decent shape isn't too difficult. The key is maintenance during the week, and fitting in 1-2 solid full-body lifts in on the weekends.
My advice would be to take advantage of the mornings as much as you can. I don't know what your commute time is or exactly what your gym situation is, but as far as getting a workout in on a a weekday, the morning will be the best time to do it. Yes you will have to wake up a little bit earlier, but it is not too difficult to get some variation of a 20-30 minute run or a quick 30-45 minute high intensity workout. Even if you can do 15-20 minutes of pushups and sit-ups before work you can at least make it through the day without absolutely feeling the need get a workout in. Remember, this is more about maintenance during the week.
On the weekends (Friday/Saturday in particular), it shouldn't be too hard to find time to get at least 1 solid workout in. For me, I would go hard on friday (assuming I could make it out of the office before 9, which usually I could) night or saturday morning and hit things like deadlifts, squats, front squats, lunges, etc. pretty hard. If you can get at least one of these in a week (along with maybe a lighter lift on sunday or something to hit other areas) with maybe 2-3 morning workouts, you should be able to stay in pretty decent shape and maintain most of your muscle as long as your nutrition is halfway decent. Unless your group sucks, this should be pretty achievable.
So I guess in summary what I'm suggesting is something like this:
Quick/intermediate Morning workout 2-3 times a week - 20-30 minute run - 30-45 minute lift, hitting the key points, - 20 minutes of pushups, situps, planks, etc.
1-2 comprehensive, full-body lift on the weekends.
Also, just personal preference here, but I would invest in an iron gym (the pull up bar thing)--this thing is clutch when it comes to maintenance work and can be done quickly and at any time of the day.
I think thats about it. Probably left something out there but hopefully that helps a little bit.
Getting old and staying fit (Originally Posted: 05/16/2012)
Gymnastics + Yoga are part of the secret.
86-year-old gymnast:
93-years-old Yoga teacher
I can do that
Yoga is pretty damn awesome. Especially Bikram - or hot yoga. I would definitely do it more if I could. However, as I am a meathead, and have limited time, I just lift things up and put them down and run a little. If anyone is on the fence, try it. The scenery isn't bad either.
This must be Bikram, cuz it's the hottest fucking yoga I've ever seen:
http://www.youtube.com/embed/loszrEZvS_k
The softer martial arts are excellent as well. Tai chi, aikido etc.
You guys forgot this 60 year old from the projects...
http://www.youtube.com/embed/BzlJ_xDzmdg?rel=0
700 push ups + 10 sets of Pull ups and Dips 5 days a week... Easily fits into a finance guy's schedule. Now you have no excuses.
And from Japan, the 74 year old body builder, Tosaka
http://www.youtube.com/embed/-5om6gbDwA8?rel=0
Thanks to the evolution process, we're not all created genetically equal
holy shit /\
hahah nice!!
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