Physical jobs and recovery?

I have a part time job loading and unloading heavy packages for hours at a time. It is a physical job as I'm always moving on my feet and handling packages with my upper body. I was wondering if my job may possibly be interfering with the recovery process? After a hard ride with heavy sprinting sessions do I need to have a day off with very minimal physical activity to fully recover? I work about 4hrs each day for 5 days out of the week and I have school prior to work.

if your diet and sleep patterns are good, then you should probably be alright. after a heavy sprint day, it's actually good to get out and do some "active recovery", which your job does for you. also, as long as your using mostly your upper body muscles and not taxing your legs again, fatigue shouldn't be a factor. just make sure you get enough sleep so that your CNS has time to recover.

Hey, I'm a package handler at UPS. I start work at 4:45 PM and often work up to 6 hours (at least 5 hours per day). I lift 1,000-1,500 packages a night with an average weight of 30 pounds...

Before I got this job I was riding my bike 15-18 hours per week. Since I got this job I've only been able to ride 8-10 hours per week due to exhaustion.

I have found that on sunday I am able to complete my hardest workouts. I ride very easily on saturday (about 1.5 hours at easy pace) and try to recover from the work week then on sunday do a long hard ride. During the week I can handle a couple rides up to 3 hours while the rest are around 1-1.5 hours...


I don't know what to say other than I am still trying to figure out how to train with this job. I believe that it is imparative that I get a power meter now. Because I don't have time to waste on the bike like I did before.

Good luck. I'm still trying to figure it out too.

I'm in a similar position, with a physical job on my feet for 9 hours a day. I'm normally so exhausted I can't do a ride in the evening. I try and do some speed work at lunch times twice a week and rest on the weekends if I have a race midweek. At 43, I find it a lot more difficult to recover than i used to.