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As a former collegiate athlete and someone who is passionate about health/fitness, I wanted to know how to best maintain a training regimen in law school. Typically, my workouts consist of cardio and weightlifting for about 1-1.5 hours/day @ 5-6 days a week. When is the best time to go? Does it serve as a good stress reliever? Or does it add to your fatigue? If anyone has been or will be in a similar situation, please feel free to share your experiences and opinions.

It's pretty easy to make it to the gym. For the most part, you set your own schedule in law school. Personally, I go right before dinner, but I occasionally get on an early-morning kick.

Does it serve as a good stress reliever? Or does it add to your fatigue?

Alot of students I know claim they don't have time for the gym anymore.

I believe keeping a regular workout routine is KEY to maintaining the energy and focus needed in school. When I miss a workout for a few days I notice it in class.

Resist the urge to slack off, it may actually have an impact on your studies

I go 4 days per week, a minimum of 3 if things get really hectic. I'm also a PT student so I work full time, and sometimes it is work getting in the way of going to the gym, instead of school. I typically go during my lunch hour from work. When I know I won't be able to I go in the morning before work.

Whatever you do, set a time and place (I don't think it matters what time of day depending on your routine) and try as hard as you can to stick with it. For me, this INCLUDES during finals, even when it is more tempting to skip.

rdcws000 wrote:

Does it serve as a good stress reliever? Or does it add to your fatigue?

Alot of students I know claim they don't have time for the gym anymore.

I believe keeping a regular workout routine is KEY to maintaining the energy and focus needed in school. When I miss a workout for a few days I notice it in class.

Resist the urge to slack off, it may actually have an impact on your studies

I go 4 days per week, a minimum of 3 if things get really hectic. I'm also a PT student so I work full time, and sometimes it is work getting in the way of going to the gym, instead of school. I typically go during my lunch hour from work. When I know I won't be able to I go in the morning before work.

Whatever you do, set a time and place (I don't think it matters what time of day depending on your routine) and try as hard as you can to stick with it. For me, this INCLUDES during finals, even when it is more tempting to skip.

This. Great stress reliever. You will get very tired of burying your head in books all day. Also, as for finals, I found that working out right after helped quite a bit. It was nice to get that post-workout boost before another long day of studying.

IMO, regular exercise is important to sustaining the work-load that law school requires. I workout (cardio/weights) six days a week, every week and while I have been busy, I have not had to sacrifice exercising. You can do it.

Fellow 0L here. I think that, like anything else, if you are serious about working out, you will make time for it. I also hope to keep up my workout regimen because I understand the physiological benefits that it gives me.

I would say a lot of the kids in LS who don't have time to work out probably weren't in the athletics/working out in the first place. If you were a college athlete you were used to making time for a demanding fitness schedule. You should not have a problem in LS. My only advice is to pick a time of day that you want to go and stick to it. When you get home from class in the afternoon you will be tired etc and working out will be the last thing you want to do I'm sure. I found that either the morning (if you have enough time, I never had class before 9:30) or forcing myself to go right from class to the gym worked best. I you let yourself sit down on the couch and relax after a tough day on campus it will be difficult to force yourself to get back up and go workout. At least that's how I am, I was able to do at least 4 days a week pretty regularly.

emciosn wrote:I would say a lot of the kids in LS who don't have time to work out probably weren't in the athletics/working out in the first place. If you were a college athlete you were used to making time for a demanding fitness schedule. You should not have a problem in LS. My only advice is to pick a time of day that you want to go and stick to it. When you get home from class in the afternoon you will be tired etc and working out will be the last thing you want to do I'm sure. I found that either the morning (if you have enough time, I never had class before 9:30) or forcing myself to go right from class to the gym worked best. I you let yourself sit down on the couch and relax after a tough day on campus it will be difficult to force yourself to get back up and go workout. At least that's how I am, I was able to do at least 4 days a week pretty regularly.

I pretty much expect to have your your exact experience. Sitting down on anything once I get home is detrimental to my work out process as well. lol

yngblkgifted wrote:

emciosn wrote:I would say a lot of the kids in LS who don't have time to work out probably weren't in the athletics/working out in the first place. If you were a college athlete you were used to making time for a demanding fitness schedule. You should not have a problem in LS. My only advice is to pick a time of day that you want to go and stick to it. When you get home from class in the afternoon you will be tired etc and working out will be the last thing you want to do I'm sure. I found that either the morning (if you have enough time, I never had class before 9:30) or forcing myself to go right from class to the gym worked best. I you let yourself sit down on the couch and relax after a tough day on campus it will be difficult to force yourself to get back up and go workout. At least that's how I am, I was able to do at least 4 days a week pretty regularly.

I pretty much expect to have your your exact experience. Sitting down on anything once I get home is detrimental to my work out process as well. lol

Yeah, the little devil on your shoulder will try to talk you into not working out when you're leaving campus. When I actually stepped foot into the gym I was fine, its just a matter of getting there. Don't let the little devil win... Working out helps maintain sanity. Also being in shape/athletic/muscular does help you to stand out among students at upper tier law schools believe it or not.

I'm glad to hear all of this. I'm used to 6:30 AM workouts and prefer this as a jump-start to my day (not to mention the metabolic benefits of working out early). Nutrition might be a little more challenging since I will be on the run, but my law school (Chapman) has a decent kitchen where students can store food.

These replies are encouraging. I talked to a couple of current law students who told me that they literally study for 12 hours a day and barely have time for meals. Seems a little bit unreal...

lol It's law school. You have like 4 classes. You're worried about not having an hour/day to go to the gym? wtf is wrong people

emciosn wrote:

yngblkgifted wrote:

emciosn wrote:I would say a lot of the kids in LS who don't have time to work out probably weren't in the athletics/working out in the first place. If you were a college athlete you were used to making time for a demanding fitness schedule. You should not have a problem in LS. My only advice is to pick a time of day that you want to go and stick to it. When you get home from class in the afternoon you will be tired etc and working out will be the last thing you want to do I'm sure. I found that either the morning (if you have enough time, I never had class before 9:30) or forcing myself to go right from class to the gym worked best. I you let yourself sit down on the couch and relax after a tough day on campus it will be difficult to force yourself to get back up and go workout. At least that's how I am, I was able to do at least 4 days a week pretty regularly.

I pretty much expect to have your your exact experience. Sitting down on anything once I get home is detrimental to my work out process as well. lol

Yeah, the little devil on your shoulder will try to talk you into not working out when you're leaving campus. When I actually stepped foot into the gym I was fine, its just a matter of getting there. Don't let the little devil win... Working out helps maintain sanity. Also being in shape/athletic/muscular does help you to stand out among students at upper tier law schools believe it or not.

lol. It's not that hard to believe.

I know that strength training and cardio helps when studying for the LSAT over the course of 12-15 weeks for 15-20 hours per week.
IMO, no matter what you are doing in life, consistent exercise and good nutrition is important.

Health is wealth.

3-4 hours per week of exercise/cardio is a worthwhile sacrifice for good health.....

I'm not in law school, last semester of UG, but I gotta say that making the time to workout 5 or 6 days a week, and good nutrition (paleo, woo!) drastically reduced the amount of time I spent on school. I have so much more focus and energy it's absurd. I'd imagine the benefits to be similar in any school situation.

This probably didn't help with your question at all but don't let law school get in the way of your training! No other time sacrifice could be more worth it.

2L here. I'm also into fitness and athletics. I was able to make it to the gym 4xweek for 1.5 hours a day wihtout a problem at the beginning of my 1L year. However, as it neared finals, lets say early november, I had to begin sacrificing certain activities. The gym was one of the first to go. Even though it was only 1.5 hours a day, I had to look at it as another 1.5 hours that I could have been sleeping.

This is also something I was really worried about (applying this fall), and I'm glad to hear the responses. Really sounds like if you are willing to suck it up and make time for it, you can pull it off.

I too will be scheduling my workouts!! Lets keep it tight!

Norwood wrote:2L here. I'm also into fitness and athletics. I was able to make it to the gym 4xweek for 1.5 hours a day wihtout a problem at the beginning of my 1L year. However, as it neared finals, lets say early november, I had to begin sacrificing certain activities. The gym was one of the first to go. Even though it was only 1.5 hours a day, I had to look at it as another 1.5 hours that I could have been sleeping.

This mirrored my experience. I'd say that a month and a half out from finals I had a reduced gym schedule, and 3 weeks out I pretty much stopped going. Otherwise I was at the gym pretty often. It's not just that I would have lost the time spent working out; stress on the body makes me need more sleep, and I usually eat a pretty big meal after the gym that makes me tired.

Never missed a day at the gym the entire semester. No reason to miss during finals either, since you don't even have to go to class.

Anyone doing something like p90x or insanity during 1L? Going to start this fall and hoping to get in workouts, but will live quite a ways from the gym.

Anyone here workout at home? There aren't any decent gyms around where I'm going to school so I'm thinking about buying some dumb bells and perhaps a bench, depending on how much space there is my apartment. I don't do much in the way of cardio so I anticipate just needing the most basic equipment.

downing wrote:Anyone here workout at home? There aren't any decent gyms around where I'm going to school so I'm thinking about buying some dumb bells and perhaps a bench, depending on how much space there is my apartment. I don't do much in the way of cardio so I anticipate just needing the most basic equipment.

If you go over to the fitness thread, you prob get some good answers

trudat15 wrote:Anyone doing something like p90x or insanity during 1L? Going to start this fall and hoping to get in workouts, but will live quite a ways from the gym.

While I'm not a 1L yet (2 more weeks), I did do P90X while working FT and taking evening classes, so I had 14 hour days and then an hour workout at like 10pm. It's definitely possible, but it takes discipline, especially if you're new to working out. You can definitely get great results from doing so, I preferred it because I didn't have to take the extra time or effort to go to the gym and my dumbbells would sit there just taunting me.

downing wrote:Anyone here workout at home? There aren't any decent gyms around where I'm going to school so I'm thinking about buying some dumb bells and perhaps a bench, depending on how much space there is my apartment. I don't do much in the way of cardio so I anticipate just needing the most basic equipment.

I workout at home still and it helps a lot. I mean, all you'd really need is space to do some pushups, maybe a door frame pull-up bar and a pair of adjustable dumbbells you can scoop up on Craigslist for like $10. I feel it's much easier to keep up with working out at home than to pack your shit up and schedule a block of time to get dressed and leave the house/campus to go to the gym, etc.

thecilent wrote:lol It's law school. You have like 4 classes. You're worried about not having an hour/day to go to the gym? wtf is wrong people

This. Fascinating how people think they will productively study 12 hours a day, 6 days a week. Let's be real.

On a similar note, is it a good idea to take a physical education class at the university? It would force me to be accountable and keep up with the exercise, but I'm not sure how things like this would affect my transcript.