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How Do You Guys Manage Fitness With School?


hotlinebliiing

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Hey all, starting dentistry this fall. I'm usually active in the gym during summers but have never successfully finished a term while also being in the gym consistently.

 

My days are 8-5, after which id want to study until around 10-11. So I'd have to get up around 530 to workout. 530-630 workout, 630-730 get ready and head out of the door. I don't want to workout at school, because I'd rather not be sweaty while trying to study. Haha.

 

Is it possible to do this while in dental school? Some days I'm sure I'll be studying so late until around midnight. How do I manage? Any tips?

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Studying for 5 hours a day after work/school is overkill even for Royal College studying... and a recipe for burnout. 

 

As a resident, I just go running or to yoga a few times every week. Just make a bit of time for it. Now, if you want to maintain some kind of aggressive weight training program, it might be harder as you go farther on, but then I've always thought that the gym was beyond boring. 

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No one ever studies that much. If anything, go workout after your classes 5-6pm to destress from the learnings and give your mind a break so if you want to do any review in the evening, you're less burnt out.

 

And find ways to enjoy it too. If anything, go for a walk/run outside to calm your mind or play sports with people in your class. It won't even seem like any extra work or stress to fit in because you'll have fun.

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Yup. Typically they will bring you before the Academic progress comittee and place you under an academic contract. They also decide how you will remediate. If you don't meet expectations while under contract (for example failing the rewrite) you can be required to repeat the year or withdraw from medical school entirely.

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Hey all, starting dentistry this fall. I'm usually active in the gym during summers but have never successfully finished a term while also being in the gym consistently.

 

My days are 8-5, after which id want to study until around 10-11. So I'd have to get up around 530 to workout. 530-630 workout, 630-730 get ready and head out of the door. I don't want to workout at school, because I'd rather not be sweaty while trying to study. Haha.

 

Is it possible to do this while in dental school? Some days I'm sure I'll be studying so late until around midnight. How do I manage? Any tips?

 

I like going a bit later in the evenings, like 7:30 to 8:30.  Serves as a productive study break and gets you nice and hungry for dinner.

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You need balance. Some days you will indeed be studying that much, but that doesn't mean you don't make time for the gym; you have to cut down somewhere. And you won't be able to maintain getting up at 5:30 while in dental school.

 

I managed to stay extremely fit while in dental school, even did some Olympic weightlifting meets. It's about ingraining it into your schedule. The real study intensive years for dental school are years 1 and 2. I was usually in class 8-5, and then would hit the gym, grab dinner, then study from maybe 7 or 8 for only a couple hours. Definitely some people did 4-5 hours of studying a day, but if your health is important to you, it's not feasible. You have to trim the fat in your time management somewhere.

 

As time went on I studied less and less, and luckily since I had maintained my fitness regime (except maybe during heavy exam periods) it never faltered or changed. I'm still keeping it up even in the workforce today and I hit the gym at least 4 times a week.

 

My advice is start the habit now. What most people don't realize is that staying active is about consistency; you don't gain anything from only being active in the summers. It has to become part of your routine, your life, to the point that it's indispensable, and you get antsy, slight withdrawal symptoms if you're NOT working out or exercising. You will adapt, but you have to move it higher in your priority list.

 

So starting now, start hitting the gym much more regularly and consistency than you did, and when you start school in the fall, don't let it falter. 

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  • 2 weeks later...

I think it'd be best to see what your workload is like on each individual day and go from there. 

 

Just with me doing my first bachelor and working full time - I had a similar issue of my entire day being booked for work and then my entire evening being booked for studying. It is easy to want to have a cookie cutter schedule where every single day is exactly the same but it isn't really practical. 

 

I try to get in a solid hour each day on Saturday&Sunday. On weekdays I cut down to 30-45 minutes a day on at least Tuesdays and Thursdays. Mondays and Wednesdays have been nights where I need as much study time as I can get while Fridays is my evening off everything because I can pick up the slack on the weekend. 

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  • 2 years later...

Dental school you can totally make it happen. In residency I went in the morning to the hospital gym as I found it would be inconsistent if I was dealing with work issues (call, extra paperwork from clinic, etc etc) so I was more consistent with just waking up early, bringing my protein shake along, and doing things then. Much happier and energized, too.

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Even just taking the time to walk is good exercise.

I aim for at least 10k steps a day and go weightlifting 2 times a week.

Take the stairs instead of elevators. Public transit instead of driving. 

I also intermittently fast every day and eat a diet that contains lots of healthy protein and vegetables and a moderate amount of carbs.  

Sleep at least 7-8 hours a day.

Never been healthier/more energetic and I’m approaching my 30s.

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I think it is a challenge but I see students, residents and staff do it.
If you can be consistent, this will be the key.
I try to go 5x per week, even though sometimes it will only be for 40 minutes.
My approach is use it as a study break ; work-out instead of watching a Netflix episode.
On a final note, I don't know a single student that failed because there wasn't enough hours in a day to study.
The real challenge is self-discipline and we are all trying to improve that in our lives.
Best of luck!:)

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It won't be a challenge if you prioritize it. Finishing medical school in a few weeks and I've been more dedicated to the gym and eating proper than ever before. Also stronger than I've ever been. I lift at least 4 times a week for about 1.5 hours and do 30-45 minutes of running on nonlift days. Maybe I just don't study as much as other people but I was able to do well all throughout medical school and clerkship. Always schedule lift sessions on weekends because you have more of a buffer then.

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  • 2 weeks later...

It was difficult finding time to go to the gym during my residency. Now, I am in a fellowship that is arguably even more time consuming, but the difference is that I am much more efficient in the way I study, giving me a bit more free time.

It's ALL about time management.

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On 3/20/2019 at 1:55 PM, Butterfly_ said:

Even just taking the time to walk is good exercise.

I aim for at least 10k steps a day and go weightlifting 2 times a week.

Take the stairs instead of elevators. Public transit instead of driving. 

I also intermittently fast every day and eat a diet that contains lots of healthy protein and vegetables and a moderate amount of carbs.  

Sleep at least 7-8 hours a day.

Never been healthier/more energetic and I’m approaching my 30s.

Ah teach me how lol. My trajectory for health has been downwards since starting med school!

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Acquire a magic bullet/ninja/blender of choice, get in the habit of making a lot of protein shakes. Learn where the hospital gym and shower is, great for pre clinic exercise and workouts. Soylent was a nutritional godsend before health Canada banned it sadly... I used to see surgeons and internists stock their white coats with that stuff. Our resident fridge was packed with it two, with boxes on the side as well, ha! Made it really easy to hit nutritional targets.

Other things that help: meal prep veggie bags on your off day ~1/week. Grab that, your smoothie, and a Greek yogurt cup and you’ve got a nutritious meal. Meal prep other meals if you can. Stock protein/meal bars/other things in your locker/desk so you can grab something quick with reasonable nutritional content as well. 

 

Regarding the stairs comment - that’s been shown to save time in the hospital. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3255141/

 

 

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Soooo much free time in med school to workout and take care of yourself. I was exercising 2-4 hours per day throughout my first 2 of 3 years of med school and it was glorious. I absolutely did not study anywhere near 5 hours per day. For the purposes of doing well during medical school (with the exception of the 5-7 days leading up to an exam), studying 8-10 hours per week is much more than ample if you pick things up relatively quickly.

Residency is a different matter. I workout in the mornings at 5:30-6:00 usually 3ish times per week when not in a horrible call cycle and when it's not cold enough to xc ski outside or warm enough to cycle.

I don't know how this would compare to dentistry.

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1 hour ago, Borborygmi said:

Soooo much free time in med school to workout and take care of yourself. I was exercising 2-4 hours per day throughout my first 2 of 3 years of med school and it was glorious. I absolutely did not study anywhere near 5 hours per day. For the purposes of doing well during medical school (with the exception of the 5-7 days leading up to an exam), studying 8-10 hours per week is much more than ample if you pick things up relatively quickly.

 Residency is a different matter. I workout in the mornings at 5:30-6:00 usually 3ish times per week when not in a horrible call cycle and when it's not cold enough to xc ski outside or warm enough to cycle.

I don't know how this would compare to dentistry.

Even in clerkship you found it easy to exercise regularly?

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12 hours ago, brady23 said:

Even in clerkship you found it easy to exercise regularly?

You can exercise regularly on certain rotations.

Family and psych rotations are pretty good for that. Surgery usually takes up too much time and energy. Other rotations are a mixed bag and also depends on the amount of effort you're putting into that rotation. 

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