Fitness and Fieldwork

Getting a few lunges in between digging

I’ve just got back from Sicily, not on holiday as I accidentally keep telling people, but on an archaeological excavation, which is one of the best parts of my job! Since I started training I’ve found tracking macros to be fairly straightforward on a day to day basis (thank you MyFitnessPal), and actually enjoy the variety in diet between high carb (low fat) and low carb (high fat) days. I was hoping to stay at least a little on track with this whilst away on fieldwork, and brought a few snacking essentials – rice cakes, whey protein and Nakd bars. The plan was to eat the fieldwork food as much as possible, and supplement with snacks where needed. I even thought I would give ice cream a pass, maybe just have a cheat weekend. But oh how that went out the window on day one. There is nothing in central Sicily that fits my macros. So much carbs, with carbs and more carbs, all cooked in olive oil. And really, once you’ve had just a little bit of Italian gelato, there’s no way you’re not going to eat ALL the gelato at any opportunity. And we’re staying in a village that has its own bakery, and they bake fresh croissants every morning and fill them with ricotta. Even my willpower isn’t that good.  Actually, with the amount pf physical activity I’ve been doing, my main worry has not been eating enough and losing all teh gains. After the first couple of days I realized I had a deficit of about 1000 calories and so switched to stuffing my face with all the carbs, whilst also trying to eat all the protein physically possible. This has mostly meant 3 protein shakes a day, plus eggs, tinned tuna and salami mini meals in between main meal times. I’m hoping the past 6 months of building muscle and increasing my metabolism will mean this leads to great gains in muscle, though I’m pretty sure my newly visible abs are going to disappear again.

I also had grand plans to stick to my lifting routine as much as possible, doing body weight versions of exercises. But the work schedule has been so tight I didn't get a chance. Instead my routine looked like this:

• Wheelbarrow dead lift row (emptying wheelbarrows into standing sieves)
• Bucket goblet squats (emptying buckets onto spoil heap)
• Bucket lat raises (walking from trench to spoil heap with a bucket in each hand)
• Bucket curls (as above but curling as you go)
• Shovel lunge, delt raise twists (don't forget proper shoveling technique!)

Add in the fact the site is on a hill, and there’s plenty of HIIT going on as well. It turns out that all the gym knowledge has translated really well to fieldwork. I definitely noticed the difference in how hard everything is. I used to be absolutely crap at maneuvering a wheelbarrow full of soil, and was rubbish at shoveling, now I can do both easily. Having spent ages trying to get a good form for squat and dead lift, it also feels really natural keeping health and safety approved body positioning for physical tasks. No more bending at the back for me!

Motto of this story is, don’t bother trying to carb cycle if you go to Italy. Embrace the food safe in the knowledge you can easily get back on track with macros when you get home. But do bring extra protein! And if you’re not an archaeologist doing physical labour for 6 hours a day, it might be a good idea to do some press ups and suitcase squats.

Coming soon: lessons learned from shoveling dirt everyday for 2 weeks...