How can I concentrate on what I have to do right now?

Should I concentrate on building muscle right now?

• I just cut down 8 lbs with a combination of 1000 calorie-deficit diet and strength training. I am planning to go back to my maintenance level (with good amounts of protein). The thing is that I need to prepare for my end-semester submissions,around 8 months for now. So the period of three months between 5 to 8 months will be very hectic for me, with no time for gymming sessions. And then followed by a month of examinations. So that would make a good four month period of no weightlifting. In these circumstances, which of the following would you advice me to do ? 1) Ditch the entire idea of spending an hour daily at the gym for the next four months (as the four month period after that would be a state of complete inactivity and that would anyways lead to muscle loss of hard-earned muscle that I will be gaining in these four months). I should be be able to restart my training after November. 2) Use the free time in the next four months, to continue the strength training I'm doing currently. Then take the next four months off to study. And then resume training in November, with going back to square one (having lost all the muscle that will be gaining in the first four months, I suppose)

• Answer:

  Before I comment, I too, believe it would be a mistake to just completely take time off from your health for 4 months due to school work. You always have to make time for yourself, no matter what your profession, or circumstance. I've worked with some of the busiest people around who can still make time for exercise despite jet-setting around the world and working 80 or 100 hours+ a week. Your mind will absolutely need breaks from work, or as Richard Branson has stated in the past if you want to INCREASE your productivity, EXERCISE! Exercise boosts alertness and reduces mental fatigue Exercise increases neurogenesis Exercise improves neural connections and has a strong association with better memory and greater improvements in intelligence Exercise provides a break and your mind works best in cycles (work + rest = success) Giving time constraints to your studies is one of the best ways to increase retention and maximize the work you get done in the time available (time management is a fallacy, it's really personal management as time is a constant we are all bound by) Maintaining your health, prevents you from running yourself into the ground, getting sick and other negatives that could prevent you from studying/working at all Exercising regularly became one of the best things I ever did in school and now that I work full time I'm downright useless when I'm not active by comparison. 1) Ditch the idea that you need to spend an hour a day, every week at the gym, period. You can make gains with half that and maintain with a quarter of that time investment with smart training. Learn how to train smart, don't blindly do a program without learning how to execute the foundational components of every lifting program. 2) If you have more time over the next 4 months, you can take a little more time to exercise now if you choose. Maybe do 4-5 hours a week for the next 4 months, then dial it back to 2-3 times a week as a break. So maybe you do 4 times a week of an upper body split right now with a hypertrophy focus, then cut it back to 2 full body lifts a week with a maintenance focus. If you eating can remain a relative constant, you shouldn't see too much 'major' change. The truth is, training is cyclical anyway. If you do the same thing, take the same approach for too long you're wasting your time if you don't switch things up. You're going to have ups and downs anyway, so why not put your head down and get as much as you can before you need to sacrifice a little more of your time for other things? Then, find a maintenance program and divert your attention to shorter lifting sessions and good nutrition for the next 4 months. Will you lose a ton of muscle in 4 months? Probably not as much as you think if you keep your eating in check and do some maintenance work twice a week (hit some of your big lifts, keep it simple). You can always hit it hard again afterwards. The worst thing you can do, is over-think this, it really shouldn't be complicated.