The title is modest, I know. (If my girlfriend says that I’m ripped, then I must be.) Either way, I’m almost three quarters through an Aerospace Engineering degree. In these past years of school, I’ve studied my ass off, built a better body, and heard more rocket science jokes than Maxwell has Coffee. It may seem weird that 50+ total hours of class and studying has given me any time to workout and eat properly. In fact, this is most peoples’ excuse to not being in shape.
If anything, the most important things I’ve learned indirectly from Aerospace Engineering have actually helped me build a body I am pretty proud of. What are they? See below, Homie.
It Showed Me That Short Periods of Intense Work Pays Off
While studying, I found that if I dedicated a solid hour of intense, focused work, I would get the equivalent of 2-3 hours of average work done. This means no Facebook, cell phone off, and my door closed and locked. With these extra hours of “free time”, I could invest them into other things, like writing this article, or going to the gym.
Here’s the bonus on top of the bonus: I started decreasing my rest periods in my workouts, and lifting heavier. This not only made my workouts shorter and more intense, but I also got bigger and leaner. Pretty badass if you ask me.
I Started Fasting
I tried the 6 meals per day thing. While it was manageable, it was also hell. I would always be watching the time, and being afraid that I was going to miss a meal. This stressed me out way too much. I probably had so much stress from worrying about meal timing, that the cortisol actually screwed me over and made my body look like crap.
Last year, I finally decided to ditch the 6 meals per day thing and start only eating 2 or 3. This evolved to me not eating breakfast (I got an extra half hour of sleep too), and then evolved to me not eating until I got home from class for the day. The first half of my day is now GSD (get shit done), while the second have is a mixture of GSD, training, eating, writing, relaxing, and reading.
Fasting has been the most successful thing I’ve ever done for body composition and digestion. Because of this, I think I will always be in debt to aerodynamics, thermodynamics, electronics, aircraft performance…well, you get the picture.
It Bored Me Into Being a Fitness Geek
Let’s face it. As cool as airplanes and rockets sound, it’s actually pretty boring stuff. This is evident by viewing Figure 1.
Figure 1
If you add in the fact that most of my teachers aren’t the greatest: 1)Presenters, 2)Speakers of the English Language, and you have a recipe that will make me day dream about fitness, training, and nutrition. This lead to me reading tons of books on the topic (when I had the time), and thinking about these books while in class (while I should have been learning more “important” things). I tried and tested everything I learned on myself, and on my clients. Every article you read on this website is a result of me thinking of cool stuff in class. I’m pretty excited about this too, because in a year from now I will be telling people that I am a “rocket scientist turned fitness professional”.
It has a nice ring to it if you ask me.
There you have it. The top 3 things I learned from being an Aerospace Engineer. If you expected me to talk about airplanes and rockets, the you came to the wrong place. Luckily, everything I spoke of above can be applied to whatever you are doing in life. Something difficult, hard, and stressful can never truly stop you from reaching your biggest goals in life.
We value your privacy and would never spam you