Manual labor job, walking all day. Which day should i train my legs?

[Kangshi]

I have a physical job. I walking all day and pick medical supplies, Monday to Friday, 8 hours per day. Nothing heavy but walking all day long. I'm a big dude, 200 lbs with 25 % bodyfat. My legs are sored at the end of everyday, but the job does help me burn calories and bodyfat during the day.

My question is when I should train my legs.

Now I train my legs on Sunday, not going too hard just one excise squad. But I plan to add a 5 mins running and some martial art training on Sunday morning before I hit the weight at afternoon. Not running at all making me feel like something is missing out. I already made my mind that I will run and do martial art training at least once a week. It doesn't have to be long but have to be there. Below is my current workout schedule, but I plan to put legs on Friday with just two excises, squad and deadlifts. Then move my last back and bicep day from Friday to Thursday.

Sun: Chest, shoulder, triceps, legs (plan to get rid of legs and add running and shadow boxing in the morning)
Mon: back and biceps
Tues off
Wed: Chest, shoulder, triceps, abs
Thur off (plan to add back and biceps)
Fri: back and biceps (plan to switch to leg day)

i dont really care about grow a huge legs, I just want to maintain it or grow at a slower rate. I care about my upper body muscles.

Thanks.

[air2fakie]

For your goals, do legs whenever you want.

[SuffolkPunch]

Train them at least twice a week. Walking should not interfere with recovery and you should get reduced DOMS due to the higher frequency. Obviously you can cut the volume per session in half if you double the number of sessions.

[paulinkansas]

All my renters do manual labor 10-12 hours a day, 6-7 days a week. Some of them lift when they get off work. They take a cooler full of food with them to munch on while at work. Many times when I go by to collect rent, they are cooking 2-3 days worth of food and storing it in tupperware dishes to take to work. This has nothing to do with working legs, but you can prep several days worth of food and take it to work.

[BeginnerGainz]

I’ve been doing manual labor for 16 years now.

You should aim for at least leg day within a 6-7 days period if you’re serious about training IMO

Doesn’t particularly matter what day.

[radrd]

5 minutes of running amounts to a warm up, not actual training. If you aren't training legs hard, then you aren't training them. Walking shouldn't be factored into your training. Hit legs hard at least 1x per week, preferably 2x. Sounds like you just don't want to train legs and you are trying to rationalize taking a half-assed approach.

What is your height? I suspect you are over 25% body fat if your legs are sore at the end of each day from walking and you have been doing it for any length of time. Diet might be a good thing to work on.

[MyEgoProblem]

200lbs/25%bf isn't v really ba big dude.
270/25 is a pretty big dude.

I average 30k day

Nothing you do at work that easy will affect you. Or your training.

[Kangshi]

Train them at least twice a week. Walking should not interfere with recovery and you should get reduced DOMS due to the higher frequency. Obviously you can cut the volume per session in half if you double the number of sessions.

Thanks for the info. I do concern about all day walking affect my recovery. That's why I plan to move it to Friday and have the full day recovery on Saturday.
At my job, I had to walk fast to keep up the rate and pulling a loaded pallet jack, sometimes two jacks. It's different than walking on a treadmill at a 3 miles per hour speed.
I only do one exercise, squad on Sunday and I can feel the soreness next day at work when I'm walking.
I think I probably just train my legs on Friday, then maybe add more exercises or another leg day after my legs get used to it. I started train my legs one month ago.

[Kangshi]

5 minutes of running amounts to a warm up, not actual training. If you aren't training legs hard, then you aren't training them. Walking shouldn't be factored into your training. Hit legs hard at least 1x per week, preferably 2x. Sounds like you just don't want to train legs and you are trying to rationalize taking a half-assed approach.

What is your height? I suspect you are over 25% body fat if your legs are sore at the end of each day from walking and you have been doing it for any length of time. Diet might be a good thing to work on.

I only run 5 mins because I hate running. I only run for martial art training. I used to have a martial art training day, which 20-30 mins running, 2 round shadow boxing, abs and leg exercises with body weight. I dont do that anymore and feel like missing out.

I do want to train my legs and want them to grow, but I think the walking at my job really do affect my recovery and there is no way for my legs to grow like my chest does. I only do 5 sets of squad and I can feel the soreness the next day when I'm walking at my job. I walk fast at my job with pulling one or two loaded pallet jack in order to keep up a rate. For me personally, I dont feel it's nothing.

I dont know if my bodyfat is accurate. I did a measurement with anytime fitness, and thats the number the staff gave to me few weeks ago.

Edit: my height is 5 feet 6. I do try to eat as clean as possible, but I do cheat a bit. I have lost 25 lbs since July and my strength went up. I have been on and off in the past couple years. I recently started workouting again in July because my blood pressure went up. I have been lifting for my upper body and do 3 times running per week. I stopped running in last month and started weight trainning for my legs.

[Kangshi]

200lbs/25%bf isn't v really ba big dude.
270/25 is a pretty big dude.

I average 30k day

Nothing you do at work that easy will affect you. Or your training.

Yeah I know. For you guys. I'm a small dude. I'm new here in this bodybuilding forum. That's why I need people's opinions.
I dont know. Everyone say my job shouldnt bother my legs' recovery. But I really do feel the soreness the next day at my job after just 5 sets of squad on Sunday.
I'm new into bodybuilding and want to look bigger in one or two years. My bench press result is good. I try to maximize my growth for my legs, and thinking have a leg day on Friday is best for me, add more excises later on, and recover on Saturday.

[Kangshi]

I’ve been doing manual labor for 16 years now.

You should aim for at least leg day within a 6-7 days period if you’re serious about training IMO

Doesn’t particularly matter what day.

Thanks for the reply.

I dont know. Everyone say my job shouldnt bother my legs' recovery. But I really do feel the soreness the next day at my job after just 5 sets of squad on Sunday.
At my job, I had to walk fast to keep up the rate and pulling a loaded pallet jack, sometimes two jacks. It's different than walking on a treadmill at a 3 miles per hour speed.
I'm new into bodybuilding. That's why I need people's opinions in here.
My bench press result is good. I try to maximize my growth for my legs, and thinking have a leg day on Friday is best for me, add more excises later on, and recover on Saturday.

[Kangshi]

All my renters do manual labor 10-12 hours a day, 6-7 days a week. Some of them lift when they get off work. They take a cooler full of food with them to munch on while at work. Many times when I go by to collect rent, they are cooking 2-3 days worth of food and storing it in tupperware dishes to take to work. This has nothing to do with working legs, but you can prep several days worth of food and take it to work.

I do the same. I wake at 8 30. get to work at 10 am. get off at 6 30 or 7 30 pm. Train from 9 00 pm to 10 30 pm. eat at 11 30, take a shower and go to sleep at 12 30.
I wash all my dishes on weekend and do meal prep for two or three days. And store the dirty dishes in my refrigerator and wash them all on Saturday.

[Kangshi]

5 minutes of running amounts to a warm up, not actual training. If you aren't training legs hard, then you aren't training them. Walking shouldn't be factored into your training. Hit legs hard at least 1x per week, preferably 2x. Sounds like you just don't want to train legs and you are trying to rationalize taking a half-assed approach.

What is your height? I suspect you are over 25% body fat if your legs are sore at the end of each day from walking and you have been doing it for any length of time. Diet might be a good thing to work on.

"rationalize taking a half-assed approach"
Nah thats not true. I hate cardio, but I like lifting. If I can do 6 exercises for my legs and train them twice a week, I would do it.
I used to have a stationary picking job, which the heavy totes come to me. But I had to hold those heavy boxes and dump the screws on a scale. At the end of the day my biceps were sore. So I only train my bicep on Friday with 4 exercises. Now I train my biceps twice a week and 3 exercises each time since i got this new job. If I train my biceps during the week at my old job, My job would affect my recovery, and my training would affect my job. So now I apply its the same principle for my legs.
But thanks for your input. I need advices.

[BeginnerGainz]

Thanks for the info. I do concern about all day walking affect my recovery. That's why I plan to move it to Friday and have the full day recovery on Saturday.
At my job, I had to walk fast to keep up the rate and pulling a loaded pallet jack, sometimes two jacks. It's different than walking on a treadmill at a 3 miles per hour speed.
I only do one exercise, squad on Sunday and I can feel the soreness next day at work when I'm walking.
I think I probably just train my legs on Friday, then maybe add more exercises or another leg day after my legs get used to it. I started train my legs one month ago.

You’re legs are sore because they aren’t being challenged on a regular basis. Upping the frequency will help.

You don’t have to do the same exercises each day.

And no, walking will not affect your recovery. It may actually improve it.

Oh, and there are other ways of getting in cardio other than running, for instance, exercise/assault bikes and rowers.

[air2fakie]

Your legs get sore from walking because you're 5-6, 200 lbs, not because of what day you do your 2 exercise leg workout.

[SuffolkPunch]

So you are only doing squats. How many sets do you do?

I still say you could spread these between 2 different days and it would be fine.

Full recovery is a process that takes a long time (weeks) - and you can train again before it's completed. Like I am saying, it's not the day to day use of those muscles in your job, but the total load over time that matters.

Others have already said that people with active jobs can train at whatever time they choose, it's up to you if you take the advice or not of course... Just take a practical approach, start the workout and if it is obviously very poor, that was not a good time to train. But just feeling a little tired is sometimes not a good reason to avoid working out - once you get going, your performance might be just as good as normal.

[Kangshi]

So you are only doing squats. How many sets do you do?

I still say you could spread these between 2 different days and it would be fine.

Full recovery is a process that takes a long time (weeks) - and you can train again before it's completed. Like I am saying, it's not the day to day use of those muscles in your job, but the total load over time that matters.

Others have already said that people with active jobs can train at whatever time they choose, it's up to you if you take the advice or not of course... Just take a practical approach, start the workout and if it is obviously very poor, that was not a good time to train. But just feeling a little tired is sometimes not a good reason to avoid working out - once you get going, your performance might be just as good as normal.

Thank you very much for your advice. It's most helpful.
I actually prefer to train my legs twice in a week if I can. Squad and deadlift increase your testosterone level. I like doing squad so far. It makes me feel better. I do 5 sets of squad on Sunday. One warm up set and 4 working sets. The reason Im doing it on Sunday is because I watch Coach Greg on Youtube said lifting before cardio. So I figured it is better to do it on Sunday rather than the last day of the week, Friday. But now I want to add a martial art training on Sunday, so I plan to move the Squad to Friday. I can also add deadlift since I have a full day recovery on Saturday.
I will add more exercises later on, once my legs recover faster from soreness. I will try to train my legs twice in a week. I started to lift again since July due to my blood pressure went up. Been eating healthy, lifting 4 times for my upper body and run 3 times a week. I lost 25 lbs in two months, so I got rid of running and started doing squad. I havent squad for years. When I started a month ago, I can only squad a bar with 25 lbs plates on each side. Now I squad 160 lbs. Not a lot, but thats how much I used to squad. I bench press 190 lbs in a good form and time under tension. I have tiny legs and I get asked a lot if I ever train my legs. LOL
Yeah I do want my legs to grow. And Thanks for your advice. I will go back to read your message again when I have time.

[Kangshi]

You’re legs are sore because they aren’t being challenged on a regular basis. Upping the frequency will help.

You don’t have to do the same exercises each day.

And no, walking will not affect your recovery. It may actually improve it.

Oh, and there are other ways of getting in cardio other than running, for instance, exercise/assault bikes and rowers.

Thank you very much for your advice. Very good info you gave to me.

[Sweetums6000]

We evolved to outrun antelopes. Not to out-sprint them, but to outlast them in an endurance contest. Keep that in mind when judging how much your legs can take.

[Lymnenews5e2q]

Train them at least twice a week. Walking should not interfere with recovery and you should get reduced DOMS due to the higher frequency. Obviously you can cut the volume per session in half if you double the number of sessions.