Gym during Bar Prep Forum

[Studying4everzz12]

Hello!

I was thinking about going to gym classes during bar prep! The class would be 10AM-11AM. I told someone regarding this gym class I'm pumped to attend and that person said that a class time of 10AM-11AM is such in the middle of the day that it's not good for bar prep? I assume, 9:45AM drive to gym. 10-11am gym class and maybe after I shower/eat should be 12PM

Is it an unwritten rule that you must go to the gym early in morning or late at night? What was your gym schedule?

[anonymous5491]

I just didn’t go at all.

Small sacrifices.

[Lawl Shcool]

This shouldn't be a problem and as a general rule working out for 30-60 minutes a day is going to help you more than an extra 30-60 minutes of studying. The bar summer is a grind but its a marathon, so having a set time every day for a workout class could be a good anchor for your daily routine.

I did BarBri at a local law school in my hometown and tried to attend the in class sessions every day. My routine was generally to do the 8am-12 class, then go straight to the gym on campus and play basketball/lift for 1.5-2 hours, then shower, grab food and hit the library for a few hours, typically packing it up around 6/6:30. Some later nights and weekend sessions towards the end of the process but overall, you don't need to grind the same way you would for a law school test. You don't have to beat 60+ kids for the CALI award, you just need to beat ~35-40% (at least in my state) of the test takers.

[nixy]

A lot of people watch videos in the morning and do the reading/review/practice questions in the afternoon (if you attend the in-person class the sessions are in the morning, although there’s absolutely no need to go to the class as opposed to watch the videos at home on your own). As long as you’re putting in the amount of work you need to get the prep done, though, it doesn’t matter whether you do it in the morning, afternoon, or at night. And I agree that having a set time for the class could help structure your day. I’m sure there are people who’d rather get studying done in the am and then work out later (and yes, working out during bar prep is good), but you only need to worry about what works for you. If you find that for some reason not using the morning to work means you’re falling behind, you can always change. Frankly it’s probably one of the last times for a while that you could take a 10 am class, so go for it.

[Hopefullitassociate]

As long as you create a schedule that allows you to still get through all the video/prep material (and in a way in which you're actually engaged and focused), then gym time can not only be a part of that, but for some it might be a really important part. I worked out almost every day during bar prep (save for probably the week or two before the test). I went to the gym in the middle of the day and felt like a break from the material, and the opportunity to get in some physical movement, was crucial to helping me stay focused and not get burned out.

[JHP]

As others say, I don't think the gym class/time is itself a problem, as long as you are getting your work done.

I was probably more on the regimented side of my bar prep--I woke up early every day and made my bar prep a full 12-15 hour day job, mostly to quench my anxiety. I did take breaks throughout the day to cook, workout, grocery shop, watch some Netflix etc. If you don't plan on going to any of the in-person lectures that may be available nearby you, then your gym class timing is not a problem. I would personally not have chosen that schedule because it would have interfered with the in-person lecture times and I preferred to get lectures done in the first half of the day (regardless of whether I attended the in-person ones). I would also encourage you to make sure you get some bar prep started earlier in the day, rather than started at like 1:00 PM after you get back from the gym, since that seems a bit late to me.

[Smiddywesson]

The whole fitness thing was tied up with my study pace. I mostly ran, but found that a good run could detract from my energy levels. Therefore, the closer I got to the exam, the less intense my workouts. As for pace, I studied at 1.5-2.5 hour blocks, quitting when I got sluggish. That was fine leading up to the final few weeks, but the test is given in four hour blocks, so that's what I did for the last several weeks. It worked incredibly well for this 57 year old. During the actual exam, I felt very little fatigue, even on the last 20-30 questions on the MBE. I had to stand and stretch several times, but I took no breaks. The essays? Forget about it, the essays are a time tunnel where four hours passes in what seems like 40 minutes.

Advice: Work out really hard in the beginning so you can find how much is too much. I exercised at lunch, but I'm a morning person. If you stay up late, save the exercise for the pm when you will need it. I ramped down the exercise a lot during the last two weeks.
That left a lot of extra energy. I did just enough to get my body warmed up and to clear my mind, no more.

Morning person: It was incredibly helpful to get up around 5 am everyday. This gives you time to eat, iron out those restroom breaks, and get your game face on. You don't need an alarm clock, and you ARE going to get your eight hours of sleep no matter how wound up you are. It was 30 years since my last bar, so I studied 12 months. I slept like a baby, even after Day One when my computer melted down. The downside of this strategy is you could run out of energy in the pm, however I didn't have any problems in this regard. This approach was critical to my performance, the test itself was relatively anxiety free because of it. The waiting for grades? Agony.

[Person1111]

It's fine. As long as you can put in 8-12 hours a day it really doesn't matter when in the day those hours are. I tended to study from around 9-2 and then again from around 7-midnight, but others prefer something closer to 8-6 or 9-7 and that's fine too.

[mickey_mouse]

totally fine. i would always end up going to the gym at like 2pm everyday, which could also be considered "the middle" of a study day.

Bar exam prep is just so boring and such a slog that I had to break the day up any way I could. Going to the gym is the best way to do that. If you can get 90-120 min of studying in before you go to that 10 oclock class you'll be in good shape.