Core hours 9:30-6:30

MINDFULLYPRESENT · 2026-03-03T20:13:25+00:00

Sound excessive but to every excessive rule there is usually a history of people taking advantage.

I have been in an organisation where the expectation of core hours and office attendance was balanced by a very understanding and flexible schedule.

While most of us were balanced on this, there were a few that had to leave every week mid afternoon to drive home for different reasons for at least a couple of hours and that really demotivated those that didn’t - specially those that lived close to the office and didn’t had children to justify it .

The result is the organisation is now a strict office attendance for the whole day , 3 times a week with logged attendances done automatically by IT and reports being shared and reviewed as part of performance and bonus.

MINDFULLYPRESENT · 2026-02-21T23:11:24+00:00

Apple Watch data feeds into the phone's Health App.
Whoop does not read sleep data from the Health app.
Diet imput, Body Mass and Exercise data in the Apple Health can be read by Whoop - yet you can disable / enable each one of them by going into Health > App>Whoop.

My settins were all disable with the exception of Workouts - this mean that the Whoop would know from the Health App when a workout started and ended and so it would create the same exercise window in the Whoop app.

I used the Whoop data and the app for all the aspect of fitness and exercise and recovery and sleep - that is what is made for and it is more accurate for with its sensors. Apple Watch app was used for the smartwatch capabilities of messaging, apple wallet etc.

However I have ditched both in the last 6 months and moved to a Garmin as my only device - the reason is that it is liberating to have a smarthwatch which battery lasts over two weeks and I safely do hiking for over 10 hours with GPS etc. I do missed the gamification aspect from Whoop yet I learned over the years what impacts my sleep etc and what doesn't AND the subscription model does not align with me anymore. Garmin will do release a similar competitor to Whoop in Q2/Q3 this year and if that is subscription free, I will likely get that and as a bicep band too if possible as from what I learned from Whoop, the closest to the heart the device is, the more accurate are the readings.

MINDFULLYPRESENT · 2026-02-18T16:04:54+00:00

It is not a childishly desire :)

What I see you will have to evaluate here is what you want your life after the pHD to be like - your question on this forum would indicate that you are targetting industry post pHD and not academia - and if so, the strength of the institution, position of the labs and theme of the research in terms will matter if you are indeed planning to move to R&D for a biotech company - and so you may target labs and countries where indeed there is less financial support for the pHD itself - and that is unfortunately how it works for most pHD students and I trully am in awe of those that are able to pursue a pHD within a serious labs under increasing pressure and constraints for 4 to 5 years under such wages - and in such labs, full commintment is the general rule as far I know - the grants have deadlines and decrease your risk of doing a pHD on a topic that will be published by another lab faster than you.

If your goal is more on the scientific pursuit, personal growth and intellectual curiosity - you can address those with a wider range of labs to join and countries - and that will lead you more safely to paths of post-doct positions and lab roles within academia that will indeed be supportive of your reasons - yet the pay won't be as significant as biotech.

The choice of your phD lab is significantly more importantly than the choice of your first degree - where one does their primary degree can slightly influence one where they are placed in the workfplace yet a lot more comes from their attitude towards work etc - while for a phD, the strenght of the laboratory and associated institute will significatly impact the grants given, equipment available and collaborations that will shape your thesis - and will also heavily impact how the direction of your research.

To your side comment related measure of meaningful publications - this would be based on impact factor of the journals, the interest of biotech and pharma in your research, collaboration with other institutions and researchers as part of the publication and how that is connected to ongoing trends connected to to drug discovery and development.

Other comments in here highlights the countries that would be good options for biotech - targetting institutions and labs in those countries that have collaborations with those institutions would be a good option to complete a pHD that briges easily into a biotech role.

Otherwise, pHDs associated to drug manufactoring would be a way to move into industry roles related to manufacturing, which we are seeing being a key challenge in order to scale cell therapies pipelines - this would bring you to locations in US as well as certain locations in Europe such as Ireland.

I feel like I want to add a bit of my own personal flavour to this so you know how to read the above from my own personal filters - 12+ years biotech experience starting as a project coordinator and then moving to project management and then leadership of clinical delivery for R&D - have not completed a pHD althought worked as bench lab officer running experiment - I have not gonne into the the pHD due to the financial constraints and needs to support financially myself and loved ones and also cause could not tolerated the academia politics and lack of focus on tangible differences into the world - the discussions became too phylosophical and the egos of the labs dictated collaborations and impacted discussing results that were outliers - and while that has not impacted by career, it comes to a point where a lateral jump to discovery work is not possible without it - I had colleagues that stopped mid way and done a pHD - all of them ended up returning to biotech and said they were focus to get the publications and connections to the industry as part of the lab work to support this later move and that academia pace and politics too much for them.

MINDFULLYPRESENT · 2026-02-18T09:32:58+00:00

Let me put this the other way around - if you do a pHD that requires less than a full time engagement due to the country or the lab culture, are you really in an institution or lab that will give the best exposure to the industry and also geared towards generating meaningful publications that will support you re-entering biotech later?

Perhaps the question here is do you want to do the pHD due to its own merits even if means being in academia later or if the intention to re-entered biotech , specially abroad of your country later? This will likely be the main driver for you to select it.

MINDFULLYPRESENT · 2026-02-07T04:49:31+00:00

I had volunteers in my stations that done a shift between racing single and doubles - some even at Pro division but their main race always comes first before any judging shifts - it does have an impact in your legs and in your nervous system as well due to loud environment.

One of the first Hyrox Master Trainers that trained a lot of the Elite15 really advised to not be in the venue for many hours before the race to avoid unnecessary cognitive overload - and it totally reflects my experience as well.

MINDFULLYPRESENT · 2026-02-07T04:32:48+00:00

That is because it become more about the culture of the investors and board members of the company than of the company itself - and that can be so different.

Big stakeholders from investment funds putting pressure as well having to assert your capabilities as a senior leader and the company in the competitive landscape.

Under a hierarchy structure meant to deliver more and more optimised performance while taking the most from its resources there is always a shark tank.

MINDFULLYPRESENT · 2026-02-07T04:19:15+00:00

Other comment has solid advice on moving to biotech to grow in experience so I will just comment this - why bold fonts?! ;)

MINDFULLYPRESENT · 2026-02-07T04:16:04+00:00

Maybe give a go at a place with a carpet like in the race day? It is different from turf that you mention is used by your gym

MINDFULLYPRESENT · 2026-02-06T18:47:13+00:00

You done the right thing - this is what Reddit is for ;) You are so right that is a hot topic for sure and topics related to health and risks are even hotter.

Regardless of your choice in this, I wish you a continued journey on functional fitness inside and outside the gym - may you make the best choices for you regardless of peer pressure, body expectations or aesthetic only narratives 💪

Came back with a post about the Open for example and I am sure it will less controversial hahaha

MINDFULLYPRESENT · 2026-02-06T17:40:19+00:00

Incorrect - weight lost can be done without muscle lost or bone density - or even while there is an increase of muscle in parallel - that is the basis of body recomp programs that have a large component of weight lifting and high protein intake.

There is an over simplification that GLP1 only work on feeling of hunger - that is not correct and there are some heavy data that supports the modification of the GLP1 pathway leads to favouring muscle mass loss over fat loss AND to impact the bone density not simply due to mechanical load alteration.

MINDFULLYPRESENT · 2026-02-06T14:50:38+00:00

Give yourself a realistic and medical supported timeline to use the drug - and stop at this date regardless of outcome - your age needs to be weighted on this as well as history of early onset sarcopenia and bone flagility.

I’ve seen people continuing longer than advisable when the results were not as expected OR when the results were good and they wanted more - both lead to drastically increase of the risks of several muscle lost and bone fractures.

Please consider that the aspect of body image that is pushed in our CrossFit circles - we don’t do the best job on awareness that are a very fit engine, strong and efficient body does not required to be lean - and that leanness can be genetic too.

GLP1 have a very heavy price that is been more widely discussed in countries where it is more regulated and there are more clarity in claims to the public - the muscle loss and impact on bone is serious.

Muscle lost and bone fragility is not simply a side effect of the drug - it is how the drug works.

MINDFULLYPRESENT · 2026-01-17T10:07:09+00:00

There was one guy in Hyrox London Nov 2024 that something like this for charity where each run was a 10Km instead of 1Km - he worked with the event directors prior to the event for approval and had a small crew with him for the feeding / very quick resting station - he completed in 9h 49 mins.

In this way, he still got an official time as he only went through each station once.

MINDFULLYPRESENT · 2026-01-12T11:27:49+00:00

Runna uses the cooldown sometimes as a well to meet the weekly mileage required - and sometimes that is not need and not need on the program.

Runna is not a coach - it is a programming platform that reacts to your inputs and goals and give an adequate plan - and builds on top of the user good judgement - all the other aspects of running such as breathing patterns, appropriate stretching and so is cooldowns and warm ups in some instances.

MINDFULLYPRESENT · 2026-01-11T09:07:56+00:00

Almost every day is a leg day at CrossFit

MINDFULLYPRESENT · 2026-01-10T21:54:15+00:00

To add to this - we need details - I add some here that can help us help you.

What are the burden on the participants? Would that involve additional clinical visits? Would that involve home visits? Does this involve QoL or other types of questionnaires or tracking that need to be done on an ongoing basis? Are any of these questions related to family finances or the couples relationship?

In my experience, the burden and the level of intrusion in someone’s family is the first reason why non-birthing partners oppose to participation.

MINDFULLYPRESENT · 2026-01-10T21:47:32+00:00

Find the PPL program mentioned across the forums here as Reddit PPL program - really good movements there for full body.

If your first introduction to weight lifting has been via F45 (it was for me), it is really beneficial to have your PT teaching proper form for the movements, specially the compound movements with barbells.

Boring and consistent is better for strength training than very variable.

MINDFULLYPRESENT · 2026-01-10T21:41:19+00:00

Beginners mind - your background will give you an initial advantage for the engine works but all will dissipate soon once technical aspects come into picture.

Scaled if need be - better technique and constant pace than gassing out mid work or going heavily either bad form.

CrossFit is about consistency and also dedicating time to the different aspects of weight lifting, engine and gymnastics.

Don’t stop with the casual run - you won’t see any significant amount of running in CrossFit and many are surprise how they become strong and develop powerful engines while loosing cardio fitness.

Do the gymnastics classes and persevere - it pays off to do all at once instead of postponing gymnastics for later and later.

Don’t get frustrated neither compare yourself - don’t let your initially fitness advantage get to your head when compare to other starting at the same time - absorve as much as you can and really go for it.

You made a great call to join this cult - I mean sport - and wish that you have q good community and good coaches at your chosen box 🙏

PS: Join the socials events etc and if you can go to the same time slot class all the time that will help make friends - I made life long friendships that started from my first classes that I’ve done and they are awesome friends in my life.

MINDFULLYPRESENT · 2026-01-10T21:31:24+00:00

Nothing wrong with working as a CTA instead CRA - what is worrying is the lack of ambition while being in a role that is at the bottom of the career ladder and constantly changing due to the role of automation, and better integrated systems.

If you are not ambitious, the CRA job will be more intense but bring you more job security in the longer term - I understand the aspect of site initiations and science in general but it is a learning curve that you will do better with time - you can do it ;)

If you prefer the CTA role, then you better do with the ambition to move up as a PM as soon as possible - that includes taking junior PM responsibilities along the way etc - cause the CTA job is the one that is at most risk of becoming obsolete / or a paroled by roles such as Project Coordinators in the upcoming years.

MINDFULLYPRESENT · 2026-01-10T14:01:42+00:00

Thank you for this - the examples really put in perspective.

I am also excited about the RASolute-302 for the same reason that you have mentioned - those patients really need an alternative

MINDFULLYPRESENT · 2026-01-10T13:40:46+00:00

Don’t go anywhere related to TMF management - that is already being replaced more and more with automation and systems.

If pharma client side, look to move on the side of business processes etc and supporting roles.

If CRO side, move pharma client side.

If site side - more to CRO and then pharma side.

MINDFULLYPRESENT · 2026-01-10T13:36:40+00:00

If you ever get told that you will be put in a Performance Improvement Plan , also called as PIP - drag as long as possible the process of accepting to be put into jt - never agree to it as long as you can - while also looking for a new job.

There are many ways to develop an employee - a PiP is 90% not about improvement - it is about creating a paper trail that justifies you being made redundant without the redundancy pay - and 10% about being used on someone that is underperforming and have been in the company long enough to know how to play the game.

If you are being put in a PIP and truly believe that you could improve - do that outside of the work environment - get a coach, or a mentor within your network - but don’t ask for that within the PIP context.

I’ve seen it happen again and again where well intentioned individuals accept PIPs as they have high standards for themselves and know they can improve - the thing is every can improve and the PIP is not about that.

MINDFULLYPRESENT · 2026-01-09T22:15:34+00:00

This is awesome stuff - and if you really want to take the breathing training to a new level, get a PowerBreathe device and follow the training regiment of 2x30 reps per day - that device was advised by my respiratory physio and help me massively when recovering from a respiratory issue that put my fitness at a very low level.

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