I do shift work, 12 hour rotations with nights too.
My advice is to just do it. If you can only get into the gym for 30min on a work day, do it! Don’t skip the warmup either. Do your mobility for 15 min, then do the first compound movement and 1 assistance super set.
It’s a lot better than nothing, then on days off hit it hard.
You’re quote basically sums it up. I used to work three 12 hour shifts from 7p-7a. That gave me four days off a week to train, or if I wanted to keep to a schedule I could just go to the gym before or after work. Its really not that hard man. As far as food goes, buy a bunch of it and cook it all on one day.
I am on night shift right now…working 12’s 6pm - 6am. I am lucky to have a gym on site. I only go to the onsite gym twice a night for about 15 minutes of super sets, mostly just to get a pump and to get the blood flowing to wake up.
The short story here is that I lift at my gym on my off days, and “pump/blood flow” twice a night on shift.
I also bring in my Metabolic Drive in my shaker and just add water. It’s good to drink at work in between my 15 min pumps.
I work sun-thurs.
Sun I work 3pm-11pm.
Mon 1pm-9pm.
Tues is anywhere from a 6am-2pm or 11am-7pm.
Wed is 7am-3pm and
Thurs is 6am-2pm.
My main problem is towards the middle of my week and then at the end I am soooo tired I can’t do anything.
I usually work out thurs after I come home and get a nap then friday/sat/sun(before work). But I feel this leaves little recovery time btwn gym time.
I understand I need to put my purse down. But what do y’all think of my workout schedule? Is it sufficient? I do try and go to the gym before work on Monday’s but after getting off at 11pm the night before and not falling asleep till 1:30 I find it hard to wake up…
yeah thats rough because the times are so different its probably tough to get on a consistent sleep schedule. id say just keep going as much as you can.
Given that you work 8hr days and all your shifts are daytime starts, I would suck it up and get to the gym before work. I, like many others work 12hr days, 2 days, then 2 nights. I make a point to get to the gym before shift. I feel better and work better. I also don’t need to worry about getting it in at the end of the day.
You could also start your training week on Friday. That way you have 2 days in the bag before your work week starts.
Like you said, If this is important, you will get it done. If not, you won’t.
Find a 24-hour gym. I only work part time so maybe that’s why I can make it work, and of course my 24hour gym, but I get my training done at about 2-3 am at least 2 days out of the week.