Nighshift and Training - Is It Possible to Make it Work?

Can You Seriously Train, Work Shiftwork and Maintain A Life?

 



At times I have asked these exact questions. And I’ve shed a few tears when they’ve all clashed….like tonight.

 

The Plan – arrive home from work, pick up daughter from piano, heat up kids’ pre-prepared dinner, head out to the garage for a workout, kids to bed, meal 5 in the mouth, nice relax and some rubbish tv, sneaky cup of coffee, casein goop and a crunchy little apple while lying in my super king sized bed and reading my great book on the life and times of a gang mole. My idea of an evening of bliss.

 

The Reality – arrive home, kids fighting, race out to pick up daughter and realise I have no shoes on so sit in car, she’s a little late but I'm super glad I remembered to put a singlet on as I arrived once and realised I had only a pair of shorts and a sports bra on. Arrive home to find school bags strewn around house, pieces of paper from one end to the other that were destined to be made into paper planes but got blown around by the fans instead, head outside for workout anyhow and have some emotional moments while blasting 80’s rock ballads, return and heat up wonderfully roasted chicken only to find that the Portuguese spice is too hot for kids!!! Add bread and cheese to fill the little buggers up, clean up piles of grated cheese and carrot that has managed to escape their mouths, reassure Son #1 that tonight is not the night to bake apple pie regardless of his teachers’ task, reassure Son #1 that I’ll kick his little butt if he hijacks the freshly baked lemon cake to take to the class as a treat tomorrow (I don’t care that all the other kids are doing it!! I’m the ‘meanie mum’ and I’m ok with that!!), have a little hissy fit at how unfair my life is, do some washing, read some ultra-quick bedtime books and then threaten to bring out Wally the Whale (aka Whoppy the Whacking Stick!!) if they don’t go to sleep, and finally…finally…sink into the couch where my bum literally faints at the sight of somewhere comfy to rest.

These are the days when I scratch my head and wonder how I'm going to survive tomorrow. But the good news is this. Anything and everything is possible if you want it bad enough. In fact, your ability to imagine your success is your only real limitation. Read that again and try to digest it. If you can believe it – you can receive it – some of you will know what I’m talking about. Others will read, nod and not really get it.

 

I would never claim to have huge barriers to my training. I have never had a serious illness. I have not had a serious training injury. I have amazing support from my family – and I mean amazing. I am financially secure. I live in a very low stress little town.

 

The challenges I face are more your day to day issues; our gym shuts at 7am Mon-Fri. It
shuts at 3pm on Sat and not open on Sunday or any public holidays. It does not have any of the fancy stuff and lacks a few of the more standard items. I work shift work and can never tell whether I’ll finish on time or have hours of overtime. My roster can change with 3 days’ notice and I have little say in the matter. I regularly work nightshift and, on some of those days, I work 8 hours in the morning, go home for the afternoon and start again that night. I’d be lying if I said that didn’t knock me around a bit.

 

My time as a personal trainer assured me that plenty of people in this town are facing the same issues as Katherine is predominantly full of RAAF personnel, Police, Fire, Ambulance, Nurses and other government departments. We are pretty much all working shift work.
So my tips are as follows;

 

1. Find a goal of some sort and focus on it. Give yourself that solid reason for pushing through. I have my gym wall covered with posters and pics of people I aspire to look like, pose like…competitions that I’ve been in and those that I want to win.

 

2. Don’t always expect to feel like training. You won’t. But you know it’s good for you so bloody well do it. Do you wait until you feel like brushing your teeth before you do it? No – you know it’s the right thing to do so you do it each night.

 

3. Don’t feel that every workout has to be the breakthrough, personal best, slam-dunk session. Nightshift and tiredness will zap your energy; there is no doubt about this. Your body doesn’t really give a shit about the numbers. It only cares about intensity. If your 100kg deadlift is 85kg on nightshift week – so be it. Be concerned with great technique and pushing yourself to the limit regardless of the numbers.

 

4. Write down how you plan to implement your training through the hard weeks. This is how I do it;
Mon:
0600-1400 - work
1400-1700 - sleep
1730 – workout
1900-2300 – dinner etc
2300-0700 – work

 

Tues:
0800-1500 – sleep
1530 – workout
1630 – dinner etc

 

You get the picture. I know exactly when I’m training and when my rest days are as I come into the week. I don’t wake up and decide whether to train based on how I’m feeling.

 

5. Prep as much food as humanly possible for the hard weeks. Last night I cooked every single piece of protein that I need for the next 7 days. And I have meat protein 4 x daily. BBQ en masse and wrap up and freeze. Rushed situations are when the food plans can go flying out the window.

6. Make breakfast the first meal when you wake up. And your ‘supper’ the one before you go to bed. Nightshift looks like this for me;

1500 – wake up and have ‘breakfast’ – Meal 1 - oats
1800 – Meal 2 - mince
2130 – Meal 3 - chicken
2400 – Meal 4 – roo sausages
0300 – Meal 5 – roo fillet
0700 – Meal 6 - casein
Sleep

 

7. Lastly, and probably most importantly, be kind to yourself. Your body is being stretched in a few directions with shift-work. And emergency services work means that you sometimes get to practise your wrestling techniques as an extra bonus. But the emotions and feelings and experiences you have can also drain a person heavily. 15 years of this work has taught me this.

 

There’s a huge difference between throwing your training due to being lazy or disorganised, vs missing a session because your body is firmly telling you it needs some more rest. That’s where knowing your body is the key.

 

And finally, I want to throw in a blurb about the power of positivity. I have read certain books and

believe certain things. The biggest revelation for me that I will get right back whatever it is that I put out. So if I want to sit there and slate myself all day long, and point out my flaws to everyone, and make sure the world knows my weaknesses …. The likelihood of my flaws and weaknesses growing is inevitable.

 

And no, I’m not a great fan of just replacing the negative with positive affirmations. Eg. Instead of “I look really fat” replace with “I look really thin”. That just doesn’t cut the mustard with me.

 

Instead I believe that the negative thought deserves no place in my mind. Instead of flushing it out with bullshit, I simply have to choose not to spend time on that thought. Instead I move my mind to something I love to think about. Eg. Instead of “I look really fat” replace with “I LOVE travelling! I LOVE tropical places and holidays and working out in gyms all around the world. I can’t WAIT till my holiday in June to Langkawi” (that is true by the way – woop woop!!). For me, thinking about my holiday is my positive thought. And I simply don’t give the crappy thought time to breath. That’s just my way of dealing with it and it really and truly works.

 

Finally…….I have been comp prepping for 3 weeks now and it’s going great guns. I had to give in and face the scales because I have to send my weight to the coach each Monday. I don’t want to go on about it because I’ve given more than enough airspace to weight talks lately. Sufficient to say that I am 2kg down….and….gulp….13kg to go. 

 

PS: I was given the most amazing experience last weekend as a judge at the Darwin INBA

 

competition and my next blog is going to be all about it!!