Maintaining Fitness on a Night Shift Schedule

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hey there my name is Eric Tong I'm an
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active police commander and wellness
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coordinator and I've been in police work
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for 18 years I've done the deep dive
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into all things health and fitness in my
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career learning it all because I felt I
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needed to out of necessity to be optimal
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to do my job and support those around me
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We're going to be talking today about
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maintaining physical fitness on a night
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shift schedule And fitness routines are
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generally hard enough for the general
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population And certainly first
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responders and police are not exempt to
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that There are plenty of first
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responders that have a hard time with it
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So whether you're a first responder or
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you're on some completely different type
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of work working overnight recognize that
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the struggle is real You are not alone
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Uh be patient with the process I'm going
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to share some tips for you to consider
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and think about implementing Okay So the
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problem is that when we are on night
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shift we have less access to different
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resources different facilities Our sleep
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might be very disrupted and thus our
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energy levels may be very
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disrupted Our motivation is probably
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really low if we're feeling very
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fatigued and apathetic about getting out
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into the gym and trying to start up or
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kick up a new routine So realize that
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physical health and activity can support
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all other aspects of health So although
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we may be underrested although we may be
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fatigued the challenge is doing
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something And oftentimes if you're not
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well rested if you're very fatigued in
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my personal experience and a lot of
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information I've consumed through the
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years or decade uh or decades almost is
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that trying to push it is a often times
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more counterproductive So I've just said
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a lot What do I mean by that if you are
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under recovered under rested you should
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consider trying to get outside and doing
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something right It might be something
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super simple in your living room just
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stretching and moving around It may be
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doing some yoga something lower
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intensity very
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restorative Another very popular
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activity and it's not super crazy is
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walking right getting outside getting
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your steps in getting some nature
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getting some fresh air This is so
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restorative and helpful to so many
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people U and you can see hopefully how
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different that is than me telling you
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you ought to get out and run x number of
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miles for x number of minutes at
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whatever mile pace If you're
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underreovered that's probably not the
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right outlet If you are recovered then
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absolutely get after it So again just
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because you're underreovered doesn't
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mean you can't do anything And oftent
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times when you do some physical activity
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that actually aids you that aids your
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ability to sleep that aids your energy
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level Although you're expending calories
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there's a lot of physiological benefits
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to exercise which I won't talk about
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here There's a lot of resources online
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from doctors and PhDs and what have you
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So please look into that and please
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consider that something is better than
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nothing Start small There are so many
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times when I was in a really good
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workout routine when I was underreovered
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and I' I'd overcaffeinate and I'd get to
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the gym and I'd smash it out and that
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was actually hurting me That was
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actually further disrupting my sleep
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because of cortisol levels That was
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further disrupting my hormonal balance
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And so in hindsight years and years
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later I now have learned the wisdom as
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supposed to back off So if I'm well
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recovered I'm going to have a great
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workout I know it If I'm not I already
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tell myself when I'm tossing and turning
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and I wake up and I start my day I'm
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already telling myself that I have guard
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rails There are certain things that I'm
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just not going to do And there's certain
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things I am allowing myself to do And
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walking for as long as I want in general
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at a at a calm pace with some nasal
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breathing some fresh air is certainly
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one of them So so we talked about the
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interrelatedness of different health
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tenants Uh this is pretty widely known
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but just a reminder because when we're
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fatigued we don't think about these
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things that we know when we're fully
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rested right so recognize that there is
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a direct impact to our mental health our
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mood our how we manage stress And so
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sleep deprivation is a stress Oftentimes
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working overnight long shifts is a
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stress So let's start small find what
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works and just add a little bit here and
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there Uh habit stacking So this is the
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concept where you just take a habit and
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you add it to something you already do
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And so when we talk about movement or
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exercise when I start my day I put the
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hot water on for coffee and I could get
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back to the couch and doom scroll on my
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phone or I could sit at the counter or
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just stand right off the counter and
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start stretching right i can hold on to
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the counter I can swing my legs a little
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bit I can do some body weight squats
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Nothing hard just enough to get my blood
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moving enough to get my lungs working
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And that nine times out of ten the vast
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majority of the time that picks me up
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that has me feeling way better And if
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that if there's nothing else I do if
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that's my physical activity beyond just
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going to work and walking around it's
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still better than nothing And I still
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feel much better for it I still feel
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relatively accomplished if I just did
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some squats or some some push-ups while
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I was just waiting for my coffee It
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doesn't have to be a lot folks So start
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habit stacking That'll become routine
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And then doing five push-ups will become
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10 will become 20 and so on So when it
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comes to all of that just recognize you
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can start small and then be adaptable We
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talked a lot about if you're
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underreovered what to do So realize that
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you can toggle it on and off It doesn't
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have as much to do with the daytoday
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process but maybe more look at the
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average to the week toe process If you
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had a really hard week if you had a lot
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of sleepless nights then the focus
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should be resting on your time off and
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then getting in the good physical
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activity Um getting with people working
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out in a group working out with your
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family exercising playing outside with
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your kids doing a hike with your loved
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one That's the stuff that's going to
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move the needle and make you feel much
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much better
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So if you build in that working out or
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fitness with other people you are
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building in that social health as well
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Uh the key things to recognize is that
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that not only makes it more pleasurable
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but you have some accountability built
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in as well So in summary I want
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everybody listening in or watching
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tuning in to be patient with the process
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Just fitness in general it's all about
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the small steps the gradual progress And
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so be patient with yourself be patient
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with the process give yourself grace and
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build community around this Right so we
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are not on an island Your struggles are
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not unique You have those that you work
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with You have all these other shift
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workers that you can lean on And that's
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absolutely how you're going to endure
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the long haul right so it's about
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longevity Slow and steady wins the race