Shift work can be brutal, but it doesn't have to be. Welcome to a healthy shift. My name is Roger Sutherland, certified nutritionist, veteran law enforcement officer, and 24-7 shift worker for almost four decades. Through this podcast, I aim to educate shift workers using evidence-based methods to not only survive the rigors of shift work, but thrive. My goal is to empower shift workers to improve their health and well-being so they have more energy to do the things they love. Enjoy today's show. Welcome back to the Healthy Shift Podcast. You know who I am, I'm Roger Sutherland, and today I'm going to talk about one of the most underrated and powerful forms of exercise or movement for a shift worker. List training, L I S training, or low-intensity steady state cardio. Now stop. Before you switch off thinking this is just another chat about exercise, I want you to hang on and just give me 12 minutes. Just 12 minutes, because this one's different. This is not about smashing yourself in the gym or trying to fit in another high-intensity workout into your already packed schedule. This is about working with your body, not actually against it. And the benefits are enormous. This is a short one, but let's be honest, shift work is stressful. We all know that. I know that, you know that. It is stressful. Everything about it is literally pushes your body into a massive stress response. You've got a regular sleep, long hours, changing rosters, eating wrong foods at the wrong times, and a body clock that just never really knows what time it is due to the exposure to light. So the last thing that we want to do is add even more physical stress on top of that. And we shouldn't. And I want to be quite clear on that. We should not. And this is why with my clients, I start all my clients with just walking. Walking, everyone can do it, it's easy. Everybody can find the time to walk. But also, what is really important is list training as well. Now, low intensity, steady state cardio is exactly what it sounds like. It's low intensity, it's done steadily, and it's absolutely ideal for shift workers. I highly recommend this type of training to so many of my clients. And the feedback is always the same from those that do it. They film karma, they recover faster, their energy really improves, and they actually start looking forward to moving their bodies again because it's easy, it feels good, and it really does work. So if you've got access to something as simple as a stationary bike or a treadmill, you're already good to go. And here's what I actually recommend: do 30 minutes at about 65% of your maximum heart rate. Now that's not hard to work out at all. It's comfortable and you can still talk, make a phone call, watch a TV show on your phone or your tablet, and you can chat away while you're doing it. Now, for most people I work with, I'll calculate their 65% maximum heart rate. And for example, let's just say that comes out at around about 126 beats per minute. So all you need to do is warm up until you get your heart rate to that rate of 126 beats per minute. And once you once you're there, once you get to that rate, start a timer. And then what you do is you keep it within about three to five beats either side of that for the entire 30 minutes, and that's it. You heard me write 126 beats per minute. It's not a lot. Everyone's out there trying to smash themselves, stressing an already stressed body, but this has more benefit. So why 65%? John Rog? Because this is a sweet spot where your body switches to burning fat for fuel instead of carbohydrates. How many of you heard the fat burning zone? That's what the fat burning zone is. 65% of your maximum heart rate. If you go any higher, then you start using carbohydrate for fuel. And if you go any lower, you're not actually getting any benefit out of it at all. Because at 65%, your body is literally mobilizing and oxidizing fat to actually energize and fuel that. It's the perfect fat burning zone and it's sustainable. One thing I do want to be clear of, I want to be quite clear. It's not burning the fat off your body. Don't think you can just do this exercise to burn fat, and if you don't burn fat, you think I'm not burning fat. It's using triglycerides in your bloodstream for the energy. And once we prevent that, once we burn that, it prevents that from getting parked. Which means that that fat that's in your bloodstream, which happens as a result of doing nights and rotating shift work, we as shift workers have naturally elevated triglycerides in our bloodstream. Research shows quite clearly that in the two days coming out of our night shifts, we have elevated triglycerides in the bloodstream. Where do you think that's gonna go if it doesn't get burnt? You tell me what you think is gonna happen to it. Do you think he's just gonna burn it? No, it's gonna get parked as body fat. That's what it's gonna do. So let's burn it out. Now, here's the best part this type of exercise does not stress an already stress body. It actually helps to burn off the physical byproduct of stress. When you're under constant pressure, which let's face it, shift workers always are. Your body actually produces more triglycerides, which are basically the fat circulating in your bloodstream. And as I said, research shows that triglycerides can stay elevated for up to 48 hours after a night shift. So when you wake up after sleeping through the day, your blood is still loaded with these fats. But doing 30 minutes of this after waking up from your night shift is one of the best ways to burn them off and help your body to reset itself. And let's be honest, you have 30 minutes to do this. You don't even need to go to the gym, you don't need any special gear. You can do it on a stationary bike or a treadmill or even outside for a walk if you want to get some sunlight. But you need to push yourself, make it enjoyable, put on your favorite show, listen to a podcast. I know a really good one. Oh, you're actually listening to it already. Or you can call a friend. That 30 minutes will literally fly by. And when you get off the bike or off the treadmill, I guarantee to you, you will feel calmer, you'll feel lighter, and you will feel mentally clearer. Now I recommend all shift workers. Oh, I mean all shift workers aim for two to three sessions of list training a week. You can literally use it as a warm-up before you do resistance training. Don't think, oh, I do resistance training, so that's enough. No, it's not because you're burning carbohydrate. So what you want to do is you want to do your list session to start off with, and you want to burn the fat out of your bloodstream, and you will train so much better. Oh, but but Johnny the PT told me that I'm not allowed to do cardio before. This is low intensity, steady state. This is not regular cardio. Keep that in mind. If you can do two on the two days that you're coming out of your night shift, 30 minutes is all it takes. On the day you come out of night shift and the next day, that's when your body actually needs it the most. Remember what I said about the elevated triglycerides, burn them out. The beauty of this is it is so easy to maintain. It doesn't drain you. You won't even sweat. It's something that supports your recovery and it will help to maintain your stress within your body without stressing it further. Now, I know for a lot of shift workers, the thought of exercising after a long night or between shifts can actually feel really overwhelming. But this one that actually gives you your energy back. It clears you up, it cleans, I'm gonna say it, it cleans the shit out of your system and you feel better. It's not about pushing harder, it's about helping your body move through the stress of shift work in a way that feels really good. So if you take one thing from today, I want you to take this. That list training is the perfect match for a shift worker's lifestyle. It's gentle, it's effective, and it's proven to help you feel better without adding any more pressure. If you give this a go for the next couple of weeks, 30 minutes, two or three times a week, notice how much better you feel. You will. I can guarantee it. And if you're not sure how to fit it into your schedule, or you want to build a plan that works around your roster, that's exactly what I do with my coach clients. I help you to find the right balance for your body in your own roster, in your shifts and your home life, so that you are not just surviving shift work, but you're actually feeling great do it. Feeling great doing it. And if you go to the link in the show notes, you'll find down the down the bottom, you'll see that there is a link to my free uh 15-minute coaching assessment call where I will meet you where you're at on a day and time that you actually have, and we will have a conversation around what there is that we can do to help you to start thriving in your shift working life. Let's get you feeling better. Because how much longer do you want to go on feeling like this? Two 30-minute sessions a week is all I'm asking for with list training to get you to feel better. It's got no benefit for me to get you feeling better. And if you combine that with 30 minutes of walk every day, you will be a changed person. Okay? Keep that in mind. All right, that is it for today's episode. I do really want you to take care of yourself. Please just give list training a try. And as always, I want you to work with your body. Don't stress an already stressed body, don't work against it. This is something that is ideal that will really help you, no end. Thanks for joining, and I'll talk to you on the next one. Thank you for listening. If you enjoyed this episode, be sure to subscribe so you get notified whenever a new episode is released. It would also be ever so helpful if you could leave a rating and review on the app you're currently listening on. If you want to know more about me or work with me, you can go to ahealthyshift.com. I'll catch you on the next one.