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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. And welcome back to another episode of a healthy shift podcast. My name is Roger Sutherland. I'm a shift work coach and night shift specialist. A lot of shift workers ask me this should I train after night shift or should I just go home and sleep? And a lot of people will say, oh no, I always train, it doesn't affect me. And the answer is this well, it depends on your goal. And it depends on the timing, and it depends on what type of training you're doing. It depends, it depends, it depends. Always. Because there's no definitive answer to this one, one way or another. So have a listen to this one here, and then you can make an informed choice as to whether it's right or not. The first thing I want to put on the table is exercise is a stressor. That's why we do it. We deliberately exercise to stress our body because then the body adapts, and it's called eustress. And that's what we actually want. Because without stressing the body, it's a waste of

The Big Question After Nights

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time. Now, this is not a bad thing. Exercise is one of the best things that you can do for your health, full stop. But if you've just finished a 12-hour night shift and you're already exhausted and you've been under bright lights all night, overstimulated, dehydrated, caffeinated to the eyeballs, and running against your biology, then smashing yourself with a hard training session on the way home, doing an F-45 or body fit or something like that, just may not be helping you as much as you think it is. So today I want to break this down in very simple terms for you. Should you exercise after night shift, when can it help? When can it hurt? And what is probably the smarter approach for most shift workers. So welcome back to the podcast. You're most welcome. First of all, we need to understand what your body is trying to do after night shift. Because when you finish work in the morning, your brain is actually preparing for daytime sleep. It's a mess. Now your melatonin should be rising. And you've heard the podcast that I did a few episodes back in relation to blocking that blue light on the way home. Your cortisol should be starting to gradually lower. Your nervous system should be shifting towards a recovery state. That's what we want to be aiming for to help us today's sleep. I know a lot of you don't, but this is what we need to be aiming for. But what a lot of night shift workers accidentally do is the exact opposite to what they need. They walk outside in bright daylight, they drive home in that, they stimulate the brain with Duft Dulf

Exercise Is Stress Plus Context

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music, lab music, and windows down and stimulation and driving and you're increasing alertness. And what you do is you're elevating cortisol. And cortisol is a hormone that actually gets us up and going. And then you wonder why you can't sleep. And then what we do is we actually add exercise into that equation. We lift heavy weights, we do hit style training, cardio, go for a run, crossfit, long runs, F-45, body fit sessions. And all of those increase adrenaline and cortisol even further and stimulate our central nervous system. So if your goal is to get home and sleep quickly and well and for long, then hard exercise immediately after a night shift is not going to be the best move. And this is where many shift workers get confused because they think, well, exercise is healthy, so the more I do, the better. And not always, because timing really matters. Your circadian rhythm is ticking away regardless of what shift you're on. You are a diurnal creature and it is still continuing to function. Remember, it's body clock time, it's not time on the wall. Always keep that in mind. And your recovery really matters. Now that doesn't mean that you should never exercise after night shift. No, I'm not saying that at all. But there are situ because there are situations where it can actually work quite well. For example, light movement after shift can actually help your trans help your body to transition out of body. Sorry, got tongue-tied there. Light movement after shift can actually help transition the body out of work mode. It's putting a boundary in place between work and home. And a walk, a bit of mobility work, a bit of stretching, sitting on a bike and doing some form of list training, light resistance work. That kind of movement can actually reduce your stress. It can help circulation, burn out those triglycerides, improve mental decompression without massively stimulating the nervous system. So you can see there's a big difference there. And mentally, there's a lot of people, particularly you that work in frontline health, and also those that are first responders, you need some form of transition. Sometimes you can't go from chaos straight to bed. It doesn't work. You might fall asleep because you're chronically exhausted, but you probably won't stay asleep. Your brain needs a runway, it needs to be handed over to sleep. Your body needs to feel safe. Now, light exercise can actually provide that. But there's a huge difference between movement for recovery and training for performance. And that distinction really matters. Because if your goal is muscle growth, strength, athletic performance, or fitness progression, you'll usually perform far better once you've woken up fresh rather than at the end of a night shift. Your coordination is better, your reaction time

Light Movement Versus Performance Training

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is better, your hormones are functioning optimally and better, your energy is a lot better, and your injury risk is lower. Because people underestimate just how impaired their body is after night shift. You might feel all right, but your body is highly stressed. It's out of line with its normal circadian rhythm. It's actually suffering from social jet lag. The body clock is on one time, and what you're seeing is on a different time. That doesn't make sense to it. And that's why we suffer from brain fog, this fatigue, we feel so out of sorts, we get gut issues. It's that reason. Now, research also shows that prolonged wakefulness can impair performance similar to alcohol intoxication. So if you're doing heavy compound lifts after being awake all night because you want to hit that PB, or you want to get in there and squat because you've got to do that, then you're not training in an optimal state. And in some cases, and a lot of cases, you're actually increasing your energy, your injury risk. Particularly when you're doing exercises like deadlifts or squats or Olympic lifting, high intensity intervals or long endurance sessions. Because fatigue changes movement quality. Now let's talk about the other side of this. Some shift workers say if I don't train after shift, I won't train at all. And honestly, that's a fair comment. Life is busy. You know that when you're on your way home, you can go to the gym and it's probably a good time to tick the box and get it done. Because once you go home, kids, family, fatigue, you're rotating rosters, phones, personal call, personal stuff, a lot of things have got to happen. And sometimes the perfect training time just doesn't exist. And consistency beats perfection every single time. So if a post-night shift training is the only realistic option available to you, then we work with it. But we structure it intelligently. And this is where people need to stop thinking in extremes. It's not train hard or do nothing. There is a middle ground. So if you're training after night shift, just reduce the intensity. You can still turn the turn the weight over, but just reduce the intensity right down and keep your session shorter. Go in, do something, you'll feel better. Focus more on the movement quality. Hydrate properly. And don't take those goddamn pre-workouts or stimulants seriously. It's just caffeine. That's all it is. And caffeine is just going to impact on your sleep later. There's nothing in a pre-workout that has got any benefit to you at all except for the caffeine. And that caffeine is going to impact on your sleep. 200 milligrams of caffeine, your pre-workout, impacts on sleep for up to 13 hours. 13 hours.

If Training Is Your Only Option

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Research is clear on that. And I just want you to remember this too. Recovery is even more important. Because remember this, your body still needs sleep. It's very important. It's highly important for your brain and body. And one of the biggest mistakes that shift workers make is they sacrifice sleep for training. And I see this all the time. Shift workers finishing at 7 a.m. Train hard until 8:30. Get home, eat, shower, finally fall asleep at 10 or 11. Now they've shortened recovery sleep time significantly. And then they wake up feeling awful. Or they go to sleep and crash and the, oh, I can't sleep, only sleep for about an hour, hour and a half. No wonder. Your central nervous system is so highly stimulated, it's still stressed. And over time, this accumulates. This sleep debt builds, fatigue builds, inflammation builds, mood changes, appetite changes, your recovery worsens, and everything. You're just working against yourself completely. And then you wonder why you feel wrecked despite being quote unquote healthy. Training needs to improve your health or should improve your health, not undermine your recovery. And I think this is just one thing that shift workers need: a mindset mindset shift in this area. Because sometimes the healthiest thing that you can do after night shift is literally go straight home and sleep. And you'll get good, solid, restorative sleep. That's recovery. That is productive. That is performance enhancing. Sleep is not laziness. And for shift workers, sleep is treatment.

Caffeine And Sleep Debt Reality Check

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Now, another important factor here is the daylight exposure. Because if you finish night shift and you train outside after night shift, especially in bright morning sunlight, you're sending a strong signal to the brain that it's daytime. Even going into a gym with the artificial light in there, no infrared, full-on blue light. This suppresses melatonin even further. And again, great if you're staying awake, not great if you want to go home and go to sleep because you've been awake all night. So this becomes very individual. So what roster are you on? Are you on permanent nights? Are you on rotating shifts? How many shifts do you got in a row? Are you trying to stay nocturnal between shifts? Or are you flipping back to daytime? See, all of this all completely changes the answer. But for permanent night shifts as staying on a nocturnal schedule, training after work may just fit your time really well. Me personally, I would go straight home, go straight to sleep, and then I'd train before I started work. But for rotating shift workers, try to sleep quickly after a shift shift can often create even more problems. And this is why generic fitness advice literally fails the shift worker. We've got to stop as shift workers and particularly night shift workers looking at advice for nine-to-fivers. We are different. And we need to start consulting and speaking to shift work experts. Hello. Because otherwise, you're taking that advice and you're doing those things and you're creating more problems instead of helping yourself. Most fitness advice and research is written for daytime humans. Not people waking up at, you

Daylight Exposure And Roster Variables

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know, not people awake at 3 a.m. eating meals at under under eating meals under artificial light while you're trying to override your own biology. Shift workers are different. And the body still follows that circadian biology, whether we're awake or whether we're not. It's still following the same normal times. So here is your practical takeaway. If you finish the shift exhausted, I'm talking night shift, prioritize sleep. Go straight home, go straight to bed, get good, deep, restorative sleep, wake up, get going, and you'll think, right, that's it, I really want to go and train. And that is the quality time to train. But if you want some sort of movement, just keep it light and calming. If performance and muscle growth are your goals, training after waking is always going to be far more beneficial than training before you go to sleep. Always. But if post-shift training is your only option, then you can still make it work if you do it intelligently. You just can't train like a fully recovered daytime athlete while you're severely sleep deprived and expecting an optimal outcome. And you're running the risk of injury. And do you want to injure yourself? You all know what it's like when you do injure yourself and how it leaves you out of the loop. It's frustrating, it's annoying. And when you run the risk of doing that on the way home from night shift. Remember, your body is keeping score. And I just want to talk about one final thing before I finish this up today. I want you to stop comparing yourself to people online. You are not lazy because you are tired after a night shift. Your biology has been working against the clock all night. Respecting recovery is not weakness, it's literally intelligence. Because the best training program in the world means absolutely nothing if your recovery is poor. And that is why a lot

Practical Rules And Mindset Shift

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of clients that have come to me have come to me from PTs that just smash them senseless with no consideration as to what they need as a shift worker. I get it. And it's different. And that's why my clients absolutely thrive in what they're doing. Because we're working with them and what they can do. Changing that mindset, that mentality, taking the pressure off them makes a huge difference. Recovery is the foundation that everything sits on. So I want to say to you, thanks very much for listening. And if this episode helped you, please share it with another shift worker who drags themselves to the gym after every night shift because they think they have to. 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.