Almost half of the people I work with are healthcare workers. Nurses, physicians, pharmacists, therapists, occupational therapists, doctors, and chiropractors.
As we know, many of these professions don’t have perfect, easy schedules. We even joke around sometimes on how we are going to get next week’s sessions in with their work schedule.
But some weeks are just crazy, the could be working long hours, overnight shifts, doing physically strenuous work, non stop work (no breaks for rest or food), have constantly changing schedules, and draining work days.
Even with all of this, they find a way to make sure they get their training sessions in each week. Sometimes they are exhausted, hungry, and just don’t want to train, but they still find a way.
Today I want to go through some of the things we do to keep these healthcare workers on track and hitting their goals.
#1: Schedule
Most of their schedules change often. One week they are working three straight, the next they are working 2 nights and a weekend, and after that they might pick up an extra shift.
It’s hard to keep track of on a weekly basis but the schedules are usually planned a few weeks or even a month in advance. If consistency is becoming an issue, locking in a schedule as far out as your work schedule is key.
Put your workouts in your planner just like you would your work shifts.
If the time is blocked off without distractions, It will get done.
But, plan your gym days according to your work days, just because you have a free slot right after your shift doesn’t mean It’s a good time for a workout.
Make sure you have time for rest, food, and water. IF you just worked a 12 hour overnight shift and didn’t have time to eat, drink, or sleep, It might be a good time for a rest day.
We need to be open to the idea that the schedules will change often. There won’t be a perfect schedule we will follow week in and week out, so accept It, plan your days around your work schedule and get It done.
#2: Food Preparation
Just like most of us, nutrition is a HUGE piece of the puzzle.
Unfortunately not every shift has an opening for food breaks or even water breaks. This is just the reality of It, so all we can do is try to work around that.
First, make sure your protein sources are ready to go. Some will need to be prepared (meats, eggs, etc..) others can be premade.
For your prepared food, pick 3-5 sources of protein and think of a few meals you can make around those sources.
Ex. Ground beef, eggs, ground turkey, chicken thighs
Burgers w/ salad
Scrambled eggs w/ bacon
Taco salad
Chicken thighs w/ asparagus
Think of your ideas, make them in advance, and make enough that will last more than one meal. This way there is always something ready to eat.
Now for your premade food, these are things that are ALWAYS ready to eat. You can have them at home and at work just to grab and eat.
Here is a list I use for myself and a lot of clients:
Greek yogurt
Cottage cheese
Beef jerky
Hard boiled eggs (minor preparation)
Protein powder
Overnight oats (minor preparation)
Pork rinds
For your grab n’ go snacks at work—> Pick from the list above!
I like to add fruits to these snacks as well, but these are going to be the most nutritious and the most filling when you only have a small window to eat.
#3: Manage Your Stress
Everything has an effect on the body; workouts, work, sleep, food, even relationships.
And our body can only handle so much stress. I heard this analogy years ago about a cup of water. You keep filling up your cup with different stressors and eventually It will overflow. The goal is to keep the water in your cup at a certain level without a spill.
So we need to keep an eye on these things and manage them the best we can. If we are doing too much work, too intense of workouts, not enough sleep, and non nutritious foods then the stress on our body will be too much to handle.
Top two things we CAN control (to a point)
-Workouts
-Recovery
When It comes to workouts, the idea is doing the RIGHT amount of work. If we do too little, not much is going to change. If we do too much then things can begin to go in the wrong direction.
There is a lot of take in when planning your workouts to have the right amount of work and intensity. It can be a good amount of trial and error along the way as well.
But finding something that works for YOU is key. I do think any and all exercise does have a place somewhere for someone but for people who have different sleep and eating schedules than most, high intensity styles may not be the right fit. They might be something you can add into your weekly workouts but for your only style of training, it’s hard to say that is the right fit.
Here is a week that we use often
3 foundational full body strength training workouts
1 of those workouts having a metabolic finisher at the end
1 added conditioning session throughout the week
Low intensity walks on off days
On those three foundational workouts, we do push ourselves but not to failure. Trying to leave 1-2 reps in the tank most of the time. With the one metabolic finisher we will use a 10-20 minute window at the end of the session.
Now the conditioning session I like to keep around 30-45 minutes of work. It is usually a mixed modality style that uses 3-5 exercises in a circuit. Most of the exercises being less compressive on the spine, easier on the joints, and not too stressful to the nervous system (so no super heavy weights or exercises to failure).
Now the workouts are only a small part of managing stress, the main piece we need to focus on is recovering from those workouts. SO, that means getting enough sleep, the right amount of nutritious foods, and high levels of water to start.
This is where things tie back into the first section of our schedule, if you just jump into a session after not eating, sleeping, or drinking then there is no chance you are recovered enough to benefit from that work.
Some days are better off just going to bed or going for a walk (not all though, so don’t use this as an excuse to skip the gym).
The main idea behind everything we just went over is PLANNING.
Your schedule is not going to be perfect.
You are going to get shitty sleep
You are going to miss meals
You are going to miss your water targets
These things are just inevitable. BUT, the more you plan the easier and more consistent things will become.
Plan, execute, be consistent.
It will work in your favor!
In good health,
Jeff
