shift work training

[Gottatri2lift]

Did 5 searches regarding this and came up with nothing.


Going into 12 hour shift work for the next few years and was wondering how people dealt with this.

My schedule is a basic hospital rotation of 6 weeks days and 6 weeks nights.

Mon/Tue On
Wed/Thu Off
Fri/Sat/Sun On

Mon/Tue Off
Wed/Thu On
Fri/Sat/Sun Off

How do you program through this? any recommndations?

[Buellfool]

Not sure if you know but best way to search is through Google like this "site:startingstrength.com whatever whatever" (without quotation marks)

site:startingstrength.com shiftwork came back with;
http://startingstrength.com/resource...d.php?t=35018&
http://startingstrength.com/resource...d.php?t=38887&
http://startingstrength.com/resource...d.php?t=37575&
http://startingstrength.com/resource...d.php?t=40046&

[Bradley]

I work 7a-7p and workout from 5a-6a every morning. I'm too tired to do anything meaningful after work so I do it before.

[Haggit]

A couple of those were mine. But I have found a few things to work well for me.
Are you still progressing with 3x5? Are you trying to do SS?

1) don't force anything. Some times it takes an extra day or two to recover from squats. Especially after nights. Take the extra day. You'll be glad you did.

2) set your programming up to where you can have single lift sessions without it ruining the whole program. It helps when you are on shift and either don't feel up to long sessions or don't have the time. I ended up finishing my LP on a four day split.

3) I have had success when I needed more complex programming to lay out all the volume I needed for the week and just squeeze it in where I could. Like I've done two a days or stretched out 5x5 with an intensity weight over a period of a week and I've combined them into a single session, too.

[KAG]

Gottatri2lift, you and I work the same schedule. I've been doing this for years and years.

One thing I will tell you now, is that Starting Strength and this schedule do not go well together. I've tried. Several times. I often end up working 15-16 hours per day and not able to lift at all, so I would have to miss days, but even after only a regular 12, it was just too much to cram a heavy workout in afterward. But I've got a large family that I like to spend time with also. Plus, I don't know about you, but SS takes me a solid 90 minutes to do, on a good day. Sometimes with a proper warmup for each lift, it often took me 120 minutes. And I just couldn't do it after working a long shift, see my family, shower, eat, etc etc etc.

What I ended up doing was doing 5/3/1 on my days off only.

Example:
Week1
M- squat + accessory lifts
Tu- press + acc
F- deadlift + acc
Sa- bench + acc
Su- conditioning/extra squat day/miscellaneous

Week 2
W- squat & press
Th -deadlift & bench

Repeat indefinitely.

I made decent gains on this. I still use this split, but I do an Olympic weightlifting program now with the powerlifts throw in as accessory lifts.

I have given some thought to what I would do if I was on this schedule and had to do SS. Here is what I came up with:

Week 1
M - Squat & overhead press
Tu - Bench & deadlift/power cleans
F - Squat & overhead press
Sa - Bench & deadlift
Su - Squat & power cleans

Week 2
W - Squat & overhead press
Th - Bench & deadlift

Repeat.

And of course you could swap the bench/overhead press around, and anywhere you see deadlift or cleans, you could swap them as well.

It's not perfect, and it cuts squats by 33%, so some may argue that it's not SS(and I suppose it's not truly SS), but you can still get in some volume and you should be able to advance in a linear progression.
Example: 135lbs on Monday, 145 on Friday, 155 on Sunday, 165 on Wednesday, etc.

It's this or else just suck it up after 12 hours, plus drive time, and being worn out for your training.

Whatever you decide, good luck.

[Gottatri2lift]

Thank you all for your candid responses.

Buellfool - I did not know about using Google to search StartingStrength.com - Thank you.
Bradley - Unfortunately I am currently waking up at 0515 to attend to morning duties & commuting. However the fact that you can lift from 0500-0600 is awesome b/c mentally I cannot envision it!
Haggit - I am squeezing out the last bits of starting strength, I think. Food costs, military height weight requirements and family time limit carve this assessment of the effectiveness of starting strength as well as boredom. . Thank you for reminding me to check the ego at the door and don't force it and be flexible enough to 'lose' a workout but 'win' the program so to speak.
KAG - Thank you for your thorough posting. I have been toying with leaving the rigidity of SS because of the reasons I posted above (to Haggit) and have wandered over to Lift-Run-Bang program by Paul Carter which can be 2 or 4 day split like 5/3/1. I will definitely be using your template as a starting point.

Thanks to all for your assistance!