Can’t Get to the Gym? Workouts at Home for the Nightshifter
Exercise is the key to maintaining our physical, mental, and sleep health. When we exercise regularly, it decreases our risk of developing heart disease, diabetes, mood disorders, and insomnia.
These health benefits are especially important for night shift workers. People who work nights are highly susceptible to weight gain, mood disorders like depression, and poor sleep. The night shift disrupts the circadian rhythm, which has a negative impact on the body’s metabolism, hormone regulation, and sleep cycle.
Exercise has been shown to alleviate these effects by helping the body feel tired enough to sleep, releasing mood-boosting endorphins, and burning calories.
When you work the night shift, you should try your best to incorporate exercise into your daily routine. While making it to the gym every day might be complicated or even downright impossible some days, that doesn’t mean that you have to sacrifice your workout and all of the health benefits that come from exercise.
There are plenty of ways to get exercise and stay in shape without leaving the comfort of your bedroom:
Exercises You Can Do at Home
Between working the night shift, keeping up with your sleep schedule, spending time with family and loved ones, and maintaining a social life, it can be hard to find time to go to the gym.
Fortunately, there are exercises you can do at home without any equipment or hassle. Don’t let your lack of access to a gym or a lack of time to go to the gym stand in the way of your well-being.
If you can’t get to the gym, try one of these simple but effective exercises below. Most of these exercises can be completed in five minutes or less, allowing you to squeeze them into your busy schedule.
Aim to do two sets of 10–15 reps for each exercise with 30 seconds-1 minute of rest between exercises. If you need to, you can maximize the intensity of these exercises by increasing the number of repetitions or incorporating weights.
Upper Body Workout
- Push-ups: Get on the floor on all fours. Extend your legs straight out, and make sure your hands are placed slightly wider than your shoulder blades. Use your arms and elbows to raise and lift your body.
- Tricep dips: Get in a crab walk position with your hands and feet flat on the floor. Stretch your left leg into the air while you dip your body down using your elbows. For the next dip, extend your right leg. Switch legs with each dip.
- Arm circles: Extend your arms straight out and trace out small circles using your fingertips in a clockwise motion. After about a minute, switch to a counter-clockwise motion.
Lower Body Workout
- Stationary Lunge: Stand with your feet flat on the floor. Move your feet so that they are a hip’s width apart. Take a large step backward with your left foot. Bend your left knee to a 90-degree angle so that both of your knees are now bent. Stand up straight again. After completing 10–15 reps, switch legs so that you are taking a step backward with your right foot.
- High knees: Stand with your feet flat on the floor and about a hip’s width apart. Lift up your right knee while raising your left arm as high as you can. Switch arms and legs with each rep.
- Calf raises: Stand with your feet flat on the floor. Raise your heels so that your body is lifted and your calf muscles are stretched.
Core Strength Workout
- Crunches: Lie down on your back with your feet planted firmly on the floor. Bend your knees, and place your hands either folded across your chest or on the sides of your head. Using your abdominal muscles, lift your upper body off of the floor.
- Planks: Get in a push-up position. Place your forearms on the floor. Allow your forearms to raise your body, and hold your body up for about a minute. Rest, and repeat.
- Toe touches: Lie on your back and extend your legs and arms. Lift your legs until your toes are pointing toward the ceiling. Extend your arms so that they are touching your toes.
Total Body Workout
- Burpees: Get in a squat position, making sure your back is straight. Lower your hands to the floor and extend your feet so that you are now in a push-up position. Complete one push-up, then get back into your squat position. Jump in the air with your hands over your head and land in a squat position. Repeat.
- Jumping lunges: Complete a lunge and jump in the air before switching legs and landing on the opposite back leg in a lunge position.
- Stair climbing: Find stairs in your home or neighborhood and run up and down the stairs for one minute. Rest, and then climb up and down the stairs again for another minute. Repeat.
Although this is by no means an exhaustive list of exercises to complete, it is a good place to start if you are looking to squeeze in a workout without going to the gym.
When is the Best Time to Work Out
While it is always great to spend time exercising each day, try to avoid working out right before bed as this can cause you to have trouble falling asleep. Remember, it’s just as important to consider when you exercise as it is to think about what exercises you are doing.
Working out when you wake up for the day is a good way to get your day off to a good start. Exercising a couple of hours before you go to work, especially when the sun is still out, can give you an energy boost to get through your shift as well as some extra vitamin D. If you’re struggling to stay awake during your shift and need a burst of energy to keep you alert, consider taking five minutes during your break to go through one of the exercises above.
When it comes to the best times to work out, the truth is that anytime is a great time, except for an hour or two before bedtime. If you have a spare moment in between running errands, an extra 20–30 minutes when you wake up, or a small break during your shift, it can be the perfect opportunity to exercise.
Getting Started
Even if you can only do one or two of the exercises on the list above or you can only find time to exercise for a few minutes at a time sporadically throughout your day, any time spent exercising is better than neglecting to work out altogether.
Start off small by choosing one or two exercises to do each day and build up to completing more over time. Your body will thank you!
Night Shift Nutrition is a community focused on living your best life, while working nights. We do this by sharing our experiences and science based educations. The point is to not only survive working nights but to thrive! If this sounds like something you’d like to be a part of you can apply to join our facebook group or subscribe to our email list.
