Welcome to Becoming Bad Us, I am your host Carly Box and this is my podcast series where I chat to Defence Force applicants from the Barracks Gym. Throughout these episodes it is my aim that you will find someone you can really resonate with, someone that helps you realise you are not alone and that others are most definitely going through the same experiences as you. I do often interview past members of the Barracks Gym so that we can give an insight into life after in a small appointment and how training at TBG really helped to prepare these people for life in the military. I hope that you can find all stories inspiring, informative and motivating as each person works on physically preparing themselves for the change from civilian to serving member.
So chuck your headphones in, be ready for a no filter discussion about the realities of preparing for the military and remember that it all comes down to how bad you want it. Hello and welcome to Becoming Bad Us. Today we are having a quick chat. It has been a while since I have done one of these but I have some cracking information that I think it is about time I shared.
So today I am going to talk about how to train around shipwork. This one comes up often because we have a lot of people who are nurses, people who work in warehouses, people who work for night fill, just hang out in that job until they get into the ADF and whilst they so badly want to get out of that job they know that to do that they need to train and get themselves ready for the ADF. But the catch is that it is hard to train around shipwork. Sorry I have done some research myself and I have put together some information that I am going to gift you today through this podcast.
So people who are fatigued after a night shift and use it as an excuse to skip training. Is that you? If it is, keep listening. If it is not then I suggest that you keep listening because you are going to come up against shift work at some point in your ADF career.
How are you meant to get anywhere with your fitness for the ADF while you are training around shipwork? Well I am going to tell you just that. I do shift work has become a common excuse among many applicants. Over the years we have found that there is an increasing number of people who work night shifts or inconsistent shift work.
This is often used as an excuse as to why people have not trained or why they did not train to full capacity. Sure we get that you are fatigued after a night shift but if you continually use this as an excuse to skip training how can you expect to get anywhere? When Michael and I were deployed to Afghanistan I spent six months on both trips and Michael spent almost nine months on his trip on constant shift work. We were working weird hours across the entire 24 hour period in order to get our jobs done.
However we were the fittest that we had ever been during this time. We were the first to get out of your room and we were the first to get out of your room. We were the first to get out of your room and we were the first to get out of your room. There were many factors that could have prevented us from getting our training in but we always prioritise it.
When I say we I do not trust Michael and I mean most of the people we were deployed with. Staying fit and healthy means we had a stronger clarity of mind to help us do our jobs well. It means we had strength to lift equipment, work in our body armour, help out where we might be needed. We also meant that our bodies didn't perish when we were required to sit and fly drones for long periods of time.
I am talking 12 hours shifts, 12 hours on 12 hours off. You do not fly for that entire time but you do spend a significant amount of that time on your ass concentrating really really hard so that you do not crash this aircraft. So that you can actually meet the mission demands. So it is quite taxing mentally and physically if you can consider sitting down for long periods of time physically demanding which I do consider it to be that way.
Fitness became a priority and it gave your purpose outside of your job as part of the day that you would want to look forward to. If you do not go home to your family, you do not go to the pile, you do not get to go and hang out with your dog, going to the gym and fitness became the thing you got really excited about for the day which is super important while you are away for a long period of time. Exercise might feel impossible after a long night shift or even just a shift but being consistent can help you maintain your energy and keep you at your best. Try and get fresh air by walking to and from the gym if it is possible for you.
So for us in Afghanistan we could walk to the gym from where we were staying. I would not consider the air in Afghanistan to be overly fresh but it was outside of air con outside of that closed environment that we are in all day. So if you are a nurse or if you are any sort of shift work or I use nurse because that is the most common example and you have the ability to walk to the gym if it is close to your house then do it. Put the car keys away and go for a walk and get some fresh air.
It will help amp you up and give you that little bit of energy that you need. I really want everyone to remember that you are the person that made the decision to join the ADS so it is really up to you how to figure out how to make this work and that may sound harsh but it is the reality. I did not make you join, your mum did not make you join, your best friend's dog did not make you join, you are the person who has taken the step to say hey this is what I want so it is up to you to make it work. I really want to educate you guys and share some information that might help you adjust your mindset towards your fitness and help you prioritise it if you are a shift worker.
Alright, so let's talk shift work and fitness. There is a reminder. We all have the same 24 hours in a day, you have probably heard me preach this across our social media but it is true. Everyone has the same 24 hours in a day that they can utilise to do whatever you want.
It is up to you as to how you craft your life within this 24 hours. If you work at night, get your training in straight after your shift and then sleep the rest of the day, then you have got it done. This is the same as working all day, training after and then sleeping the rest of the evening. It is just done at a different time in that 24 hours.
Sure, there can be other factors that can distract you or cause you to fall off the wagon but the important thing to remember here is that we all have the same 24 hours in a day and it is up to you to decide how you use it. Now, remembering that time is the one thing that is distributed among every single person in the world evenly. So clearly, wealth, housing, benefits, food, I can't even think of examples but wealth is probably a good example. It is not distributed evenly among everybody in the world but time is, it doesn't matter if you are Richard Branson or if you live in the slums of Suweto out of Johanna.
You have 24 hours in your day, so just think about that and think about how productive you are being with your full 24 hours and how productive you could be with your 24 hours. All right, motivation is generated through your priorities. If you are struggling to find the motivation to train before or after your night shift, then it is very likely that you are not prioritising your goals in the way that you think you are. You have to make your end goal the priority in order to allow it to motivate you.
If you are not feeling motivated after a shift, then it is because you haven't put your goal of joining an ADF at the forefront of absolutely everything you are doing right now. If you want it bad enough, then you will be able to adjust your schedule and find the energy. Once you prioritise your application, then you will find that your training naturally becomes a priority. Motivation will be generated once you have made this shift.
You will find that you want to spend time training because being in the ADF is what you want for your life. Now this doesn't mean that you need to never see your friends, never see your family, never watch TV, never read a book. It doesn't mean that you will go every other thing in your life. It simply just means that you need to prioritise getting into the ADF over clubbing every Saturday night as a pretty prime example.
Because clubbing every Saturday night is taking money away that you can spend good food and good training and relevant training. Clubbing every Saturday night is putting filth into your body that you are going to have to work hard to burn off and reverse and then repeat repeat every week. Clubbing every Saturday is making you tired and if you are like me, it takes you three years to get over at Hangover. That is probably been dramatic, three days I would say.
That is three days that I am ineffective in the gym. I like to have a drink but I choose to not get shit faced all the time because I have a child and having to be a parent at 6 o'clock on a Sunday morning is hell let alone doing a Hangover. But also if I were to go and train on a Sunday and I always train on a Monday, then it is going to up in that training for me. I don't want to have to be one step forward, two steps back.
So I make my training and I make my nutrition and I make my health a priority. Now I have only recently made that shift at the start of 2020. Back in 2019 nothing was a priority for me. I was just floating along doing whatever, feeling a bit tired, put on a little bit of weight, a little bit all over the shot, really scattered and really out of sorts.
It wasn't until 2020 kicked over but a few days I was like where are the areas in my life that I need to make a priority to get to my goal. My goal is that I have a few goals which I won't relive here because they are not related to ADF but they are fitness related goals as well as some personal things. The only way I was going to get them is if I prioritise them and therefore made my fitness, my health and my nutrition. When I say health I mean mental health and just general wellness a priority and I have made the shift and I am still working on sleep as something that needs to be worked on but I feel so much better and I now get excited about going to the gym.
I have just come from the gym and I have been so pumped all day to get that session done because I was really looking forward to it because I know that it is one step closer to feeling really good about my goal. If you are feeling unmotivated and you can't find a way to generate motivation, the motivation is not sitting out on your clothes alone, it's not in the boot of your car, it's not in the garden. You have got to generate it through making it a priority. Is it safe to train after a night shift?
Yes, as far as your body is concerned it is completely safe to train after a night shift and a lot of people find that their sleep is not impacted in any way and in fact many shift workers report that they sleep better after a workout as their minds are given a chance to really wind up. Instead of going to bed really wide after your shift. Ensure that you are complimenting your workout with healthy food and aim to get around 7-9 hours sleep. Obviously 9 hours is the dream.
For me I am about a 7 hour sleep, it's not ideal for me but it's what I have to work with so I make it work. What I will say about this is if you are so fucked after your night shift that you physically don't think that you have the capacity to think and think clearly and with common sense and you could injure yourself in the gym, then it's not safe. You are just so exhausted and couldn't drive there without feeling like a drunk driver. Then no, don't drive.
Or reschedule your session. However, as far as biomechanics and the wellness of your body is concerned it's totally safe. When I was in Afghanistan I always used to train after my shift. I tried to do it before but I didn't like having to get up earlier.
By getting up earlier I mean 10am instead of 11am because my shift was midday. But I always liked coming off shift and going straight to the gym and it really helped. Especially because there is a lot going on and I was staring at technology a lot during my shift. It was really good to be able to just really wind down and then by the time I went to bed and watched the show fell asleep I was fine.
As opposed to going to bed like really wound up and all this crack going through your head. Okay, here's one that I really really think is important. I think they are all important but I think this is a really easy fix. Have a plan.
Take the time to plan out your week. Take responsibility for how your week will go. Work out when you will train around your shifts. What food you will eat.
What time should you plan to go to sleep and wake up and try and use this plan as a form of accountability and be disciplined enough to stick to it. Okay, get a diary. Get an old school diary. Get an old school diary.
Get a note pad. Get everything. I am now in a position where I do plan out my week roughly but I plan each day the night before. Because each day is very different.
So for instance last night I got my clothes out that I was going to wear for the morning because I had my daughter this morning and then my client had a swap and I don't have her this afternoon. I got the gym record and podcast working. So I got my clothes out that I was going to wear in the morning while I was hanging out with her. I had my gym bag packed with other work things like laptop and tables.
I had my lunch packed. I had a change of clothes packed for now and after the gym. I had sparesock spares. All my snacks.
Everything is planned out and Michael knows what I am eating for dinner. He will be cooking that while I am working and then when I get home then that is made for me. I will put my daughter to bed and eat together. That is our day is a bit chaotic because we don't have a 9 to 5 job.
But that is the way it is tomorrow. My daughter is in daycare. So I have all my stuff. My breakfast made.
I literally have the coffee cup out with a spoon and coffee jar sitting there ready to go. I have water in the kettle. I have to boil the kettle and put it in the coffee cup and take it with me. My breakfast is ready.
My food will be packed. Her daycare bag will be packed. Dinner, I generally get home early enough that I am able to prepare it. If I don't then I will make sure I have chopped up the veggies or whatever the night before.
Do everything the night before. Pack your bags. Get everything sorted. When you wake up in the morning you have very little to think about.
I know what time I have two appointments tomorrow. Two personal appointments tomorrow. I know what time I am training. I know what time I am working on.
I know what I am eating. Michael I have some things we need to go on to as well. I know when all of that is happening tomorrow already today because I have planned the week out. Make sure you have a plan.
In conjunction with that get a program. Get a program. www.thevaxxiom.com.au. forward slash online.
Seriously. If you are coming off night shift dragging your ass to the gym and the last thing you want is to get in there and have absolutely no clue what you are doing. There is nothing worse than walking into the gym being like what am I doing here? What am I doing?
You just flip around and do things. You don't want to go to the dumbbell racks because there are too many like fuck heads over there. You definitely don't want to go to the benches and the squat racks because it is just like dickhead city over there. You might go to the lap pull down and maybe the leg press and do a little bit of whatever.
You go over to the cables and do some triceps. What is that really doing for you? How is that helping your push ups? How is that helping your running ability?
How is that helping your overall muscular endurance? How is that helping the weakness in your back that is preventing you from doing push ups? It is not because you don't know what you are doing. So put it in my hands and get me to tell you what to do.
Then you can just get to the gym. Open up your true coach app and go, oh cool. Here is what the Bar Xtreme has programmed for me today. Get yourself a program so that when you get there you don't even have to think about it.
Just open it and go, cool. That is what I have got today. Getting a program that is specific to your goal like the programs we provide here at TBG for our online piece. That way you will open the program.
You won't waste any time and you know that that program is 100% relevant to getting you to where you need to be which is into the ADF. Now don't mean to sound condescending. It is just really simple. It is get a program.
Make sure it is relevant. Do it. Because I guarantee that the programs that you are getting, they work. It is just up to you to do the work.
Now we have had success with hundreds of people doing online coaching. The people we have got doing online coaching now absolutely love it. That means it is all planned out for them. If that is your jam, I will put the link in the show notes because you all need it.
Working back to some personal stuff now in the home so your sleep environment. Use some resources like earplugs and eye mask meditation, a dark quiet atmosphere that will give you the best chance to promote quality sleep. If you have the ability to use block out curtains, oh my freaking God. You need to get them.
Especially for sleeping during the day. This will create a dark environment which then naturally helps the brain create melatonin in the body which is the form of sleep. This is the best way to trick your body into thinking that it is night time so it can produce the right chemicals to fall asleep. I am going to use babies as an example.
Babies are assholes when it comes to sleep. They do not know how. You think they do but they do not have to teach them. When you need to get a baby to sleep, especially during the day, you need their room to be super dark and quiet.
When my daughter was a newborn and even now her room looks like a meth lab. It had aluminium foil up on the window so no sun got in. Now she has got block out curtains and more aluminium foil and white noise. Every possible aid that could allow her to sleep is just great now to turn the day.
For me, I have block out curtains in my room. I wear eye mask and my glasses with earplugs in but I worry that I won't wake up to the baby. That is otherwise 100% sleep with earplugs in. We have really comfy sheets and we went and bought really comfy pillows the other day because other pillows were like morphed and sheared.
I do not know why we were using it for so long. Sleep is important guys and it is totally fine to invest in some good sleep resources. I am asked from Kmart, three bucks. Earplugs from the chemist, five bucks.
Block out curtains from what is that place called? Spotlight? I do not know how much because my husband went on but they are not that expensive. Put them on after pay.
That is my life. Give yourself a good quality sleep environment. Sleep is so important guys. What are you doing with your days off?
If you have a day off in the middle of your shifts and try and keep consistent with your sleep wake cycle if you can. If you try and feel that day with errands activities, lunch with a friend when you know you should actually be sleeping and keeping yourself stimulated then you might find it harder to wind down to sleep before the next shift. Whilst it is imperative that you want to use that day to catch up on washing do this, go and see best friend. That is stuff that is keeping you amped up.
It just depends if you are the type of person that comes down or not. I am not. It takes me ages to wind down at night or whenever I am going to sleep. If I film my day with hoops and stuff then I am overstimulated and it takes even longer.
Try doing things like exercise on your day off because it will tire your body out but in a positive way and you will feel good once you have done it because you have prioritised your training. Here is the killer guys going unplugged before sleep. Avoiding the use of devices or staring at the TV prior to going to sleep. This is so crazy correct.
It is not even funny but me included we all still do it. If you are falling asleep with the TV on or with your phone buzzing away on your bedside table then you might want to reassess if this is having a negative impact on your ability to get to sleep and the quality of sleep you will be having. I am terrible for watching shows on my laptop falling asleep to them when I should be reading a book or going to sleep. I am going to sleep staring at a screen and why.
Every time I do that I will fall asleep but I will not have the best quality sleep. If I read a book before I go to bed I pass out within a paragraph and I end up having a really good sleep. The proof is in the pudding there for me. Sleep experts recommend that you turn your devices off one hour before you go to sleep and switch to reading a book.
This gives your brain a chance to wind down and relax and avoid the stimulation and blue lights that are emitted from electronics. That is what keeps your wake, the blue lights and the stimulation. Look at how you can go about changing some of these habits. I am going to turn the TV off and go and see my bed and read a book or I am not going to show my laptop or put your phone away at a certain time.
I can't remember what it is called on iPhones now but you have your screen time usage part of the iPhone where you can get your apps to turn off at a certain time. I do that. I have all my turn off at 9 o'clock. You can still turn them on if you really need to but no one really needs to.
People can still call and text you. Nutrition and Water Consumption. Working at Night Shift will mean that local healthy foods probably won't be open during your break times at 2am. This means you will have to be organizing and bringing your meals next to work.
If you want to eat correctly then you have to be organized. Plan a hair grocery shop meal prep be organized. Make sure your house is stocked up with nutritious food to maintain energy levels. That is carbs proteins.
Make sure you have relevant amounts of those so you can meet or consume your protein if you are not a meat eater. That is in things like avocados and oils and nuts and blah blah blah. I am not carbs. I can't forget sweet sweet carbs.
That is in your veggies depending on how you are eating, pasta, whatever. Googling. Where was I? Start thinking about convenient options like smoothies to drink on the way to work.
Whisk up a bunch of fruit and veggies. You will be surprised how adding spinach and stuff to a smoothie doesn't taste like arse. Give it a crack because that sort of stuff is rich in the nutrients that you need. Whisk it up and you can drink it on the way to work.
Prepare snacks like fresh fruit, fresh veggies and hummus. Handful of nuts. Cook up simple balanced meals full of lean proteins, fruits, vegetables and whole grains. Experiment with fruit and find out what energizes you and what keeps you full.
Good quality fruit is going to be the key to keeping your mind clear and your body healthy. Particularly nurses, I know that in the break room there is always bikis and brownies and shit that all mates baked. Whatever. They are bringing in for all their nurse friends.
I would be shit. I would have an external discipline and I would just say especially if it was like on its cream biscuits. I'll just be giving those Monte Carlo's. I'd be into it.
However, it's empty calories. It's a lot of calories that you will be consuming but it's not nutritious and it's not going to keep you full. It's not calories that convert to energy stores. The calories that convert to fat stores.
You are giving yourself a sugar high and then a crash and you are not feeling full where you probably could feel full if you were eating something super nutritious. You can think about that. That's why things like your veggies, fruit and your lean proteins and stuff like that are definitely going to keep you more full. That doesn't mean going to consume a cream bun from the IGA because it's carbs.
Yes, it's delicious but again, it's empty calories. Drinking water is super crucial during shifts. Hydrating will help you maintain and a genuine actually feel less hungry and it will also be adequately hydrated for the gyms session that you are going to do once you get off your shift. Let's summarise everything.
It's likely that none of this is new to you if you're a chiffwerk. You probably already know most of this stuff and you just really needed this reminder to apply it to your life. It's super imperative that as a shift worker who wants to join the ADF that you take control of your lifestyle. You're the one that chose to join the military and no one is forcing you to join.
If it's hard to do whilst also doing shift work, then that's on you to figure it out. You're not the first person to successfully get into the ADF while working shifts and you'll likely find yourself on shift work when you get into the ADF. Find a way to make it work and make sure it works in your favour. Get yourself a bloody good training programme that you can follow.
Here at TVG we coach many applicants who are shift workers and they heavily rely on the accountability of their programme with us and the communication with the other online members to keep them going. If you'd like some help on anything to do with training, especially if you're on shift work, but training in ADF prep, then please get in contact with us. I'm going to put all the details on how you can contact me and Michael in the show notes. Thank you very much guys.
I hope that this passionate reading of some crucial information has come across in the correct way and that it can help some of you out. For those of you who are shift workers, just remember that you're the one that wants this. So go out and get it because it all comes down to how bad you want it.