Any body working "grave shift"?

[Wrathchild]

I started working graveyard shift, 9:30 p to 7:30a, and 3 days off, anybody else in my situation? I quit working out for the almost 5 months I started in this shift, this is my first week back to the gym. Any ideas? Obviously I have to sleep when I get home, once I get up in the afternoon, I start my meals and training before going to work, I hate it, but I have to bring a paycheck home. I still don't know how my body will respond to this schedule, so far I've gained tons of fat while out of the gym and without dieting. This first week has been very hard, specially when I see myself lifting barely 60% of what I used to, 5 months ago Has anybody gone thru this? will the matabolism adapt to the changed schedule? Please, voice your opinions

[symatech]

I did it for a few weeks, but i couldnt hack it. Threw me off completely. I could never sleep when I got home, i was tired all the time, felt lazy and didnt train. So I quit doing that.

good luck

[DBarcelo]

It's really tough trying to work graveyard shift and building your body. First, you're awake when you're supposed to be sleeping and sleeping when you're supposed to be awake, so your internal clock gets thrown off whack and that affects your motivation to work out, then you have the fact that your body releases growth hormone at night while you sleep, and your body may not release quite as much GH if you sleep during the day. You also have to deal with the fact that you're less likely to get uninterupted sleep while trying to get your sleep during the day. I never had to worry about that all too much, because for some reason, my body doesn't allow me to stay up beyond a certain time. I start to get really bad stomach cramps and stuff. It's like my body just starts to shut down on me. You may be better off just trying to slim down instead of trying to bulk up, it's just probably going to be really hard to bulk up while working the graveyard shift.

Good luck though

[hybrid]

I think that if this shift is a permanent thing then you need to retrain your body. There is no reason that you can't get your body adapted to the hours that you are working. You just need to schedule your days and stick to it. You need to have breakfast lunch and dinner and snacks adjusted to your new schedule. It will probably be hard to adjust, but once you force the change on your body and stick to it, it should be do-able.
The only really difficult thing that I see, is that you have three days off to revert back to normal hours. In reality, you probably shouldn't do this, but I don't know how you would get around it. 4 days one life, 3 days another life is going to be hard to adapt to.

[Cousin Eddie]

Did it for 10 1/2 years, about to start it again. It is possible to make progress working shift work. I got off shift work for two years and didnt notice any more gains than I had while on it. Good Luck!

[powerlifter]

did it for 5 years - put on fat - It is almost like your diet goes to hell just so you can work through the night. Will never do it again.

[snowman]

I'm been on that shift for 14 years now, and i trained my body to adapt to it.... you just have to think, that you are still on a regular shift... when you worked days, and you went home at the end of your shift, did you go to sleep once you got home ? probably not, so why do you do it now, that you are on the third shift ? the worst times is when you have a day off ,and you need to change your times of sleeping again, but i don't even do that any more.
This is my day,in order to try to live ( somewhat of a normal life)
I start my shift at 10:00 pm, work until 7:00am
7:30 am until 9:00am Gym
9:00am till 12:00 or 1:00 pm do things around the house, go for a walk.. whatever
1:00 pm ( i'm completely dead and ready to go to sleep) sleep untill 9:00pm.
10:00 PM START MY SHIFT AGAIN.

I try not to change my hours when i have a day off, but sometimes i have to; i also change my hours when i'm on vacation, other then that, i been doing the Grave shift for 14 years, and i love it....

My Meal times when i wake up.
9:00 pm ( breakfast)
12:00am first big meal
2:00am second meal
4:30 am third meal
7:00am fourth meal
9:30 am fifth meal
11:30 am sixth meal.

It took me a wile, to also train my wife, that this is the way i'm going to eat and sleep, but she got used to it.... before i used to go home, after my shift and go to bed, and wake up at 4:00 pm, and my wife, expected me, to eat a steak with her at the table, when in reality i should be having breakfast, not dinner.. i started putting on a lot of fat, so i changed all the times around , when i sleep and eat.

[TheChosen1]

At my job of almost 4 years, I worked the day shift for 6 months (hated it!!), swing shift (5:30 PM-2 AM) for a year and a half, and graveyard for almost 2 years. According to our seniority, we decide what shifts we want to work and I decided to leave the swing shift to go to graveyard because I always made my greatest progress while doing graveyard.

Several years ago when I was in law enforcement, I would leave my graveyard shift and drive straight to the gym, while drinking coffee with E/A. It helped me alot with keeping me energetic throughout the day for my part-time job. However since my current graveyard shift job keeps me more physical at work, I find my only time to train is before work.