what do you do about working out?
do you work out before? after? or not at all on your working days?

Hey... usually I work out when I get off. I work 9pm to 7am ...it's hard and I don't have a ton of energy, but most days it feels really good. I keep meaning to try working out before work...but I haven't gotten around to that yet.

The overnights are horrible. I'm definitely not a huge fan of them. ...but I make more money doing it...

I think it depends on you and what you know you will commit to. I am NOT a morning person and as much as I would love to convince myself that I will get up to work out - I won't. I simply do not roll my a** out of bed.
I asked one of the trainers at the gym the best time of to work out - his answer... when ever you do it. That is the best time. I liked his answer.

You just need to do it at a time that you can stick to. If it differs every day, that is fine. I never have the same schedule, so I understand.
GOOD LUCK! You can do it!!

yeah i'm having a hard time! i get up at 500am to begin with, i leave for work at 600am and i dont usually end up leaving the hospital until 8pm... then going to the gym is painful - but in order to get to the gym, work out, shower, etc... before work i'd have to be up about 330am!
sigh!

I work 7 pm. to 5:30 a.m., and sometimes longer if I get overtime.

I work out both before and after work, 5x a week. No matter what. No excuses short of injury or another really good reason. There have been times when I've pulled 14 hour shifts (or longer), and still have gone home to do my "evening" run.

Yes, I often am tired and would rather sleep. But I ask myself, "Would I rather be tired and slim, or well rested and chunky?"

That motivates me to just do it.

I'm also an RN working 12 hour night shifts. Basically I wake up at 3:30-4 pm ish, shower dress, pack lunch and gym bag, feed dog, eat a snack, head to the gym (get there by 5) and work out at least an hour. I then shower/get ready for work after (very quickly mind you and my hair is wash/wear no time for styling anyway). Luckily my gym is very close to my work. It sounds awful but in my case it's only 3 days a week and I never sleep more than 6 hours in the day time anyway. When I worked day shift I would go to the gym after work. It sounds strange but I easily get up early to work nights but there was no way I could do it on days!

The benefit to long shifts is other days off. Most nurses I know work 3-4 12 hr shifts a week, which does allow days with no work where one can exercise. I know nurses who exercise before and I know nurses who exercise after 12 hr shifts. The longest shift I work is 26 hrs. Sometimes I exercise before, sometimes I exercise after (after a nap!). When it is important enough, one finds a way.

i just LOVE that!

i'm an icu nurse, so generally, i'm on my feet for most of my 12 hours with a lot of lifting and pulling people, transporting to scans, etc...
its def not a desk job. (i wish!)

Honestly I walk so much on my floor, that I think I get more exercise than I do on my days off, but it's not the aerobic kind. We have a very large floor and we have even worn pedometers at work & found out we were really covering a lot of ground each day. I only go to the gym when I have a day off. I also find that if I work out in the evening, I have trouble relaxing & falling asleep later. It kind of revs me up too much.

I usually work 9 to 430, then have class 530-730. I'm away from home from 8am to 8pm.

A stationary bicycle will be your best friend, especially if you stand or walk in your line of work. You can watch tv (my favorite activity after a long day) and burn calories without putting more pressure on your poor pooped out feet!

Any chance you could try to squeeze in some exercise during your shift, like a walk on your break or something? That way you could possibly skip the big workout on days you work, and not feel so guilty about it.

I don't work out on my days on. I work 12's, a mix of days and nights, 6:45 - 7:15 in NICU (unless it's Friday, when we ALWAYS get an emergency c-section at 6pm meaning baby isn't stabilised until ~8ish - I think "emergency" means "the OB may be called in off the golf course on Saturday morning if we don't do this now") - but I digress!

Like I said, I don't do formal exercise on the days that I work. BUT I work out every single day I don't (3-4 days per week) and I wear a pedometer at work. We've just moved into a brand new hospital - lovely, but a very long way to the storeroom, blood gas machine, etc. I usually do between 10,000 and 12,000 steps during a 12 hour shift. I think that's enough!

Carinna - what are these breaks of which you speak? 20 minutes a couple of times a shift is barely enough to chug down some food and water and go to the toilet. That's if the pager doesn't go off from birthing suite in the middle of it - I don't know how many cold cups of coffee I've come back to an hour later.