 Our next caller is Andrew from New York. What's up Andrew? How can we help you? Hey guys, thanks for having me on. I really appreciate it. So basically my question is I work a job where I work four doubles in a row, 3pm to 7am, 16 hour shifts, and then I have eight days off in a row. Right now I have still been going to the gym in between my doubles because I feel like taking four days off in a row is a little bit awkward. So I was wondering if it would be beneficial on the four days where I'm doing doubles to still go to the gym and do maybe like a lighter workout or if it would be more beneficial as far as getting a couple extra hours of sleep in between doubles and skipping four days off in a row completely. Yeah, yeah, nothing wrong with taking 40 days off in a week or in a row. Not a big deal. In fact, because of the hours that you're working, it's better to do that than it is to work out. But I will say this. You start at 3pm, you said. I would try to do some kind of outdoor walking where you get sunlight exposure earlier in the day. You're going to need that to help with your circadian rhythm because that's really what's getting hammered with this kind of schedule. But I wouldn't do any workouts on those days. I would really focus all your attention on getting good sleep because I don't know if you've seen the statistics on the health effects of those types of shifts that they have on the body. I mean, it's pretty bad. It's like smoking cigarettes every single day. Throwing more stress on top of that with exercise isn't going to get you better progress. So get some sun exposure, do some walking, leave the workouts for the eight days off in a row that you have when you can get better sleep. Are you active that whole time in your job? Like are you moving around quite a bit? No, it's actually a pretty sedentary job. For the most part, I'm in corrections, state corrections. So on top of the 16-hour shifts, it might not always be physically taxing, but at least from the mental aspect, you're always on edge. Is there limited options in terms of you being able to get up and move or break that up in chunks throughout your day, just doing basic movements and walks and squats or something that you could do in terms of around your desk? Yeah. So I mean, for all 16 hours, I have to get up once every half an hour and do around wherever I am. So it's not like I'm just sitting for 16 hours. I have the freedom pretty much whenever I want to get up and walk around, do whatever. I have a couple of things. One, I think I wouldn't worry about taking the days off I don't know. Did you hear Andrew, the episode where I referenced the study that Lane Norton posted about a month ago? Did you hear that episode? Yeah, because I follow Lane as well. And I think it was a couple of weeks ago that I think it was like a month-long study or something like that where the two different groups and there wasn't really much difference at all. That's right. There wasn't at all. In fact, I believe if anything, the group that took the week off every three weeks was as good or superior at the end of the, I think it was a 16-week study. And you had a group, one group that every, they trained consistently three weeks and they took a whole week off, then three weeks consisting of a whole week off compared to a group who never took any time off, trained consistent the entire time. Equivalent results. Yeah. So, and that highlights just taken seven days off in a row does not set you as far back as you would think. And that's not taking into consideration your job. So your job that you have, that you're working 16 hours, those days off are even more beneficial for you because of the points that the guys are bringing up with stress. Yeah. And again, to kind of counter some of these postural positions, like that's why I was trying to get out. If you have opportunities to get up and do some mobility drills or do things where you're addressing those forward shoulder, the the fore neck, you know, to be able to get your spine and get alignment and just get up against the wall, do a wall test, you know, practicing those things, making ritual out of it will help to benefit you going back into your workouts the next week. So that's where the other point that I was going to make was I don't know if you have the flexibility for like an hour lunch or whatever. But, and if you have somewhere at work where you could hook up like a suspension trainer, I would totally, if your client of mine, I would totally let you do one to two days during your work shifts for a 20 minute, 30 minute, you know, suspension trainer type of workout. And I would, I'd probably, I'd probably modify it and gear it around posture stuff. So I'd be doing like W's and maybe some rotational exercises in there, but a suspension trainer, 20, 30 minutes, two of the days of the days that you're working the four days. And then the most of your like heavy weight training stuff. Just keep sending a signal to, you know, keep building muscle. Yeah. But honestly, if you focus on sleep and during that time, that'll give you the biggest benefit. So, you know, like I said, get sunlight before you go to work, make sure you get some good sun exposure. And then two hours before, because I'm assuming you go to bed when you get home and get some sleep, I would two hours before your shift ends, put on some blue light blocking glasses, get your brain kind of ready, and then make sure your room where you go to sleep is cool and blacked out so that you can get some good rest because I'm telling you, if you look at the studies on the effects that these types of shifts have on people's bodies, it's, it can be very detrimental. So I'm very cautious to throw any more stress at your body during these periods of time. Yeah, because I know you had mentioned earlier and about the circadian rhythm. That's another thing that's hard about it too, because I go from the four days of doing overnight shifts, and then I have eight days off. So like the first couple of days where I'm trying to transition back to going to bed at like 10, 11 o'clock at night, like I barely get any sleep on those nights because it's going back and forth all the time. Yeah, focus on sleep, get that sunlight during the day, wear those blue light blocking glasses, that's going to give you the biggest impact. Okay, thanks a lot. No problem, man. I definitely, I definitely agree, we're all on the same page that. Well dude, he's not only, he's not only doing those shifts, did you hear what he said? He tries to go back, he's literally jet lagging himself every week. Yeah, I know. I mean, that is, that is really, and this is where all these kind of little biohacking interventions do make sense because it's such an extreme schedule that it does take a toll on your body. Oh yeah, I mean, imagine that. You're up from 3 p.m. to 7 a.m., four days in a row, and then you're trying to trade, switch your body to going to bed at 11 o'clock at night. He's literally jet lagged every, every single week doing this. Right. So sleep has got to be. I mean, 100% I agree that becomes the number one priority, and we have to address that first before I even consider letting you do anything in addition to that on those workdays. But if, if I can include some Ws and some rotational stuff with the suspension trainer, some isometric stuff that's 20 minutes or 30 minutes on his lunch break, you got to, because we got to think too, him being sedentary all day long, sitting at a desk. Yeah, your, your body just forms into that. And like it becomes, it wants to stay in that state. So more as a counter to break it up. Yeah. To get out of that state, I think is. Right. Like I definitely wouldn't give him an hour break, go hammer the weights at the gym or what about that? Like I'm not trying to get after it. Just stimulate the muscles. That's right. And I think he'll actually see an increase in, in energy throughout his day from doing something like that plus counter the, the rolled show shoulders and sitting forward all day long. So I do see some benefit to that, but of course I would, as a coach who's coaching him, I would want like detail, like how hard are you training? What are you doing? And less is more with someone like that. If we're going to be doing it on the workdays, but yeah, I dress, sleep first. I love the recommendation too with the getting out, blue blockers, blue blockers. And this is where all the biohacking stuff, you know, could come in handy. Juve light would help.