Anyone work 12 hr days and still workout?

I used to work at least 11 hours a day, 6 days a week, and it was all physical. The only thing that could get me off my *kitten* after work was to find something I LOVED doing (in my case, ballroom dance). It was not just physical, but mentally challenging, and social. Some additional tips to fight the exhaustion:

- DON'T SIT OR LAY DOWN. Seriously. Come home, shower if you need to, get ready to go, put together a healthy meal, and then get yourself out the door. Don't watch TV for any amount of time, pick up a book, lay down in bed, or say you are going to rest for just x amount of time; you will never get moving again. Laws of physics.

- Have other people keep you accountable. Whether you have a workout buddy or trainer who expects you or just friends at the gym who will say, "hey, where have you been?" make sure there are people who expect you to be there and who you respect enough not to disappoint.

- You have to love what you're going to do. If it feels like a chore, you will never wake up and get into it. There are lots of workouts you can love, but at the end of the twelve hour day, if it's leg day or whatever and you hate it, you are never going to feel good about doing it.

That's what worked for me, getting myself out the door as quickly as possible to dance five days a week after work, I lost 20lb without changing my diet, before joining MFP.

GOOD LUCK and I'm sorry you have to work such icky long days!

I don't work 12 hour day but with travelling I am out of the house 11 hours a day and then have to make kids dinner, eat mine, get them bathed to bed etc...

The only way I can squeeze my exercise in is get up at 5am and I am on the treadmill by 5.15 or doing some strength exercises. I know I never have energy or will to do it at the end of the day.

If I worked a 12hr day I would take my running gear or my bike and commute home via bike or my feet. It helps destress and get rid of any emotional ties from work or stress and is great for going home to bed for. I always feel better the next for it- if I am not shattered but it doesn't mean you should work out 100% just enough to destress and any exercise counts.

My sister commutes to work on her bike and she works 2x 12hr shifts but she alternates the biking and car but she does apx 20miles one way so can be quite exhausting but her work has a gym so she uses it on her lunch break. Not everyone is as lucky but go outside and take a walk or run if you can.

I wake up at 5am and drive an hour to work, don't get home until 8pm. I do this 5 days in a row and then the 6th day I work a second job and am gone from 11am to 5pm. No I don't find much time for exercise and I'm trying to figure out a routine but I'm down right exhausted by the end of the day. I'm going to try and just suck it up when I get home and work out before doing anything else but that's going to take a lot of will power on my part. I don't know what it is about driving that long but im full of energy when I get off work but the drive wipes me out for some reason.

I work 12.5 hour rotating shifts (sometimes 6 am to 6:30 pm, sometimes 6 pm to 6:30 am). With commute, its 14 hours driveway to driveway. Rotating shifts are worse because you are in a semi-constant state of jet lag. You first day off is spent adjusting your body clock to your next schedule rotation.

Used to think I didn't have time to workout on work days, until I discovered that I did. One day I had an appointment 2 hours after work. Rather than sit around for 2 hours, I worked out between shift and the appointment. Discovered it didn't kill me. Since then I have made it a habit to workout first thing after work.

I have never been one to prefer getting up early to workout (or do anything else for that matter). Not enough energy when I first get up. Many prefer the opposite.

On my longer school/work days where I go to school around 730-245 then head straight to work from 4-8. I just make sure to take advantage of any workout or extra exercise I can get in. I take the stairs, walk to the campus instead of riding the shuttle, I also get a good 60 min cleaning workout at work and I make sure to do anything extra I can. Then I usually (depending on hw) workout for 45 - 60 mins at my places gym and do cardio/strength. I always try to burn the most calories during long days so if I'm reallly tired I don't feel bad for not getting my cardio/strength in. I also workout on the weekends so the days I don't workout in the week are made up.

50-60 hour shifter here. I can' barely balance a social life and have prepped meals so I can only imagine if I had kids! I'd recommend splitting your workout routine to 3x a week. Balancing sleep and diet is more essential but if you insist on 5 day splits then sacrifices must be made. Eat at your desk and create a schedule to revolve around your workout.

So you have 4 days off? Is it possible to have your rest days or do something light on days you work, and keep the higher intensity/higher duration things on your days off?