Strength / Weight Training

Thanks for the answers - they make sense. Currently I am working up to 16 hours a day plus travelling time of 90 mins so my free time is limited to sleeping.
I would hope things will get back to some form of normality soon. Pressure is on to drop my weight ASAP. Intermittent fasting might be the answer and more exercise - time permitting.

Fair points. I work shifts. I’m up at 0500 and home around 2100 or later so it is difficult. Work has been mad over the past three months and 100+ hours in six days has happened a few times. Fingers crossed this reduces soon as it is stressing me out quite a bit. Thanks for your advice.

I've heard that the 10000 steps per day thing is totally arbitrary and has no evidence behind it.

Where does 10,000 steps a day come from?
Dr. Lee discovered that the origins of the number go back to 1965, when a Japanese company made a device named Manpo-kei, which translates to “10,000 steps meter.” “The name was a marketing tool,” she says. But since the figure has become so ingrained in our health consciousness (it’s often the default setting in fitness trackers), she wanted to see if it had any scientific basis for health.

https://www.health.harvard.edu/blog/10000-steps-a-day-or-fewer-2019071117305

It's just designed to stop you being sedentary, I didn't think there was much more behind it than that.

arbitrary and has no evidence behind it.

Arbitrary maybe but there's plenty of evidence that most people who walk 7,500 to 10,000 a day are healthier than people who don't.

https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20190723-10000-steps-a-day-the-right-amount

You have better outcomes if you do them but it's not a magic number.

Sure. Not everybody is motivated by chasing a target anyway.

What I'm saying is don't stress about the details around the number. If it's not achievable then set the target a bit lower

Can only echo @Stonehedge there

If you can't change your life to manage one hour of exercise for your health, longevity and wellbeing every day, there is something significantly wrong in your life that needs to change.

100 hr weeks is not healthy. If you make extra time around work to get the steps in then it's still not healthy. Up at 5am and home at 9pm is not healthy.
I know it's easy for me to just say 'you should work less' without knowing anything about you or your circumstances, but it sounds like you should definitely be prioritising your health more.

Thanks for that. My wife has literally said the same thing about 5 mins ago! At the moment, it’s a difficult balance. I last had leave in August 2020 and I hope to get some time off next month but that’s not guaranteed at the moment. Everything is conspiring against me!😁😁

What do you do that demands so much?

I totally understand what that feels like. I've been there myself. As has my wife.

No ducking away from it though, something needs to change.

Speaking from personal experience, you might find that you are more productive and alert if you allow yourself an hour a day to exercise.

Without specifying, I’ve been put in a position where I am the font of all knowledge! Available 24/7 to my colleagues. This follows redundancies last July when a number of experienced staff left. I am in a supervisory position in a constantly stressful job which is also public facing. Apologies for appearing cryptic. 😁

100 hr weeks is not healthy.

Its worse than that. 7 hours a day at a desk isn't healthy. We're hunter gatherers.

I would hope that you’re getting paid overtime at least....

😂😂😂😂 No

Speaking from personal experience, you might find that you are more productive and alert if you allow yourself an hour a day to exercise.

Very much this too @TGR
It's very unlikely that you're able to give anything close to your best if you're slogging away for 16 hours a day. There's plenty of evidence to support regular exercise and breaks/naps halfway through the day.
Can be tough to shift the perception that more is always better in terms of being available, but it also shows that your work have fucked up in making you a single point of failure, and I'd wager you don't have the time or headspace to do anything but react to requests right now.
Again, easy to say, but I'd expect 12 hours a day, 1 hr exercise and 3 hours more sleep would see you getting more done than 16 hours a day and no time for anything else. (and 12 hours is still a lot)

I agree. We have staffing issues to compound everything. Literally there aren’t enough hours in the day to get things done but that is the position we have been left in. I need to get something sorted to address the issues involved but currently any solution is a long way off.

If you're agreeing to work the hours you are then you're part of the problem ;)

Or, put more kindly, you need to force the issue or they'll take the piss.

@duncs I agree with you but also think this is easy to say as an outsider. Every individual case is so nuanced and we're living in pretty mad times. So whilst I would urge anyone working 16hrs per day and ostensibly putting this before their health to reconsider, I can see that this comes from a personal place of privilege.

Certainly (and I did caveat earlier up), I'm in a very fortunate position of having a house with its own office to do a job that pays me fairly well for fairly sensible hours and doesn't mind if I bunk off for a lunchtime swim every now and then. I'm definitely coming from a place of privilege.
Not implying that any of TGRs issues are trivial to fix, but I do think there's some value in reinforcing that the position he's been put in isn't just one of those things, or something he should grin and bare.

Agree that working that long isn’t optimal.
But also think that sometimes it is necessary (if not expected) for the health of the business and so on, otherwise in the not too distant future there might not be a job to do 16 hours on...
@TGR
I think it is worth trying to create some space, and try to be strict with things like not eating lunch and dinner at the desk.
If you’re office based, intentionally walking to cafe/canteen.

For actual strength training, 5-10 minutes per day seems more manageable than trying to fit in 3 longer workouts a week, so worth finding shorter duration workouts that you can do in the morning before you brush your teeth.

Bog standard sets of push-ups, crunches, squats, chin-ups (if you have a bar) and some stretching and mobilisation will definitely be better than nothing.

Thanks for all the advice. It all makes total sense. Re. Work - imagine being dropped in at the deep end and then things get even worse. Obviously my long hours are partly due to staff shortage which is not something which can be addressed overnight. They are also due to my competency in my role - who knew when you can do your job, others would ask for help!😁 My hours are not sustainable over the long term and without leave I will burn out. Things may ease slightly as my colleagues gain more experience. I have 12 years in role, next has 18 months and the last two have 6 months. With no one other than me to provide advice and guidance, things are not easy.
This thread has temporarily turning in to a Work Rant thread!
I will try and move away from my desk a bit more and stop answering emails at 4am (wife wasn’t pleased about that). It’s just such a difficult situation at the moment and there isn’t really an easy solution. The joys of COVID and work!