The stiff legs thing after a run of night shifts finally got old enough that I tried doing something about it instead of just waiting it out.
What’s been working – the moment my shift ends, before I sit down anywhere, I lean against the hallway wall and run through a calf stretch and a quad stretch on each side. Takes barely any time. The actual trick isn’t the stretch, it’s doing it before my body decides it’s done moving for the day.
Sitting down first was always my mistake. Once I’m on the couch, getting back up to stretch feels impossible, and then I’m stiff through the whole next walk too.
Half the apartment is in boxes from packing for the move, so there’s no real floor space left, but the hallway wall still works fine. No equipment, no room needed.
It’s not gone completely, some mornings after shifts are still rough, but the walk afterward doesn’t feel like starting from scratch anymore. Worth keeping up even once the move settles down.