Ways to Exercise on your Nursing Lunch Break
Ways to Exercise on your Nursing Lunch Break
As a hardworking nurse, you should know of effective ways to exercise on your nursing lunch break. Exercising is important to a nurse or a nursing student to help improve their health and reduce the risk of lifestyle-related diseases. It also reduces the risk of work-related injuries such as patient lifting and equipment movement. Exercising reduces stress and should be part of your self-care routine.
Exercising at Work
Even if you are on your feet all day, changes in hospitals might make you not have as many exercises as you expect to have. Most of the time a nurse will spend most of their time standing as computers and nursing stations are close to patients’ beds. It is easy to add an exercise routine on your workday by maybe parking your vehicle farther to take a walk or using the stairs instead of the elevator.
Good Workouts for Nurses
Running up the stairs.
Speed walk the hallways.
Dips and pushups on a stable desk.
Perform lunges, wall sits, and push-ups.
Staying Motivated.
There are a few highlights that can be done to make sure you stick to your exercise plan.
1.Find something you enjoy doing– this could be biking, dancing in Zumba, watching TV, or even running. What matters here is that you like it and that way you have to stick to it.
2.Grab a Friend– Working gets more fun when you have the company of friends. In this case, you will encourage each other and encourage you not to skip a session.
3.Set a Goal– set goals to work towards. It could be a certain amount of miles you want to finish while bike riding, or maybe you have several fitness sessions to attend in a month. It’s important to make it achievable for the short term so you won’t get frustrated.
4.Make it a Competition– If you happen to be a competitive person, convince a few friends and co-workers to join you. Compete to see who can get the most steps. You can use phone apps to track the number of steps you have made. You can then gift the winner by maybe buying lunch for them or get a group present.
Tips for working out in your lunch break.
- Schedule your workouts at the weekend for the week ahead. Setting a plan will help you commit to your workout. You can as well set reminders.
- Always pack your training kit the night before. It gets easier in the morning to just pick up your workout bag and go to work.
- Pack your lunch to remove temptation. Carrying a packed lunch means you don’t have to spend time in that precious hour going out to buy food which can also make you choose unhealthy food.
- Go to a gym that’s close to work. If you happen to take public transport, you run the risk of less workout time due to traffic or transportation delays.
- Bodyweight workouts mean there’s no waiting for equipment. All you need is a small amount of space and a mat.
- A 30-minute lunchtime workout is ideal. That means you have enough time to change, exercise, take a shower, get something to eat, and get back to work.
- A cold shower will help you cool down. No one would like to get back to their desk hot and sweaty so a cool quick shower helps in bringing your temperature down.
- Work out before eating. It increases body fat metabolism when you work out without too much food in your stomach.
