Are you on track with your workouts but no matter how much you exercise you still feel like you are getting nowhere? Are you in the process of preventing nursing injury? It is unfortunate, but all too common. You can be training with weights, exercising daily or just working out a day or two a week; you are doing a lot of the right things trying to get fit and be a healthy nurse, but still not seeing the success and the results you expect.
You have taken care of the big picture; you set your fitness goals, they are realistic and attainable, you are exercising consistently, you have made changes to your eating habits and you are working really hard, but you seem to be stuck.
Keep up the hard work – even if it’s tough with your busy schedule as a nurse – but start to focus on the small details of exercise and you will be amazed at the improvement in your workouts!
Details can be frustrating, especially in exercise, and may seem trivial, but they can actually keep you safe from injury and provide the maximum benefit possible for each exercise you perform!
- Start by focusing on the muscles you are working; be sure to know exactly what muscle(s) you are using during each exercise. That way you can use your mind to help focus on the muscle actually moving the weight. Make sure the movement is slow, deliberate and controlled, and performed without the assistance of momentum or gravity. Finally, during the extension, keep your elbows and knees soft.
- Breathing exercise is so important. During most exercises inhale when you are lifting and exhale when you are lowering. An easy way to remember this is to exhale on the hard part or when you are moving against gravity and inhale on the easy part or when you are moving with gravity.
- Keep your abdominal muscles contracted. This is important for 2 reasons; first by keeping your abdominal muscles contacted you are protecting your lower back and secondly you are working your abdominal muscles with an isometric exercise.
- Watch your grip, keep it loose! One of my favorite tips is to lift your first finger which takes the pressure off your forearms and allows you to focus more on the muscle you are working. This will also prevent you from having nursing injuries.
- The last exercise detail I want to discuss is posture and keeping a neutral position during exercise. The following are general guidelines for proper postures when performing exercises standing, lying down and seated. I always encourage my clients to do a quick body check, from their feet to their head, before they start an exercise.
Standing Exercises:
- Feet hips distance apart
- Soft Knees
- Abs tight
- Chest lifted
- Shoulders down
- Head neutral
Lying Exercises:
- Both feet flat on the floor
- Abs tight
- Low back, shoulders & head on the bench
Seated Exercises:
- Both feet flat on the floor
- Back flat
- Abs tight
- Chest lifted
- Shoulders down
- Head neutral
Whether you are doing strength training for nurses, just working out to stay in shape and prevent injury, or weight loss is your goal, the “devil,” as they say, is in the details. I’m confident that the little extra time it takes to focus on the minutiae of your exercise routine, no matter what you are working to achieve, will pay off, and pay off big.