Squeeze Fitness Into Your Busy Nursing Schedule With These Tips

Work-life balance is not always easy to manage around a nursing schedule.

If you work in a hospital, you could be scheduled for any day of the week, mornings, afternoons, or nights, and up to twelve-hour shifts.

While your employer may offer you some consistency in your shifts, especially as you commit more years to the field, it’s hard to find time for yourself around your schedule.

Your shifts at the hospital or clinic can often be chaotic and leave you both emotionally and physically exhausted afterward.

That’s when you have to go home to take care of your family, eat, sleep, and repeat the cycle.

It’s easy for nurses and healthcare professionals to enter ruts where they have little time to take care of themselves and this health, which is why nurses commonly face health issues like heart disease, high blood sugar, sleeping disorders, and more.

If you are not in a healthy physical or mental condition, you could find yourself struggling through your shifts and unable to meet your potential in your profession.

Why Prioritize Exercising in Your Scheduling

Physical fitness is essential for nurses to include around their busy schedule because it improves their physical condition and has mental health benefits.

The problem is that it’s challenging to find the time and energy to fit fitness around your shifts and at-home responsibilities.

However, you just need at least 150 minutes of aerobic exercise and about ten minutes’ worth of strength training per week to maintain a healthy lifestyle, according to the Mayo Clinic.

While this is a lot to do at once, you can easily distribute your weeks’ worth of exercising.

This will have physical benefits to improve your endurance and energy levels during your shifts, boost your mental wellness, and also set a positive example for your patients who are encouraged to manage their own health.

Here are some ways you can fit fitness around your busy nursing schedule:

Choose the Best Exercise Plan for You

To help you remain accountable when squeezing exercise into your week, establish a plan.

Your plan should be realistic and work for you and your workout preferences.

You may feel distracted with fitness social media accounts showing people going to the gym for two hours daily at 5 am and think that this is what you need to do to stay healthy, but it’s not.

This type of routine could be too overwhelming and less achievable, especially when introducing fitness around your nursing schedule.

That’s why you should build a routine that you’ll be more likely to follow:

• Think of what time you will be more willing to work out.
  Are you more of a morning person who feels energetic and ready to get
  moving after waking up? Or, do you feel more motivated to exercise in the
  evenings after work?

• What are your fitness goals, and what type of exercise will help you
  achieve them?

• What workouts do you enjoy doing more?

Your fitness routine is personal.

It should be focused on what is manageable for you to follow and give you the results you want.

You don’t want to feel intimidated by exercise.

Instead, you should establish a plan that makes you excited and motivated to squeeze fitness around your busy schedule.

Workout at Home

If you don’t have the time to make a trip to the gym, you can remain active by working out at home.

Whether you have the equipment or not, there are plenty of resources and solutions for exercising at home.

Follow Youtube videos or use fitness apps that will guide you through Pilates, aerobics, yoga, and even indoor running.

These will save you money on classes and leave you with more time as you no longer need to drive to the fitness center or gym to exercise.

Working out from home is convenient.

With so many workouts available online, you have a variety available to choose your workout length from five minutes to one hour or more.

Whatever time-crunch you are under, you can always fit a home workout.

Exercise at Work

Working a 12-hour shift?

Or were you too busy with home chores or family time to exercise?

You can squeeze in a few fitness activities while at work.

While you may not have the time to set aside at work for a full workout, there are ways you can add fitness to your shifts to help you manage your physical and mental health:

• Rather than taking the elevator, take the stairs to build leg muscles and
  get your heart pumping.

• Speed walk through hallways (without obstacles around you) rather than
  slow strolling, or try lunge-walking.

• A one-minute wall-sitting session makes an incredible difference in
  building strength.

Participate in a Fitness Initiative With Fellow Nurses

The other nurses on your team are likely experiencing similar obstacles in including exercise in their schedule.

By joining forces together, you can motivate each other and stay motivated and committed to your fitness journey.

You can make the mission more fun by adding some competition or awards to the mix.

Go for walks with your coworkers, or take to the gym together to hold each other accountable. You don’t need to go through this journey alone.

Fit Learning Around Your Busy Schedule, Too!

As you find ways to maintain your physical health around your schedule, you’ll notice yourself having more energy and feeling more alert than ever.

Take advantage of your mental clarity by renewing your certifications with online learning.

Through ProMed Certifications, you can earn your ACLS, PALS, BLS, and CPR training from the comfort of your home.

You can accomplish your training in a flash or pause your progress and pick it up whenever you have the time to add learning to your busy schedule.

With ProMed, you have a 100% money-back guarantee, so there’s no harm in starting your courses now.

Optimize your free time with ProMed. Visit our website today.