June 25, 2022

The Ultimate Workout for Nurses

Nursing is a physically demanding career which leaves nurses vulnerable to injury. Self-care in the form of strength training can reduce this risk, but it is difficult for nurses to fit into their busy schedules. Learn why it is important for nurses to exercise, and why X3 is the ultimate workout for nurses.

Why Nurses Need Strength Training

Why Nurses Need Strength Training

Nurses work long shifts, often standing on their feet for 12 hours at a time with limited opportunity for rest. Standing for long periods and the physical demands of lifting, carrying and helping patients walk leaves nurses vulnerable to occupational injury.

According to studies, the two most common nursing-related injuries are lower back and spinal injuries as a result of overexertion, and falls, trips and slips in the work place. The risk of injury increases nearly 4-fold for nurses who participate in lifting and transferring patients.1

Because of their busy schedules, the best workouts for busy nurses are those that require minimal time and equipment.

Due to long shifts of 12 hours or more, often overnight, nurses are also at risk of sleep loss. Lack of overnight sleep leads to increased rates of obesity and diabetes among nurses, despite their education on the matters and the pressure to serve as role models of health.2

Consistent exercise, particularly strength training, can boost the health of nurses and prevent on-the-job injury by improving strength, balance and sleep. Strength training is also a very good way to lose weight.

Injury Prevention: Strength training protects against low back pain and reduces the risk of injury in the low-back, hip and knees. Studies find fewer than 10% of nurses meet the recommended strength requirements for safe job performance.3

Balance Improvement: Strength training not only helps nurses improve muscular endurance, but flexibility, mobility and balance. This can help prevent falls, the 2nd highest cause of workplace injury for nurses.

Better Sleep: Strength training may be more effective than aerobic exercise when it comes to improving sleep quality.4 Better sleep protects against illness, chronic disease, cognitive decline, fatigue and injury.

Increased Energy: Strength training boosts muscular endurance, which improves nurses’ energy throughout the day. This, combined with improvements to sleep, may help reduce burnout, which is significantly correlated with a decrease in job performance.5

Weight Loss: Over 50% of nurses in the United States are overweight or obese.6 Strength training is an effective means of losing weight, especially for nurses. At the end of a 12-hour shift, cardiovascular exercise is contraindicated, as it further increases cortisol, the stress hormone. Stress drains nurses of energy and leads to non-compliance with workout routines. Resistance exercise, on the other hand, improves energy expenditure (fat burning) as well as energetic balance throughout the day.7

How to Workout as a Nurse

How to Workout as a Nurse

Unfortunately, nurses are less healthy than the average population. High levels of stress, long work hours and less sleep put nurses at risk for obesity. As the health of nurses declines, so too does the health of the nation.

Despite the knowledge nurses have regarding obesity and the risk of chronic illness and injury, few nurses are able to make the time for self-care. Exhausted at the end of a 12-hour shift, with personal and family obligations waiting, it is difficult to get to the gym.

Nurses need an effective means of building strength and losing weight that won’t take hours out of their day, leave them feeling even more stressed and fatigued, or increase their risk of injury.

Fortunately, resistance training with the X3 Bar system offers a way for nurses to workout, before, after or during their long shifts.

The Ultimate Solution for MaximizingMuscle and Minimizing Body Fat

Why X3 Is the Best Workout for Nurses

Why X3 Is The Best Workout for Nurses

X3 is simply the best way to build strength, for anyone. No matter your fitness goals, building strength will help you get there. Resistance training is effective for improved body composition, increased mobility, and weight loss.

The Best Way to Build Strength

Not all methods of resistance training are equal. Resistance training with traditional free weights not only requires hours of dedication each day, but limits your capacity for strength building. This is because free weights work on the principle of static resistance. No matter what point you’re at in your lift, the resistance your weight provides remains the same.

At the base of your squat for example, when your knees and low back are the most compromised, you’re pushing against the same resistance that’s offered mid-way through the movement as you reach your strongest, impact-ready posture. Each lift is limited by the amount of weight you can safely move when you’re at your weakest.

Variable Resistance With X3 Bar

The X3 bar uses powerful, closed-loop latex bands to provide variable resistance instead*.* With X3, the resistance delivered at the weakest point of your lift is lighter, reducing your risk of injury. As you progress through the motion and enter a stronger posture, the bands stretch, creating more tension.

X3 follows the natural energy and power curves of the body, to give you more resistance when and where it’s most useful.

In addition to Variable resistance, X3 provides the exact conditions needed to cue muscle growth. Training with bands provides constant tension. There’s no resting at the top or bottom of your lift. As you perform each exercise to exhaustion, continuing to move with a diminishing range of motion sets the stage for optimal results.

Not all resistance bands are created equal. X3 surpasses the others by offering the strongest, safest latex bands available. A stabilizing ground plate and an Olympic-like steel bar offer a familiar, comfortable grip and make your workout safer.

X3 Saves Time

Nurses are short on time and energy. With the X3 bar system, your workout takes less than 20 minutes per day. Thanks to the 3 principles of variable resistance, constant tension and diminishing range, one set of X3 exercises is all you need.

X3’s repeatable, 12-week workout program alternates push days with pull days. Just 4 daily exercises, performed for one set each, offer an effective, total body workout in very little time.

X3 Saves Space

Because the X3 bar is so small, it functions well as a portable gym. Store it anywhere for a quick workout before or after work, or keep it at your workplace and use it on your breaks. X3 also makes sense for traveling nurses, for whom a gym membership is nearly impossible.

Reduces Risk of Injury

Nurses can’t afford to get hurt. Even a minor musculoskeletal injury can prevent nurses from performing their job duties, requiring days off work. At a time of an ongoing nationwide nursing shortage, a missed work day means patients will suffer.

Resistance training is well-known for being hard on joints, just as nursing is. But with X3, this risk is greatly reduced by lightening the load in joint-compromised positions and triggering the recruitment of joint-stabilizing muscle groups.

Summary

Nurses are overworked, stressed and in poor health. Strength training can improve their quality of life and performance on the job, but nursing leaves very little time for self-care.

The X3 Bar System is not only the most effective resistance-training device, but the X3 workout takes only 20 minute per day, which is ideal for busy nurses.

Strength training with X3 is the best workout for nurses not only because it improves their lives, but because it fits their lives as they are right now, making it easy to use.

With X3, you train with greater force to trigger Greater Gains

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