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Exercise is always an important way of taking care of your whole self, but when life gets hard and stressful, good fitness becomes even more important. As a travel nurse, it can be difficult to stick to a regular routine, but here are some simple workouts for travel nurses that you can take on the road with you.
Bodyweight Training
The best thing about bodyweight training as a travel nurse is that you do not need any equipment or a gym pass. You don’t even have to leave your residence if you don’t want to.
A fantastic free bodyweight training app is Home Workout, which is available for Android and iOS. The app has workouts for people just starting their fitness journey as well as for seasoned exercise fanatics. You can select your workout level as well as the area of the body you want to focus on. Once you make your selections, an animation will show you the exercise along with a countdown timer. There are built in break periods, and you can even extend the rests if needed.
Or you can always turn to a travel nurse’s best friend: YouTube. Here’s a great 45-minute bodyweight workout. This video is a good introduction to bodyweight training because you can easily adapt the workout routine to your level. The instructor, Leonel, does a great job of explaining how to do each exercise and provides encouragement along the way.
Some of the benefits of bodyweight training are high output with low input, better balance and flexibility, and you have control over the variety of workouts.
Running
Running is a classic workout that you don’t need much equipment for — just a good pair of running shoes. If you’re not familiar with the city or town where you’re on assignment, greatruns.com is the perfect way to find popular running routes in your area. Running is not only a great form of cardiovascular exercise that you can do at your own pace, it’s also a good way to explore places that you might not otherwise visit.
The best app for tracking running is Strava. This is a free app (upgrade available) for both iPhone and Android. This app allows you to track your progress for several different activities. You will be able to see your distance, average pace, elevation gain, and watch your progress as you get stronger and faster. You can even follow other users on the app to see what your friends have been up to with their exercise adventures.
Some of the benefits of running are building strong bones, stronger muscles, improved cardiovascular fitness, and burning plenty of calories to help you maintain a healthy weight. If you’re a newcomer to running, check out this YouTube video with helpful tips for new runners.
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HIIT
High Intensity Interval Training (HIIT) is another great form of exercise to get you moving while you are on assignment. Many of the workouts do not require any equipment. HIIT workouts are a training technique in which you give 100% effort for short periods of time and then you have a brief rest period. This type of training keeps your heart rate up and burns more fat in less time.
Although it might sound intimidating, you can still do it at your own pace and build up intensity over time. This HIIT video shows how to do the exercises when you are at different levels of fitness, while this 30–minute HIIT workout video, featuring two extremely motivational trainers, will really get you excited about working out!
Some benefits of HIIT are burning a lot of calories in a short amount of time, and your metabolic rate remains higher for hours after working out. It can help you lose fat, gain muscle, improve oxygen consumption, reduce heart rate and blood pressure, and lower your blood sugar.
Yoga
There are many different styles of yoga that you can choose from depending on the intensity and duration that you are looking for. If you are looking for a tough, sweat-it-out type of Yoga, Power Yoga is going to be your go-to. Power Yoga is a Western spin to the practice of Ashtanga Yoga, which is a challenging series of poses designed to give you a tough workout.
If you are more into something that will relax you and take the stress away from a long shift, then you might try Yoga for Nurses. In this video session, yogi Adriene has a very soothing voice and lets you get a workout and release some stress from your shift. Of course, if you are more inclined to practice yoga with others, it is easy almost anywhere you travel to find a yoga studio where you can drop in on a class. A great resource for travelers is YogaFinder.com, which features an exhaustive list of studios around the country.
It’s important to remember that with the critical work you do to keep others healthy, it’s just as important to keep yourself healthy. These workouts for travel nurses can help keep you healthy while on your next travel assignment.
Interested in learning more about travel nursing? Call us for more information at 800.866.0407 or view today’s job openings.
