Since going back to work at the hospital my days consist of getting up at 4am and going nonstop until 7pm – taking care of patients on the wards, delivering babies, going to the operating room, and running mass casualty drills in the ER. You can tell this does not leave much time for anything else, let alone sleep. So I have found it hard to be able to keep up a routine physical training program. Exercise is such an important component of my life that I decided if I couldn’t find time to exercise outside the hospital, I would have to find ways to exercise within the hospital. So the following is Dr. Baldwin’s guide to hospital exercise (feel free to tailor this to your workplace).
Tip #1 – Never Take the Elevator
Naval Hospital Camp Pendleton has 9 floors counting the basement. There are two main stairwells and one bay of six elevators. As a Family Medicine Resident I am constantly roaming around from floor to floor checking on patients, checking on labs results and studies, going to get medications, and responding to pages from the ER. I always take the stairs. It’s a tremendous workout and it’s quicker than taking the elevator. You wouldn’t believe the number of people that are willing to wait for the elevator just to go up or down one floor! Lazy lazy lazy. This past week I have been making a workout out of my stair routine. Each time I enter the stairwell I go to the very top, do a max effort of pushups, and squats, and then descend to the floor I was headed to in the first place. My legs and pectorals are feeling stronger already.
Tip #2 – Bring Your Yoga Mat
Anywhere you can fit your Yoga mat, you can do a workout. Whether it is in the broom closet, in the hallway of your clinic, or in an empty patient room on the ward, all you really need is 3 ft x 7 ft area and you can get a good, quick stretch and core workout done. This week I brought in my green yoga mat and stashed it in my office to have ready for use. Mid-day when my fellow doctors go to lunch I grab my yoga mat and head to an empty room and practice some downward facing dog and shivasana. I’ll throw in some push-ups and sit-ups for good measure. Do Yoga for lunch and you’ll feel much better in the afternoon.
Tip #3 – Deep Lunge 400’s
Last month I was on the Labor and Delivery Deck pretty much all the time. Delivering babies is a tremendous experience and honor. But in between those moments of bliss, there is a lot of time spent watching rhythm strips, checking vital signs and monitoring the patients’ progress. During this time I found the path around the Labor Deck to resemble a track and a great place to do Deep Lunge 400’s as I call them (like a 400m around the track). After doing two laps initially (that’s two Deep Lunge 400’s) I was already feeling it in my quads and hamstrings. The next day I don’t think I’ve ever been so sore. The conclusion I drew was you get a lot of bang for your buck with this workout. So even though I am no longer on the Labor and Delivery Deck I still go down to the 2nd floor and do Deep Lunge 400’s around the L&D “Track”.
Tip #4 – Sneak Away, Bring Your Pager
While in Medical School in San Francisco on rotation at the VA Hospital (near the ocean), I remember one day seeing that the Chief Resident’s hair was soaking wet and I asked him why. He told me he had just been surfing. I said “What?!” and he went on to tell me how he went surfing all the time and would put his pager in double plastic bags and stick it in his sealed pocket. “If someone needs me I just get out of the water, throw my scrubs on and I’m there.” This just proved to me that you can sneak away for a bit and workout and most of the time people never even notice. Last week, I made a discovery. I found some weights and an old exercise bike on the top floor of the hospital in a back room, and so I’ve been sneaking up there when there is a lull in the action to get my sweat on! No one has noticed (or smelled) where I’ve been yet. Maybe I should take a break at the pool nearby. I’ll just have to be sure to double bag my pager.
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