Being a Nurse Requires Some Heavy Lifting
Clad in navy hospital scrubs, Geremy Wooten, 34, was making the rounds in the ICU at the Wellstar Douglas Hospital in the Atlanta area when he heard an alarm down the hall. He sprinted into the room just as a heart patient who weighed more than 500 pounds was rolling off a bed. “I caught him in a half-squat position and just held him there,” he says.
Ten seconds passed, then 20. He spent easily a half minute maxing out before help arrived.
Such feats aren’t uncommon for the 5'10", 195-pound clinical nurse leader. Wooten works up to ten-hour shifts hoisting people too hurt or sedated to move from bed to bed—about eight to 10 times a day.
It’s not all muscle, either. “If you’re going to last in this work, you have to know body mechanics and leverage,” Wooten says. Typically, it takes two hospital workers to move a patient. They line a bed up with the patient’s cot and stand on opposite sides to grasp the sheet beneath the patient. Then they lift a few inches, slowly shift the person over, and gently set them down.
Core strength is paramount, especially when one worker leans over to nudge the patient to the new bed. Wooten’s way to build it: 4:00 a.m. workouts full of HIIT, dynamic lifts, kettlebell exercises, and yoga in his garage gym. “I have to practice what I preach,” he says. And be ready for anything.
Lift like a nurse
Place a heavy sandbag on the floor and straddle it. With a flat back, squat and grab the bag around the middle with both hands. Thrust your hips forward and stand, flipping the bag backward onto your right shoulder. Reverse the move, lowering the bag to the floor, and repeat, lifting the bag to your left shoulder. Work up to 3 sets of 6.
This story originally appeared in the May 2020 issue of Men’s Health.
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