How many of you entered into the career of a diagnostic medical sonographer with the intent of eventually retiring and living comfortably after 20+ years? Me too! The reality is very few of us make it to 10 years, let alone 20 in this field. Without giving you copious amounts of statistics and a personal sob story that I am sure most of you can relate to, the fact is we are all incredibly prone to injury. After just 6 years of scanning, I have shoulder, back, elbow, and wrist pain daily. After sending out my own personal survey, I was able to verify that almost 100% of you can relate to this discomfort.

For the past 5 years, I have been a huge fitness advocate devoting my time to bettering myself and those looking to live a healthier lifestyle. Just a few weeks ago it clicked; why not incorporate my love for fitness into my love for sonography?! I took on the challenge by recording some of my upper body, specifically shoulder workouts that I had been doing lately in the gym. With increased BMIs, shorter scan durations, and increased patient loads, we need to take care of ourselves first and foremost. I feel incorporating physical training and stretching would prolong our careers and our quality of life.

Some of you are probably wondering how you can incorporate working out after a busy day, but when you make small changes daily, you do get stronger. Strength, in turn, makes scanning easier and ultimately decreases your pain. My arms are twice the size they were when I started scanning 6 years ago. Through yoga, stretching, and these upper body workouts my body now has a way of protecting my joints that are most susceptible to injury.

Can you believe the solution to our injuries has been to find a new career!!? I did not go to college for 4 years and work my butt off to just “find a new career.” Let’s work together on improving our own personal health and let’s start with these shoulder strength exercises.

I challenge you to find 3 days a week to do the following exercises seen in the linked video and listed below:

• Resistance band warm-ups
• Bicep and hammer curls
• Pulley lateral raise
• Bent over lateral raise
• Barbell upright rows
• Machine shoulder press

**Start with 10 repetitions and 2 sets of each exercise and increase those numbers each week.

I absolutely love posting my fitness journey, including great workouts that will have you thanking me later. You can find me on Instagram: @_sonographer_squats_ or by email: shaunadittl@gmail.com. Below, I posted my shoulder workout that will help you through the list I mentioned above, as well as the link to my survey.

Survey:

https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/fitbysonographersquats

Interesting Survey Results:

Shoulder Workout Video: