By Alyce CollinsĀ Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā
THIS NURSE trains in the gym for TWO HOURS a day despite countless hours spent on a busy ward and says men are often surprised when they find out she can lift more than them.

Emergency nurse, Paige Mills (24) from Melbourne, Australia regularly sharesher fitness regime with her 230K Instagram followers asshe works out six days a week, on top of working 40 hours with patients.

Paige has worked as a registered nurse for three years sincegraduating, also working with patients in rehabilitation which has fulfilledher goal of having an impact on other peoplesā lives.
Although she is incredibly busy at work, Paige thrives offthe chaos and feels that the constant busyness is what keeps her mind and bodystimulated.
Paige enjoys the chaos of working in a hospital as it keeps her on her toes. MDWfeatures / Paige Mills
Paige first found her love for fitness when she finished hernursing degree which made her feel inactive, making her want to burn off energyin the gym. Now, Paige works out for five or six days a week, for two hourseach day.
Her dedicated fitness regime is all thanks to Paige notowning a TV aerial at home which means she has plenty more time to work outbecause she doesnāt watch any television.

Through nursing, Paige has learnt to appreciate her fitnessas she deals with patients who may never even walk again. Even during longperiods of consecutive night shifts Paige manages to maintain her fitnessregime as she can squat 155kg and deadlift 152kg.Ā
āAt first I wanted to get a degree for the self-actualisationof doing it, but I decided I wanted to do something where I could have animpact on peopleās lives instead,ā said Paige.

āIāve also tried out hospitality, driving trucks, being adancer and a builderās labourer, but then I found nursing and I also do somefitness modelling now too.
āI studied to be a nurse for three years at university whileI also worked as a carer in a nursing home, but Iāve now been a registerednurse for three years since.

āI love the chaos of it ā being on my feet and doing amillion things at once keeps my body and mind stimulated.
āHaving gone from very physically demanding jobs before tothen studying and working as a nurse made me feel very sedentary, so I feltlike I needed to burn off some energy. Thatās when I first found fitness andjoined a gym.

āNow I will work out for two hours a day, five or six days aweek. It can be hard to keep up with my routine sometimes when Iāmtransitioning from day shifts to night shifts and when Iām sleep deprived.
āIn nursing we arenāt allowed to manually lift patients, sothe strength isnāt as handy as you may think, but back injuries are supercommon among nurses. I think powerlifting has taught me the correct liftingtechniques, so hopefully Iāll never have a work-related back injury.

āI hear people say they donāt have the time to go to the gym,yet they watch two to three hours of television a day. Whereas I donāt have atelevision aerial at home, so I guess thereās time for anything you love if youmake it a priority, and training comes first for me of course.ā
Paige spoke about how she makes sure her diet fuels her busyschedule and ensuring she can recover properly.

Patients will often comment on Paigeās muscly physique andmen are frequently surprised to find out that she can lift more than they can.
āBefore I started lifting, I wasnāt able to distinguishbetween a woman with muscle and a woman carrying excess fat. But now I veryoften get patients commenting on my muscles,ā said Paige.

āThe reaction I get from men is often saying āwow, you canlift more than meā. But I think people who have known me forever arenātsurprised that I ended up being somewhat of a public figure because Iāve neverbeen afraid of the limelight. Iām a pretty open person.
āI eat so much ā I try to eat a lot of protein andcarbohydrates to fuel my workouts. If I donāt eat enough, I wonāt perform wellin training, which makes me feel frustrated. I usually eat around 2000 to 3000calories a day.
āNursing has taught me not to take any physical abilities forgranted. I donāt think people realise that there are people my age who are instroke wards or in nursing homes and theyāll never walk or talk again.

āYou should exercise to celebrate your capacity to do so, andlove your body for what it can do, not for how it looks.ā
You can follow Paigeās fitness regime by checking out herInstagram, @bikerbiddie.