Overuse injuries, also known as repetitive strain injuries, can occur in any industry. Workers experience them from awkward body positions and repetitive movements for long periods. While they primarily affect the fingers, hands, and wrists, they can appear in other body parts and reduce productivity. Knowing how to prevent injuries in the workplace is one […]
Labor-intensive workplaces often accept muscle soreness as the norm. They consider it a “part of the job” and something that “comes with the territory”. While this mindset is prevalent in the industrial setting, it is far from reality. Delayed onset muscle soreness, commonly referred to as DOMS, can be mitigated and even prevented through the proper sports medicine techniques. Educating your employees, especially new hires, on prevention and management strategies for musculoskeletal issues will promote safety and productivity within your company. Here are some key insights to better understand and combat DOMS in the workplace and help reset the lower back using the WOWW resistance tool.
One of the most commonly performed tasks in the utilities industry is fastening a bucket cover. Bucket cover wear and tear— which is caused by exposure to harsh elements such as rain, wind, snow, ice, and extreme temperatures—requires the user to exert more effort in applying or removing the bucket cover. If the bucket cover is already difficult to use under “normal” conditions, then these problems will be amplified when the cover begins to deteriorate as a result of this wear and tear.
While fastening a bucket cover isn’t an inherently repetitive task in that it’s typically only performed once a day, a wide range of employees will complete this job task every day so if this is an area of risk or concern, it can have a negative impact on employee safety and injury rates. Because utility work is performed outside in the elements, the existing risk of slips, trips and falls may be compounded by the same environmental conditions that cause wear and tear to the bucket covers.
With 2020 coming to an end, many of us look to replace our old work boots with shoes that have foot arch support or at least give our feet some rest over the holiday season. The following BIOKINETIX guide on the kinetic chain and proper care provides some helpful tips to keep your feet feeling […]
Overexertion ranks first among leading causes of work-related injury. What kind of steps can employers take to address such risks before it’s too late? We’ve distilled crucial insights—from scientific research to real-time observations out in the field—into 5 key practices for work injury prevention programs you can use to better protect your employees and improve musculoskeletal health.
Stretching programs are often thought of as a “quick fix” to address increased rates of soft-tissue injuries. While pre-shift preparation continues to be an important component of a comprehensive safety program, there are better ways to make those few minutes more valuable to the employee and to the company. Based on our 15 years of helping companies develop best practices, here are four key principles we’d suggest considering—whether you’re looking to implement a pre-shift stretching program, or enhance an existing one:
Although the physical benefits of exercise are already familiar to most, new evidence suggests that combining exercise and the workplace has the greatest potential to maximize employee performance. The strongest support for this approach can be found in a recent study comparing the effects of work-based versus home-based exercise on work ability. Both programs incorporated […]
In Part I, we addressed why it’s important to help injured employees recover without interrupting the healing process.
The traditional return-to-work approach has often failed American workers, and the problem of recurrent injuries is just one example. After analyzing workers’ compensation data over a 3-year period, Liberty Mutual researchers found that a disproportionate amount of low back injuries were recurrent. Compared to those who had only been injured once, employees with recurrent injuries took longer to recover, accumulated significantly higher medical and indemnity costs, and were considered by study authors to be “an especially important target for secondary prevention efforts” [4]. Recurrent injuries can be prevented entirely by making sure employees recover properly the first time—so why are they still so common?
The aftermath of an occupational injury can be predictably arduous and time-consuming for all parties involved. Regardless of severity level, it is in the interest of both employer and employee to ensure they recover properly and resume their job tasks. But many return-to-work programs are stuck in a reactive cycle of poor recovery, recurrent injuries, and accumulating workers’ compensation costs.
Jon discusses the modern, effective methods of reducing workplace injuries with Susan Anderson from US Foods Radio. In an industrial work environment, the rigors and repetitive stress of physical tasks can cause significant wear and tear on the body. The best way to prevent this stress from turning into injury or illness is with a preventative health approach: […]