Do you think your job is strenuous?

Maybe you go to the gym outside of work which could be perceived as significantly more physically challenging than the tasks in your job itself. However, often overlooked is the fact that our exposure to recreational exercise is typically only 3-5 hours per week – not the 40-60 hours per week that we spend at work.

In many occupations – particularly in sectors such as aged/disability care, health services, factory, warehousing and construction – employees are required to be very active, complete hours of heavy, repetitive twisting and lifting throughout their shifts and yet never think to compare this to a sporting activity (in which they would invariably include a warm-up). Notably, lower back pain and shoulder injuries are becoming more common place in these environments.

Why Warm-Up?

The cost of work-related injuries is staggering, and smart companies are constantly exploring ways to reduce the risk of injuries in the workplace. One often overlooked strategy is the warm-up.  An astonishing number of worker’s compensation is made up of claims for neck, upper back and wrist injuries which permeate these workplaces.

The Health and Safety Executive estimates that there were 223,000 cases of work-related back problems in 2014-15 and that some 2.9 million working days were lost due to work-related back pain at an average of 13 working days lost per sufferer.

Workplace injuries are often anecdotally attributed to fatigue, so it is worthwhile to question whether a warm-up is actually valuable in a work environment. Yet studies have noted that injuries often occur early in a shift, rather than towards the end.

For example, one famous evaluation of nurses found that 63 percent of back injuries happened during the first two hours of an eight-hour shift. This suggests that the injuries were not a result of muscular fatigue, but more likely of inadequate preparation.

It has also been determined in a separate study that nurses who had not received any education on low back pain, who remained standing for long periods of time, who performed interventions that required bending forward, who lifted and repositioned patients, and who did not use any aiding equipment during interventions, experienced more pain and had higher average pain scores.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3955545/

Warm-ups help prevent strains and sprains

In the world of sports and in military training, research has repeatedly demonstrated that athletes perform better and injuries decrease when they complete moderate warm-up exercises shortly before their event.

How does this routine apply to workplace injury prevention?

Five to 10 minutes of moderate warm-up exercise, done before starting physical activity, is a safe and effective way to reduce the likelihood and severity of injuries, particularly when related to joints and muscle tissue.

Moderation is key when warming up. Any warm-up exercise, when done at too high an intensity or for too long, can result in muscle fatigue that reduces the benefits of the exercise.

Try our workplace warm up workshop

Take a few minutes before you begin your working day by preparing your body and mind for work with a pre-shift warm-up routine.

Ebb&Flow Corporate Wellness bring the latest in sports medicine to your workplace, driving incredible results in injury prevention as well as encouraging employees to pursue healthy lifestyles and prioritise well-being. Our sustainable exercise and warm-up programs are supported by in-depth training that emphasises methodology and practical application for employees, management, and occupational health & safety leaders.