Ergonomics awareness training is one of the most essential elements of an effective ergonomics process. After all, the success of your ergonomics process hinges on your team’s ability to find and fix the ergonomics problems in your work environment.
Your team members out on the shop floor are the real workplace improvement experts. Engage them in the ergonomics process to heighten awareness, generate improvement ideas and build a positive safety culture.
Ergonomics awareness training is a great first step you can take to engage your shop floor employees. Employee learning objectives in your ergonomics training program are:
- Learn MSD (musculoskeletal disorder) risk factors and MSD prevention principles
- Learn proper body mechanics and lifting technique
- Learn to report early discomfort and signs of MSDs
- Learn ergonomic risk factors and basic ergonomic principles
- Learn to accept responsibility for personal health and wellness
Free ergonomics awareness training slides
You can download the ergonomics training slides at the bottom of this post. Click here to download. Enjoy!
MSD is an acronym for the term Musculoskeletal Disorder or Movement System Disorder. MSDs are injuries and disorders that have a negative affect on the human body’s movement or musculoskeletal system.
The musculoskeletal or movement system of the human body is made up of many individual parts moving together in a highly coordinated fashion. The movement system is made up of muscles, tendons, ligaments, nerves, discs, blood supply, and structures that support limbs, neck and back – which all work together to sustain postures, move your body, and help you accomplish virtually everything that you do throughout the day. Just think of the miraculous machines that we use everyday! None of us would want our movement system “machine” to end up rusty and tired, dysfunctional, or injured.
I want you to think for just a moment about how important your body’s movement system is to you. How would you earn a living wage without it? How would you enjoy your life to the fullest without it, or without a part of it? The truth is, without a well-oiled movement system machine… we’d be in big trouble.
You’ve likely heard the saying that goes something like this – “Take care of your body. It’s the only place you have to live.” This is truth. You have but one body in this life, and you want it to last a lifetime. The way you care for it, is how it will serve you. If you’re hard on it and don’t take care of it, there are consequences to that neglect and it will be hard on you. To help our movement system run as the well-oiled machine it’s designed to be, we need to stay focused on caring for it with the caution and concern that it deserves. When in comes to our quality of life, taking care of our movement system should be a top priority.
The cumulative financial and human costs of these injuries is staggering. Companies spend billions of dollars on medical costs and lose billions more on lost productivity. More importantly workers have to deal with a painful injury, prescription medications, injections, surgery and all of the other very negative consequences from unnecessary and preventable MSD.
Most MSDs develop over a span of many days and weeks, and sometimes months or even years. Carpal tunnel doesn’t happen overnight, and tendonitis doesn’t typically develop in a day.
This graphic is what we call the MSD Curve, which shows that MSDs develop as a result of an imbalance between fatigue and recovery. MSDs are caused by exposure to a number of different risk factors over a period of time, leading to chronic soft tissue (or muscle/tendon) fatigue outpacing our body’s ability to recover and repair.
If fatigue outruns recovery over time… over days, weeks, and months… fatigue can turn into inflammation, then muscle tightness, then discomfort, then pain, then MS structure imbalances, and finally lost function is the result.
We’ve seen many different approach to MSDs, but they can all be put into two buckets: reactive or proactive. Let’s explore the outcomes from each.
This is the “wait and see” reactive approach to MSD management. And it usually results in a major “Oops!”. Unfortunately, this is how much of the current system works.
The current system for managing MSD is reactive and upside down! Passive treatment methods like drugs and surgery are NOT the best way to manage MSDs. This treatment model is failing. It fails people who work hard for a living and it fails organizations who collectively spend billions of dollars treating musculoskeletal disorders and injuries each year.
It’s a myth that prescription drugs, injections, and surgery is the best healthcare that we can get. Not true! The best healthcare is to take care of our bodies and to take measures to prevent disorders and injuries to our movement system.
“If people are constantly falling off a cliff, you could place ambulances under the cliff – or build a fence on the top of the cliff. We have too many ambulances under the cliff.“ ~Dr. Denis Burkitt, Medical Researcher
For too long, we’ve experienced a reactive approach to the MSD problem. The reactive approach places an ambulance at the bottom of the cliff and waits for people to develop pain and dysfunction of their movement system, and then employs passive treatment methods like drugs, injections, and surgery that do not address MSD risk factors or root causes. Landing at the bottom of the cliff is PAINFUL, and the so-called remedies offered by the medical treatment industry often fall short of providing a complete restoration of function.
To avoid the need for invasive treatments like injections and surgery, we need to be PROACTIVE! We need to provide and heed “warning” signs, build a strong fence, and put up safety nets just in case. We need to THINK PREVENTION! This is the best way to keep people safe, and is by far the best way to manage MSD. The best answer to the MSD problem is MSD PREVENTION!
Let’s avoid the ambulance at the bottom of the cliff! The best way to prevent MSD is to build a strong fence by staying well and fit for the work you have chosen.
You’ve likely heard of other names for MSDs such as repetitive motion disorder, repetitive strain injury, repetitive trauma disorder, ergonomic injury, and many more.
There is no single cause of MSD! It’s not accurate to say that MSD injuries are caused by repetition or ergonomics alone, so we shouldn’t use the terminology “repetitive motion injury”, “overuse injury” or “ergonomic injury” because they imply a singular cause and therefore a singular solution. This is not the best prevention strategy.
An MSD is an MSD. A comprehensive approach to prevention is required to prevent these injuries to the musculoskeletal system.
The only way to prevent something is to know what caused it, understand what caused it, and then eliminate those causes.
It’s hard to prevent something if you don’t understand the causation. So here’s a very important question. What causes MSDs? The answer to this question lays the foundation for an effective MSD prevention strategy. We need to know what the risk factors for MSD are – in order to build a strong and effective fence that will keep us safe.
It’s important to understand the causes and results of movement system fatigue, so we can better understand the “why” behind many of the MSD prevention techniques and strategies that we will be discussing later in this training program.
There are many factors that can lead to movement system fatigue. Some of these factors include fluid loss and dehydration, poor blood circulation, poor muscle fitness levels, micro wear and tear on muscles from intense exertion, depletion of glycogen (fuel needed for muscle contraction), and an accumulation lactate or lactic acid in the muscles and other soft tissues.
Here’s a simple illustration to explain the cause of muscle fatigue related to lactic acid accumulation. Your car’s engine burns fuel (gasoline) to do work like pushing it down the highway or up a hill. The by-product of burning gasoline is fumes which contain a toxic gas called carbon monoxide. In much the same way, the engine of the human movement system, the muscles, also burn fuel (glycogen) to do work like moving and holding things.
Just as your car produces toxic waste from the burning of fuel for energy, your body’s muscles also produce a toxic waste product is lactate or commonly called lactic acid. Over time, if this lactic acid accumulation persists frequently enough in the soft tissues, muscle fatigue, inflammation, muscle tightness (contracture), and movement system imbalance and dysfunction will result.
After a period of work and fatigue, comes a period of rest and recovery.
Then the next day, more work and more fatigue.
Then rest and recovery.
Then work and fatigue.
If your movement system is exposed to risk factors and fatigue outruns recovery over the course of days, weeks, months, or years… a musculoskeletal imbalance is formed that eventually develops into an MSD. You can see movement system health steadily declining in the graph above reflecting the imbalance. That is what’s happening each time your body’s recovery can’t keep up with the fatigue it undergoes throughout the day.
So what are the risk factors that you’re being exposed to that cause fatigue to outrun recovery?
Workplace ergonomic risk factors such as awkward postures, excessive forces, and high task repetition, especially in combination, can certainly place workers at increased risk of developing an MSD. When a high percentage of workers are experiencing discomfort and pain from the same job task, it’s likely that an ergonomic improvement opportunity exists.
It’s also important to recognize that not everyone with ergonomic exposures at work develops a MSD, and not everyone that develops an MSD is exposed to ergonomic risk factors at work. In most cases, individual risk factors such as poor work practices, poor physical fitness levels, and poor health habits play a significant part in the development of an MSD.
The more risk factors you are exposed to, the higher your likelihood is to develop a musculoskeletal imbalance and eventually an MSD.
So now that we understand what an MSD is and what causes them, we can start to put our prevention strategy in place.
To prevent MSDs, we need to reverse the equation and help your movement system’s rest and recovery to outrun fatigue this time in order to get to peak health and performance.
On the left, in the reactive approach, your body is exposed to risk factors and health is declining.
On the right, in the proactive approach, controls are put in place so that your body is not exposed to risk factors, allowing your body’s ability to recover to outrun fatigue and achieve better health.
Ergonomic controls are put in place to reduce ergonomic risk factors: excessive force, awkward postures, and high repetition. This is part of your company’s responsibility to provide a safe work environment.
And here’s the good news: You are the ergonomics expert for your job, and we want your help and input in the ergonomics process. When you recognize ergonomic risk factors, please do let us know.
Individual controls are part of an industrial athlete’s responsibility to care for their body and movement system. These controls include warming up for work, staying fit and healthy, and using good work practices and technique.
When comprehensive control measures are proactively put in place – meaning both ergonomic and individual controls – root causes of fatigue are eliminated and peak health and human performance is achieved.
We want to have you be involved in the ergonomics process! You are the expert at your job and we need you to let us know how we can make it better for you. Ergonomic improvements will make your job and your life much easier. Get involved!
How can you do that? Recognize and report risks related to workplace ergonomics. We will follow up by conducting an ergonomic risk assessment. If there is a risk, we’ll ask your input on ways we can reduce risk and make your job easier for you.
Professional athletes get tired and sore from practice all the time. When they do, they go to their athletic trainer for help and recommendations on how they can care for themselves to get ready for practice the next day.
The same thing is true for industrial athletes. If you experience any excessive fatigue or discomfort, let us know! Your onsite athletic trainer will work with you to review self-care tools and techniques as well as evaluate your job for any ergonomic risk factors that might exist.
Daily pre-shift stretching – proven to reduce injuries.
Stretching increases blood supply and nutrients to joint structures, and helps your body remove toxic metabolic waste products.
Stretching increases soft tissue temperature and allows for greater elasticity of tissues.
Stretching increases joint synovial fluid (lubricant for bones and cartilage) that allows greater range of motion and reduces joint degeneration.
Stretching increases a joint’s ability to move through a greater range of motion with less energy required to do so.
Stretching decreases resistance in tendons and muscles.
Athletes stretch… so should we!
Make sure you’re doing your job properly so you don’t introduce any unnecessarily risk factors! Remember the primary ergonomic risk factors: force, posture, and repetition.
The power zone for lifting is close to the body, between mi-thigh and mid-chest height. This zone is where the arms and back can lift the most with the least amount of effort.
Working from the power / comfort / handshake zone ensures that you are working from proper heights and reaches, which reduces MSD risk factors and allows for more efficient and pain-free work.
Staying hydrated is one of the most important things you can do for your health! Dehydration of the muscles and tendons is a primary cause of muscle fatigue, strain, and tendonitis.
In addition, there are many other health benefits:
Staying hydrated…
Helps remove toxins
Increases immune system
Increases joint lubrication
Gives muscles an energy boost
Helps prevent heart disease & stroke
Helps prevent headaches and memory loss
Improves skin health
How much water do you need every day? Most experts agree that this simple formula is a great measuring stick that should be used as a water intake goal.
Your Body Weight ➗ 2 = oz. of water per day
(Example: 160 pounds ➗ 2= 80 oz. of water per day)
Eating healthy foods is one of the most important weapons we have to fight against injury and illness. The foods we choose to eat determine what our bodies look like on the outside and how well our body functions on the Inside.
We should eat fewer “empty” calories from dead or processed foods like…
Refined sugar
Soft drinks
Refined grains
Fats & Oils
High fat meats
Creams
Fried foods
We should and eat more calories from nutrient rich living foods like…
Bright colored veggies
Harvested whole fresh fruits
Whole grains
Good nuts & seeds
Good fats & oils
Lean meats & omega-3 fish
Rest and sleep are very important ingredients for your health and MSD prevention. When you don’t get enough sleep, muscle recovery is compromised and an increased release of stress hormones raises the level of inflammation in the body. If sleep deficits persist, we become more vulnerable to injuries and chronic diseases. Sleep experts agree that most adults require between 7-9 hours of sleep each day to maintain optimal health and safety.
Research clearly teaches us that here is a correlation between poor levels of physical fitness and increased risk of disease and injury. The lower the level of fitness, the higher the risk of injury.
To help our movement system run as the well-oiled machine it’s designed to be, we need to stay focused on taking great care of it. When in comes to maintaining the quality of life that we want and feel like we deserve, taking care of our movement system needs to be a top priority.
Three types of exercise should be included in your fitness plan:
1) Aerobic or Cardiovascular Exercise: Aerobic exercise is moderate to vigorous intensity physical activity such as brisk walking, jogging, running, cycling, swimming, circuit weight lifting, elliptical machine, stair climbing, dance routines, etc. Regular aerobic exercise progressively strengthens the heart and lungs, is a great fat burning form of exercise, and has tremendous general health benefits. To maximize the health benefit, your goal should be to perform 30 minutes of exercise at least 2-3 times per week.
2) Strength Training: Strength training is an important component of your wellness plan. Yes, I mean lifting weight. Strength training has been proven to benefit all populations, from young athletes to seniors. For maintaining good muscular strength, I recommend a weight training circuit program performed 2-3 days per week.
3) Stretching & Relaxation Exercise: Did you know that daily stretching reduces muscle fatigue and risk of injury? Stretching increases blood supply and nutrients to joint structures, increases soft tissue temperature, enhances elasticity of soft tissues, and acts as a lubricant for our bones and cartilage. Stretching also increases a joint’s ability to move through a greater range of motion with less energy required to do so, decreasing resistance in tendons and muscles. Many studies have also shown that stretching improves muscular balance, posture, and muscle coordination.
Use ice/cold therapy to control fatigue and soreness after activity. Ice is the very best anti-inflammatory that there is!
Ice application should be between 15 to 20 minutes applied the affected area. An initial aching will be felt. After 5 minutes or so, this should go away as the ice takes effect.
You should avoid heat application after work activity if you are experiencing fatigue or discomfort, as this could increase and inflammation.
Supplements are not a substitute for healthy eating, but they can fill in the gaps and help combat fatigue and inflammation.
Experts recommend three daily supplements:
quality multivitamin and mineral supplements
vitamin D supplement with calcium and magnesium
omega-3 fatty acids
Remember… MSD prevention is a shared responsibility! The company is responsible for providing a safe work environment, and all workplace athletes are responsible for using your body properly, keeping your body fit for work, properly preparing your body for work, and maximizing recovery.
I wish for you great health and much happiness!
THINK PREVENTION!
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This ergonomics awareness training program is general injury and illness prevention educational information and is not medical advice. If the employee requires medical attention, a competent health care provider should be consulted. Although every precaution has been taken in the preparation of this information, no liability is assumed for injury, personally or otherwise resulting from the use of information contained herein.
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