Is there any evidence that stretching or dynamic warm up helps prevent injury for physically demanding jobs? I can’t really find much that supports it. I work in workplace safety and health for a warehouse where workers lift 2000-3000 cases of food per day. Many of those cases are 40-90 lbs as they select meat for grocery stores. The higher ups try to really push for pre shift warm ups Or stretching and stress lifting with legs or squat lifting each box. I try to tell them that there really isn’t much to support that stretching to prevent injury but they just respond that it is common sense and that everyone knows you should stretch before work. Anytime someone gets a back injury on the job, it is believed that it is ”improper” lifting or they ask them if they stretched prior to working.
Any advice on how to handle the push back that I get or is there anyone else in the safety field that has experience tackling this? Every safety professional I run into shares the belief that stretching and lifting with the legs are the “way.”
What would likely be more effective is strength & conditioning training in order to build the workers’ capacity to the point where lifting 40-90 lb boxes all day is no big deal.
Unfortunately I don’t have good advice for dealing with the push-back, as this stuff is deeply rooted in typical societal beliefs. It’s one of the big things we’re fighting against … but belief change is hard.
To comment on this Dr. Baraki, do you think that corporate wellness plans are growing? I had a friend who trained Mattel Co. CEO’s and I’m wondering how much the paradigm is shifting. Thoughts?
Thanks, Austin. I typically have a week with the trainees before they hit the floor, And most of that time is training them how to operate the equipment on the job or safety trainings. I try to incorporate lifting a couple hundred cases a day during that first week at a pace that is similar to the expectations on the job. We do not have weights, only the actual cases to work with. During the second week, they work the job and I try to help with fatigue by capping them at an 8 hour shift And allowing breaks as needed. The third week the max shift is 10 hrs and then the 4th week is whatever time the shift wraps up. There’s no set end time, it is done when they all finish the work. It may be 7 hrs or it might be 15+. Knowing that I only have a week with them, do you see any opportunity to help build work capacity using only the product they lift on the job?
As for corporate wellness programs, I’ve seen a shift to warehouses using post offer physical ability testing, and hiring internal “industrial health specialists” or ergonomists that focus on teaching lifting using the legs. I’ve seen one Specialist spend weeks trying to correct an employee’s form.
I’ve seen some warehouses that have cardio equipment and weight machines.
Many other businesses now have onsite gyms with equipment, classes, and trainers and some offer incentives to use the services such as lower insurance rates or even stipends.
Knowing that I only have a week with them, do you see any opportunity to help build work capacity using only the product they lift on the job?
Based on your description it sounds like you are doing as much as you can with the time you have available. Unfortunately that standardized pace / rate of increase in workload may not be appropriate for some individuals, who may remain at higher risk of injury, but that is likely to be difficult tackle from a company policy standpoint.
Aside from the physical training, some dedicated time to pain education (along the lines of the material we put out) may also be helpful to equip the workers with information / knowledge / skills to better manage setbacks, should they occur.
Many other businesses now have onsite gyms with equipment, classes, and trainers and some offer incentives to use the services such as lower insurance rates or even stipends.
Yes, there are strong correlations between general health, obesity, etc. with missed workdays due to pain and injury, as well as lower healthcare costs and utilization in general.