Pre-shift stretching decreases injuries
Work-related musculoskeletal disorders and incidents account for more than 30 percent of all nonfatal occupational injury and illness cases each year – and impact employers some $20 billion a year in direct workers’ compensation costs.
These numbers might just be the tip of the iceberg when you also consider an estimate from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention that by 2020 a quarter of all workers will be 55 or older. It’s likely that the percentages of injuries will increase in the coming years.
That’s why some organizations are looking for ways to improve their ergonomic strategies by implementing pre-shift employee stretching and flexibility programs.
Physicians Quality Care physical therapists can assess the specific ergonomics at your workplace to develop tailor-made, pre-shift programs for your employees and provide on-site job description analyses. After we develop pre-shift stretching and flexibility programs, your employees can easily go through these exercises in five to 10 minutes before they begin work.
“More companies are seeing value in adding employee stretching programs to help fill the gap between the workers and what can be done ergonomically to protect them,” said Christy Sorrell, director of Physicians Quality Care Physical Therapy. These programs not only decrease work injuries, they also decrease your health costs, she said.
“Make no mistake, employee stretching programs are not a substitute for a comprehensive workplace ergonomic program, which would include ergonomic assessments, the necessary adjustments of the work environment to fit the employees, employee training on injury awareness, the importance of early reporting, and a workplace pre-work activity relevant program.”
As part of a prevention plan, task-specific, pre-shift stretching and warm-up exercises will help acclimate the body for the demands of the active workday ahead and will help to prevent injury for both production and office workers.
