 Ergonomics has been very good for me. They allowed me to keep my job, stay with the same profession that I went to school for, and without them I would have had to change my whole profession. In my opinion this is a lot of better, a lot of better. Just through sheer repetition we've developed methods that have kept us from becoming injured. You want to come to work and do the job now because it's a lot easier and you don't have to worry about getting hurt. Ergonomics. Ergonomics is the scientific study of how the human body performs tasks in the workplace, fitting the job to the worker. The goal of ergonomics is to create jobs, tools, equipment and workplaces to fit the worker. It has been scientifically proven that ergonomics can actually reduce the risk of some types of injuries. These injuries are called work-related musculoskeletal disorders or WMSDs. There are many things that everyone does on the job and at home that could contribute to WMSD if they are done for long enough periods of time. Risk factors include working in awkward postures, using high hand force, performing repetitive motions, using your hand or knee to make repeated impacts, heavy, frequent or awkward lifting and exposure to moderate to high levels of vibration. Just because your job has risk factors doesn't mean that you're going to have a WMSD though. In fact a little bit of exposure to some risk factors can actually be good for you. Occasionally moving into awkward postures like reaching or bending will help to stretch and exercise your muscles. Whether or not a risk factor will result in a WMSD depends on the vibration, the frequency and the intensity of whatever it is you are doing. How long, how often and how much. The longer you're exposed to risk factors and here we're talking about hours per day, not just minutes, the more likely an injury will occur. You are also more likely to be injured if you have more than one risk factor at the same time. Now let's take a closer look at each risk factor. Awkward postures. To understand what an awkward posture is, it helps to understand the opposite. Good posture. A good posture is one that places the least amount of stress on your joints and muscles. This is referred to as neutral posture. It takes the strain out of your muscles and joints allowing them to work more efficiently. While neutral posture places the least stress on your body, it wouldn't be good for you to stay in that position all day. Your body was designed to move around and is much happier when it is active. Some parts of your job may require you to move into or maintain postures that aren't neutral. They include things like working with your hands over your head or your elbows above your shoulders. Repeatedly moving in and out of this posture could lead to a shoulder or elbow WMSD. Holding your arms up overhead without bringing them down can also cause problems. Working with your neck bent forward too far can place strain on your neck muscles, especially if you hold this position for a long period of time. Your head can weigh as much as a bowling ball and that's a lot of weight for your neck muscles to hold up. Over time the muscles in your neck and shoulders can tighten up, resulting in chronic muscle soreness. Similarly, working while bent over places a lot of strain on the muscles of your back. The weight of your upper body is a lot for those muscles to hold up, especially since they were intended to hold you in an upright position. Bending over like this also increases the pressure on the discs of your spine. Squatting is a good alternative to bending at the waist, but only for short periods of time. If you squat for too long it builds up the pressure behind the kneecap and it can cause damage to the knee. Kneeling is another way to get down low, but it also causes pressure to build up behind the kneecap. Working with your wrist bent in any of these directions, backward, forward or sideways can also be a problem. However, bent wrists are only really a risk for injury when combined with high hand forces or repetitive motions, but more about that later. Some jobs will always require awkward postures, but many can be done better with a few simple fixes. Some things that might work include changing the height of a workstation or display, tilting or rotating work to a better position, standing on a platform to bring you up closer to the work, or putting your work on a platform to bring it up closer to you at bringing items within easy reach. Remember to pause to stretch once in a while if you do have to work in an awkward posture for any length of time. The amount of force required to grip something depends on a number of factors, but the most important thing is how you grip it. Gripping something with the whole hand, known as a power grip, is five times more powerful than gripping something with your fingertips, known as a pinch grip. So picking up something that weighs two pounds with a pinch grip is just as stressful as picking up something that weighs ten pounds with a power grip. When you bend your wrists, you actually lose a significant amount of your grip strength. This increases your risk for injury, especially to the wrist and elbow. Other things can increase the amount of force needed to hold an object, such as if it's slippery, or if you're wearing loose-fitting gloves, or if your hands are exposed to the cold, any of which make it difficult to feel what you are gripping. One of the best ways to reduce grip force is to use power grips instead of pinch grips whenever possible. For example, picking up an object from the bottom using your whole hand. Attach handles to things or use lift tools. Another great idea is to build up the handles on small tools to reduce the grip force. There are several things you can do to reduce the force you use when handling objects. Pick up smaller loads. Use power tools instead of hand tools. Keep tools maintained to reduce the force required to operate them. Use lighter tools or tool balancers. Use two hands to cut the force per hand in half. And remember to keep your wrists straight. Grip forces are also a problem if you hold on to an object for a long period of time. You can avoid this by using clamps to hold on to your work, placing items on a cart rather than carrying them, and putting a tool down when you are not actually using it. Motions are considered highly repetitive when you use a part of your body to make the same motion over and over again without pauses. Most repetitive motions involve the hand, wrist, elbow, shoulder and neck. Making the same motion repeatedly can cause a lot of wear and tear on the joints. If you don't rest to allow time to heal, the damage can just keep building up. Repetitive motions may be required for your job. However, a lot of times you have some control over what motions you make and how often you make them. Things you can do to reduce repetitive motions include Arrange work to avoid unnecessary motions. Let power tools and machinery do the work. Spread repetitive work out during the day. Take pauses to stretch. Change hands or motions frequently. If possible, rotate jobs with coworkers. Intensive keying is the specific kind of repetitive motion. It involves highly repetitive movements of the fingers for a long duration. Four or more hours a day. Doing tasks like data entry or transcription. The repetitive movements of your fingers create a risk for hand and wrist injuries. However, intensive keying can be stressful for your whole body. Especially if you work in awkward postures as well. There are several things you can do to reduce risk of injury from intensive keying. Spread keyboard work throughout the day. Take pauses to stretch. Improve your posture and move around as much as possible. Repetitively using your knee as a hammer, such as this carpet layer is doing to stretch carpet using a knee kicker, can damage the soft tissues in the knee. God, that has got to hurt! Similarly, there are many soft tissues in the palm of your hand that are easily damaged when using the palm as a hammer. Fortunately, there are easy solutions to these risk factors. I was glad to find out that there are power stretches available for carpet layers that don't require a knee kicker. Tools like rubber mallets can be used in place of the palm in many cases. Most people are aware that lifting heavy objects increases the risk for injury. Fewer people know that repetitive lifting and lifting even moderate loads while bent over or reaching out can be just as hazardous. When you bend over to pick up something from below your knees, not only does your back have to lift the object, but it also has to lift the weight of your upper body. Something else to keep in mind. The same stresses are there when you lower something as when you lift it. Look for alternatives to lifting, including hand trucks, conveyors, carts, and other mechanical assistance. If these aren't available, get help from a co-worker. Avoid storing things on the floor unless you use a hand truck to move them. Store them on the surface between knee and waist level instead. Power tools can transmit vibration to the hands and arms. Now surprisingly, this has a number of effects on the body. If you're exposed to enough vibration, it can cause damage to the blood vessels and nerves in your hands and arms. Vibration also tends to make the muscles tighten up. The tighter you grip the tool, the more vibration gets transmitted to your hands and arms making injury more likely to occur. It takes quite a bit of vibration to actually cause an injury. But if you use a lot of power tools, you should take all the steps you can to reduce your exposure. Use low vibration tools if they are available. Keep your tools well maintained and keep your hands warm. This increases the blood flow and minimizes the damage that vibration can cause. Ergonomics. Remember, it's a tool you can use to make your job healthier and better. By applying ergonomics, risk factors can be reduced and WMSDs prevented. You are the expert when it comes to your job and you can play an important role in your company's ergonomics efforts. There are a lot of changes that you and your employer can make to the way that you do your job that will make it more enjoyable. And there's nothing wrong with that. Thanks for your time and attention. There you are, dear boy. Where did you get that cookie? Take me to the cookies. What do you mean that's the last one? Give me a bite. Come back here.