 Ergonomics have 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 is the scientific study of how the human body performs tasks in the workplace and fitting the job to the worker. Much like motion studies help athletes perform better and prevent injuries. Ergonomics is a tool that can be used to improve jobs as well as make them healthier. You should be aware of some of the risk you may face on the job. 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. The specific injuries are things like tendonitis, bursitis, low back disorders and carpal tunnel syndrome. WMSDs can be serious injuries, but if they are caught and addressed early on when symptoms appear, they often never develop into anything severe. First we want to focus on how to prevent these injuries using the principles of Ergonomics. Later we'll talk about what to do if you start having symptoms of a WMSD. There are many things that everyone does on the job and at home that could contribute to a 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 is a hazard for WMSD depends on the duration, the frequency and the intensity of whatever it is you're 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 mentioned earlier. 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's 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. Repetitive lifting of this sort can lead to a shoulder or elbow WMSD. Holding your arms up over head without bringing them down can 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 well 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 those muscles are 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 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 also can 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 closer to you, bringing items within easy reach. Remember 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, called a power grip, is five times more powerful than gripping something with the 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 ten pounds with a power grip. When you bend your wrists, you actually lose a significant amount of grip strength. This increases the risk of 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 wear loose-fitting gloves or 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 forces is to use power grips instead of pinch grips whenever possible. For example, picking up objects 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 need 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, keep your wrists straight. Grip forces are also a problem if you hold onto an object for a long period of time. You can avoid this by using clamps to hold onto your work, placing items on carts rather than carrying them and putting down a tool when you are not actually using it. Motions are considered highly repetitive when you use the same 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 and if you don't allow time for them to heal, the damage can build. Repetitive motions may be required by 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 stretch pauses. Change hands or motions frequently. If possible, rotate tasks with coworkers. Intensive keying involves highly repetitive movements of the fingers, tasks like data entry or transcription. Usually, you don't have to worry if you keep for less than four hours a day. Keying for longer periods, though, can create a risk for hand or 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 the risk of injury from intensive keying. Spread keyboard work throughout the day. Take stretch pauses. 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 the carpet using a knee kicker, can damage the soft tissues in the knee. 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. There are power structures 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 something up 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, or if these aren't available, get help from a coworker. Avoid storing things on the floor unless you use a hand truck to move them. Store them on a surface between knee and waist level instead. Power tools can transmit vibration to the hands and arms. Not surprisingly, this has a number of effects on the body. If you're exposed to enough vibration, it can cause damage to the nerves and blood vessels 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 reduce your exposure by using low vibration tools if they are available, keeping your tools well maintained, and keeping your hands warm. This helps to increase blood flow and minimize the damage that vibration can cause. Now that we've got your attention, it's time to talk about symptoms. Most importantly, which ones to report. WMSDs affect the soft tissues of the body, the muscles, tendons that connect muscles to bone, ligaments that connect bone to bone, nerves, blood vessels, pretty much every part of your body that's not a bone or internal organ. Often, these types of injuries start out small as a little muscle pull or a slightly irritated tendon. However, if a small injury isn't given a chance to heal, it can become aggravated, especially if you keep doing the activity that caused the injury in the first place. Over time, these small injuries can build until they become chronic, which is when symptoms don't go away. WMSDs have many different symptoms, some of which you may have experienced at one time or another. These include discomfort, pain, numbness, tingling or burning sensations, swelling or inflammation, changes in skin color, tight muscles, or loss of flexibility in a joint. Having one or more of these symptoms doesn't necessarily mean that you have an injury, though. Everyone has had muscle aches or stiffness after working or exercising hard, especially if you're not used to it. Usually, these symptoms go away as you rest or as you get used to the work. That's different than symptoms of an injury, which last longer or include things like numbness and tingling that might mean something more serious is going on. Sometimes these symptoms make it difficult for you to do your job or things around the house, or they might wake you up at night and keep you from getting a good night's sleep. The important thing is not to ignore what your body is trying to tell you. Often, simple changes to the way you work are all that are necessary to prevent these symptoms from becoming a WMSD. Of course, it wouldn't make sense to report all the little aches and pains you experience. Yet some symptoms are serious enough to need attention. You should report symptoms if pain is persistent, severe, or getting worse, if the pain radiates, spreads or travels down an arm or leg, if the symptoms include numbness or tingling, or if the symptoms keep you from sleeping at night. When in doubt, it's better to report symptoms and be told there's nothing wrong than to wait too long. Some WMSDs can be very serious, resulting in lost workdays, permanent disability, or even surgery. We can't stress this point enough. If you start having symptoms of a WMSD, be sure you report them early to avoid more serious injury. The good news is that early treatment is often very simple and successful. Ergonomics. 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 you do your job that will make it more enjoyable. Thanks for your time and attention.