Article Two -- Job Specific Exercise

As I have mentioned in earlier writings, job specific exercises are mandatory in aiding the employee to reduce his strain and fatigue on those body parts that are under constant physical demands.

In keeping with the philosophy of going to experts for help with work in industry, I spoke with Greg Nederlander, exercise physiologist, and discussed some of the aspects of job specific exercise.

There should be three phases involved in job specific exercises. Phase one is the stretching or flexibility aspect of those muscles under demand. The second phase is strengthening the antagonistic muscle group across the joint in question. And third is a balancing of both muscle groups to stabalize the joint. Let's look at what happens when a typical joint is under physical demand. Let's use the wrist as an example. Someone who is doing wrist extensor movements has a constant overuse of the extensor groups. They become spasmed over time, and because they are spasmed they become shorter. The opposite muscle group, the forearm flexors, are not getting the use that the other group is, and therefore there is an imbalance that begins to develop. The wrist and the elbow joint now begins to lose its normal range of motion and it begins to lock up.

Finally, as it locks up, it throws the mechanics further off balance, and now the muscles are having a harder and harder time working, furthering the spasm. The tendons become inflamed further by rubbing across certain bony areas. They are too short, and because the body heals with scar tissue on those inflamed areas, the keloid tissue becomes a further source of shortening to that tendon muscle group and the system progressively deteriorates, much like a tire out of balance. It gets worse and worse, faster and faster as time goes on.

Therefore, when one is very specific on those muscles involved, along those guidelines, many times we are able to offset the physical demands to a great degree, which allows for greater patient comfort. It also allows that worker to have greater productivity.

If we would take this even a step further, during our pre-employment screening procedures, we would focus on those areas that will be under pysical demand or that are already predisposed to certain problems. Therefore, there should be an immediate program of job specific exercises to condition those areas prior to over-utilization of the anatomy.

With proper planning and patient employee compliance, we can see some very excellent results that benefit all concerned. In my experience I have found that there is tremendous compliance by the employee because he is able to do these things during his job when they have certain breaks in the line, or there is time provided and they can actually reduce the strain. This not only gives them some renewed feeling of comfort, but also a renewed ability to produce. And when someone is on incentive pay, that can mean a lot to them.

It has even been demonstrated that with proper stretching procedures a positive EMG due to muscle spasms can be rerun after proper stretching techniques, and the EMG is no longer on the positive scale. This is not true for all situations, but it has been demonstrated in the past.

Take the time to learn about exercises and their proper application in the industrial setting. They can play a very, very big part in giving some job comfort. I should stress, however, that any exercise program by itself is not the answer to a problem. It is just one small aspect of the overall picture in gaining control of the physical demands and ergonomic type process.

Please do not suggest that exercise is going to solve problems in and of itself because it will not, but in the proper context it can be an exceptionally nice addition to the program that is incorporated.