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Are Your Industrial Athletes Prepared for the Job?
For optimal performance and protection, steal from the pros.
- By Janelle Kinnaird
- Oct 08, 2024
People who work in manufacturing plants, warehouses and industrial facilities are tough, trained and skilled – the very definition of an athlete.
If your workforce is required to perform any regular physical tasks, they are industrial athletes. Manual labor can be a full-body workout. It can involve bending, lifting, stretching and pushing; not to mention walking and standing for long periods of time on hard surfaces.
All of this activity can be beneficial as exercise to improve cardio and burn calories, but it can also wear-and-tear on muscles, joints and tendons causing pain and issues that slow down productivity and lead to absenteeism, presenteeism, accident risks, mistakes & errors, and worker’s comp & insurance claims.
Professional athletes face these negative physical issues too. Through vigorous isolated training and competition, they develop and experience Repetitive Stress Injuries and Musculoskeletal Disorders – 2 very common problems that industrial companies deal with in their employees.
Tools of the Trade
Elite athletes get all of the cool tools. They have access to the best trainers and equipment to make sure they are the best at what they do and out-perform the competition. Some stuff they do or use can be extreme or experimental and not-yet-proven. Fortunately, some of the proven legit tools go mass retail for amateur athletes to try and benefit from – such as compression garments.
Stick a Sock in It
The sport athletic industry has seen great benefits from incorporating compression garments to enhance performance, provide pain relief, prevent injury and aid in recovery. Introducing this concept to industrial athletes would be just as beneficial.
Compression is shown to increase blood circulation back to the heart which can prevent blood clots, minimize swelling and reduce pain and fatigue. It also increases the oxygen level in muscles which increases a person's energy level as well as aids in recovery from exertion by preventing soreness. Compression also keeps muscles warm which enable them to be more flexible and have a wider range of motion, decreasing risk of injury. Some compression products even provide the benefits of a kinesiology taping treatment.
In a study that evaluated lower leg muscle fatigue and edema induced by long-standing of workers wearing regular socks compared to degrees of compression as intervention, compression proved beneficial4. Lower leg muscle twitch force, volume and discomfort ratings were measured before and after a 12-hour standing work shift. Muscle twitch force is the level and frequency of contraction by a muscle. When muscles are fatigued the contraction is less intense and frequent, a slower response time. The study showed that the control group wearing non-compression saw a decrease while the group wearing 15-20 mmHg (millimeters of mercury) low-level compression had minimal change at the end of the shift. Therefore, compression maintained the workers muscle response time from beginning to end of shift - a worker could end a shift as good as they started.
Let Me Get This Straight…
All feet are built different. Add in physical wear, tear and breakdown from excessive walking and/or standing and we create a need for personal adjustment to re-establish natural body position and alignment. When the body is out of alignment it works unnecessarily harder and fatigues faster.
Custom orthotics are built to reposition foot tissue, tendons & muscles and to properly position the arch to align the body from the ground up – from feet to knees to hips and the back – helping to prevent and relieve debilitating knee and back pain which are 50% of all MSD claims.
When all is aligned, not excessively stretched, and free of pain, the body expels less energy and is therefore less tired. Premium insoles can help reduce muscle strain and fatigue with custom cushioning, shock and body-weight absorption and heel support for stability.
Don’t Run the Risk
Running is a billion-dollar industry. One of, if not, the most important tools a runner uses is shoes – their fit is critical to performance. Unwanted movement of the foot in the shoe translates to friction, blisters, and discomfort. Lack of arch support leads to over-pronation where the ankle rolls inward which twists the knee and hips. Improper cushion prevents shock absorption which can lead to stress fractures and cause added pressure to the knees, hips and lower back.
When workers spend a long shift on their feet in improperly fitting footwear, these same performance-effecting ailments can attack.
Be Like Mike
Elite professional athletes have found ways to up their game, prevent pain and recover faster. They have spent their money, time and energy to prove what works and what is needed for optimal performance and less down-time from injury. So, lets apply that benefit knowledge to your industrial athletes.
Your Safety Multiplier
Your job is to make sure your employees are safe. You may be required to provide PPE such as safety footwear to protect from an accidental injury. But let’s go elite and also protect them from the debilitating ailment and pain that happens from everyday wear and tear. Bring your industrial athletes to a higher level of protection with compression and alignment.
This foot and body wellness aspect is a safety multiplier for your employees. For example, correct fitting footwear with premium midsole and cushioning will absorb shock and body weight pressure to reduce fatigue. Proper body alignment from custom orthotics means muscles and tendons don’t have to work unnecessarily hard which prevents fatigue. Compression socks increase blood circulation back to the heart which reduces fatigue. All 3 tools reduce fatigue, but in different ways. So while one is good, all 3 together work as a safety multiplier for optimal protection.
Be Prepared
To make sure your industrial athletes are prepared for their job, invest in ways that enable them to get a perfect fit along with wellness protection such as a managed PPE program that doesn’t just focus on the accidental injury but looks beyond the minimum safety requirement to ways to ensure long-term full body health.
Subsidizing specialized foot wellness products, in addition to their safety footwear, as part of either a safety program or an employee wellness program, is an innovative solution that enhances employee safety by giving them greater control of how they can optimize their Personal Protective Equipment while providing a company a benefit incentive that encourages healthy, more productive employees.