Avoiding Injury at Work

Work is a big part of our lifestyle, and we are familiar with advice to move as much as possible, stretch, and think about our posture at office jobs.

But what about the millions of UK workers who have manual roles, in which their ability to perform occupational tasks relies on them being physically active?

The World Health Organization suggests that one potential cause of joint deterioration is “excessive joint loading.” In other words, there seems to be a tipping point at which too much physical activity can negatively affect our joint health and increase the risk of developing long-term conditions such as osteoarthritis.

The good news is that much can be done by the individual to manage risk and protect their long-term joint health. This page presents easy tips to help those in physical roles take control of their personal long-term health, and ability to perform in the workplace. You can also read more on our Arthritis and Physical Work page.

Tips for Strengthening your Joints

Physical roles rarely work the muscles around a joint through a complete range of motion. Instead, repetitive movements tend to cause muscle imbalances, which can increase the risk of injury and future joint problems.

• If your role involves daily joint loading, such as in construction, warehouse workers or other industrial settings, your focus should be on mobility, flexibility, healthy weight management, and cardiovascular fitness. For roles involving occasional joint loading, add strength training too.
• If you feel fatigued toward the end of your work shift, focus on building your cardiovascular fitness on your days off and prioritising sleep.
• If you have tightness or stiffness, consider walking and swimming, as excellent low-impact activities.
• If you experience pain in or around your joints, it’s a good idea to vary your movements throughout the day to avoid repetitive strain.

Flexibility and Variation

Varying your movement is key for healthy joints, because placing your body in the same positions or movements over the long term, can increase the chances of injury. Flexibility can be as simple as ensuring you stretch every day when you get home.

Laying on your bed with simple hip cross-overs and knee hugs before lights out, and again before you start your day, are a great way of warming up and warming down your body from the rigours of physical work.

If feasible, also try to vary your working day. If you are working in a team, ensure that different team members rotate into different roles during the day, thereby creating a change of position.

Taking breaks is also the simplest way to minimise the risk of excessive joint loading. Consider going for a walk, or stretching during your next break.

Improve Balance

Balance, is very as important for injury prevention but also our long-term health, as falls are second leading cause of death from injury worldwide.

Some ideas to work on your balance:

• ‘Compound movements’, such as squats, lunges, and deadlifts strengthen the large muscle groups that directly support the knees, hips, and lower back. In a physical role, many injuries will happen to us when we are moving i.e. without our feet planted together such as with a squat. Single leg variations, such as a lunge, is great for leg strength, as well as balance and stability.
• ‘Core work’ is also key: planks and bridges are essential for strengthening the core, which plays a role in protecting your spine, allowing you to brace your spine and protect your lower back, whilst making you more efficient when lifting.
• If you have an existing joint issue or injury and want to strengthen the surrounding muscles, consider trying some ‘isometric exercises’. Isometric means we generate force within a muscle whilst the muscle and joint remains static, such as a wall sit.   They are great for building strength without excessively loading an effected joint.
• Improving balance can be as simple as standing on one leg whilst waiting for the kettle to boil or brushing your teeth. It can help with both strength and balance.

Cardiovascular fitness

We know that many preventable injuries happen when fatigue impacts the quality of movement, in other words, when we get physically tired. For example, lower back injury often happens when we are overexerting ourselves, which is more likely if our fitness is low. Therefore, regular ‘cardiovascular training’ can help reduce the risk of injury.

Some tips on improving your cardiovascular fitness:

• Train every week, focusing on long duration and slow-paced sessions (called ‘Zone 2 training’) most of the time, with more intense ‘interval’ exercise 10-20% of the time. Slower paced exercise, like walking, cycling, swimming or walk-jogging, help build aerobic capacity. In Zone 2 training you should be able to hold a conversation throughout.
• The more vigorous exercise can be in the form of intervals on a bike, rower, treadmill or in the great outdoors. The idea is to work-out at harder levels for 1 minute, followed by 4-5 mins rest before repeating the work. You can read more info here on interval training.

Other things you can do to avoid injury

Have a healthy diet, and aim to keep to a healthy weight, which will avoid straining your joints.

• Keep it simple, avoiding fad diets and focusing on small changes that are sustainable over the long term.
• Cut down on unnecessary sugar and try to follow a Mediterranean-style diet, and stock up with healthy snacks and lunches at work.

Aim to get good quality sleep. Our bodies engage in repair and replenishment processes while we sleep, including repairing from injuries. Simply put, if we are sleep-deprived, we are more likely to suffer injuries, take longer to recover from them and feel less alert and productive the next day at work.

• Try to eat earlier in the evening and avoiding caffeine after noon.
• Consider investing in an old-school alarm clock, leaving all electronic devices outside of the bedroom.
• Avoid vigorous exercise close to bedtime.
• Try relaxation activities, such as meditation, deep breathing exercises, or yoga.
• Establish a bedtime routine, such as taking a warm shower followed by 10 minutes of stretching before getting into bed.

Visit our Exercise and Arthritis area for information on how to safely exercise.