The Need for Ergonomics in everyday lifestyles.
Like our lifestyle habits, most injuries creep up on us over time, not overnight. These are known as Cumulative Trauma Injuries, or Repetitive Stress Injuries - Carpel Tunnel Syndrome being the most well known in this computer age. Yes, injuries can happen to us against our will, but for the most part, cumulative trauma injuries are caused by our LIFESTYLE - the way we work, rest, play, exercise and handle stress.
Ergonomic assessments to assess our body management are critical when evaluating our lifestyle. They promote safety, and offer risk solutions to keep musculoskeletal injuries at bay both at home and at work.
Personal Safety is a priority for us if we plan a long and healthy life, looking out for each other makes everyone safer and ensures that we pass through our working years to retirement in a fit and functionally able condition with less instances of chronic neck, shoulder and back pain, not to mention other uncomfortable symptoms.
What a valuable asset your own personal Occupational Therapist would be - providing information for individual lifestyles to keep our friends and family INJURY FREE.
Simple positioning can help us proactively prevent many injuries and musculo skeletal disorders. All that is required is to think about how we are positioned. Many of our hobbies require that we sit in uncomfortable positions, no wonder our bodies ache.
How many of these do you do, and how do they affect your body?
Craftwork, knitting, carrying full glasses of liquid at arms length, painting ceilings. jigsaw puzzles, stretching to the top of those 42" cabinets, throwing a frisbee for the dog on the way up the driveway, playing video games for hours on end, texting your friends, picking up something heavy while twisting to put it on a higher shelf, clean your teeth while leaning over the sink?
Office ergonomics help us position ourselves well in front of our keyboards, show us how to lift well, how to position often used items within reach. Industrial ergonomics and manufacturing ergonomics include teaching us good hand and wrist care, offering simple adaptations to make tools easier to use, good lifting techniques, and safe body positioning. Let's all aim to be carpal tunnel free.
Ergonomics: The acquired science of equipment design, related to the workplace, intended to maximize productivity by reducing operator fatigue and discomfort. Also known as Biotechnology, Human Engineering or Human Factors Engineering.
