What You Don't Know Could Hurt You
By Dennis Downing

Work related sprain/strain injuries cost companies thousands of lost workdays each year and are a major drain on corporate profitability.

If a solution to controlling these injuries existed it would have a profound impact on production and profits. Moreover, it would change the lives of millions of Americans every year that are stricken with back injuries, carpal tunnel syndrome and other sprain/strain injuries.

It always fascinates me how man has “conquered” the environment. We can fly to Europe in only a few hours; we drive over bridges that seem to float over waterways; we can send millions of messages with the click of a mouse; and now there is even plans for recreational trips to outer space!

Man has evolved technology to make living more productive, pleasurable and convenient. Yet despite these advances we have yet to discover how to prevent something as simple as a back injury.
  
Or have we? Based on results of a new form of training called Bionomics™1, the solution to sprain/strain injuries may have finally been discovered.

Evidence of successful trainings abounds in: hospitals, financial institutions, trucking companies, a major auto manufacturer, a major airline, municipalities, food processing—as well as small companies across the country. They are reporting major reductions of injuries and in some cases the complete elimination of them. This, of course, translates into major savings in lost production as well as lower Workers Comp costs.
 
It was observed that despite man’s technical advances, society overlooked the need to teach people as youngsters, the rudimentary skills of how to use their bodies correctly.

There is a huge and pervasive gap in awareness of how our bodies like to be used. This lack of knowledge combined with the demanding job tasks workers perform daily, has become a multi-billion dollar recipe for pain and lost profits.

Companies are actually the victims of this societal oversight. It is surprisingly true that employees hired to perform daily work tasks, are not prepared to do them safely and thus are predisposed to injury.

 

Employees were never taught how to lift or push things, to sit, or to safely work at a computer for prolong periods of time. Many people sit at a computer for their whole working day—and this goes on for years.

This lack of knowledge of these basic life skills causes physical stresses that unknown to the employees, insidiously accumulate over time. They continue to accumulate until one day a simple routine task inexplicably causes a “life altering” lost time injury.

The interesting piece of this whole puzzle and perhaps the reason a solution has never evolved, is because society is so unaware of proper body management techniques, that the violations are not even noticed.

The manager in charge of a manufacturing plant wonders why there are so many sprain and strains in the company. The real truth is that no one has lifted a single thing correctly since he started working there. The president of an insurance company, who everyday walks by office workers sitting in the best office furniture, and complaining about neck pain, cannot figure out what is wrong.

  
On the flip side, someone who has been through a Bionomic training workshop, and comes to understand the how’s and why’s of how our bodies like to be positioned during activities of daily working and living, becomes extremely aware of how epidemic this problem is in our culture.

 

The solution is to teach employees how to control the physical stress that they incur daily and as importantly, how to rid often used muscle groups of the physical stress incurred that day.

Bionomic training is training that puts the employees in control of their own health. It teaches basic skills of daily living that are applied on the job and at home.

Companies no longer have to be victims. They no longer have to passively stand by while valuable and experienced employees are lost to work related injuries.

Bionomic training should be offered in elementary schools across the country. But for now, it is corporate America who must ensure their employees are trained on how to do their job tasks more safely.

The results and rewards are nothing short of miraculous.

Dennis Downing, President
Future Industrial Technologies
BACKSAFE/SITTINGSAFE® Injury Prevention Programs