Posture plays a major role in pain, injury prevention

Shelley Hampton, a corporate fitness trainer, owns Shape Shifters Pilates Exercise Studio.

Up to 80 percent of Americans have periods of back pain each year, but 15 percent of them suffer longer an average of six months. This group incurs 90 percent of treatment expenses, most of it paid by business. If managers hope to counteract the high costs of disability, workers' comp claims and health care, the focus must be on prevention.

In order for the body to function correctly and without pain, the muscles and tissues need to be in balance. If some are too tight and some too weak, pain and injury usually result. Fortunately, one obvious early-warning sign alerts us: poor posture.

While you move through the workplace, do you see a head that juts forward, shoulders rounded to the front and the lower back flattened rather than concave? Does the employee have a history of back problems? If so, an imbalanced posture will surely contribute to a recurrence. Are there obvious root causes and conditions for the poor posture? Broken bones that healed poorly, scar tissue or abnormal curvatures of the spine? Although these conditions may complicate treatment, much improvement is still possible.

Stretching alone may ease strain temporarily. but will not balance posture long term. Strengthening alone might help, but it could also do harm if the exercise further shortens already tight muscles. To learn which tissues must be strengthened and which stretched, observe a person's daily work movements and walk. Many abnormalities are obvious even to an untrained eye, and an experienced trainer can pinpoint the specific imbalance.

For example, lifting an item from the floor can be difficult if ankles, knees or hips are tight, weak or painful. The employee will compensate by bending forward to lift with the back instead of lifting with the hips and knees. Lifting with the back muscles puts spinal discs at risk.

Reading posters, watching videos and hearing lectures on safe lifting techniques will not help the person who is compensating due to weakness or tightness. The spirit might be willing, but the muscles must be re-educated before the body will be able to lift safely.

Fortunately, even a very imbalanced posture can improve significantly with fewer than eight hours of postural correction. Spine corrector courses are available in cities throughout America and range in price from $15 to $125 per hour. Compare these costs to the company's burden of lost time, medical expenses and disability. These courses, typically, combine spinal and posture assessment, soft tissue release, reeducation of tissues through Feldenkrais body awareness, Pilates, yoga, physical therapy and spinal manipulation by an osteopath or chiropractor.

I don't know anyone who enjoys back pain, and I've worked with hundreds of people who have been thrilled to learn how to avoid it. Of course, some employees malinger, but we need to stop regarding back pain primarily as a character flaw or a condition to be medicated. In the employed population, it usually results from poor body mechanics.

You balance the tires on your car to reduce abnormal wear and tear. Balance the muscles and connective tissues to do the same for the human body.