The solution is the problem

My name is Sam and I am an Athletic Trainer. I founded Kansas City Health & Performance, LLC in 2008 and have created an evolving injury prevention program for people who use their bodies at work (lifting stuff, carrying stuff, holding stuff, etc.). I have had tremendous success implementing this program to help people prevent work related injuries and recover from persistent musculoskeletal problems otherwise not improved by traditional occupational medicine. Before sharing more about the program, I would like to share a small piece of my “origin story”.

In 2006 I started what is commonly referred to as a “bridge fitness” program in partnership with a community health center. My clients were recently discharged from traditional physical therapy (either insurance had run out or their treatment had ended) yet they did not yet feel physically fit enough or strong enough to return to their normal lives. Some of these folks worked in construction and some were competitive recreational athletes and some were just people wanting to invest in themselves through better physical fitness.

A critical moment early in my practice happened when an elderly client hired me to help her further rehabilitate a back injury. She had done 2 months of physical therapy and had been released prior to contacting me for further help. She was still in pain and didn’t feel as strong as she was prior to her injury. She informed me that she could do most anything exercise wise however she was not able to lift weights heavier then 20 pounds. As we continued our conversation she went into great detail about her pets (2 dogs, 3 cats, 3 birds, perhaps more). As she described her passion for animals she shared how she purchased animal food in large quantities and the bags were often times 40 pounds or more (at times 70!). I asked her who carried these items for her. She told me she lived alone and typically carried these items from her car to her home. I asked what her doctor thinks about this as he informed her to not lift anything heavier then 20 pounds. She paused and admitted that she hadn’t thought about this. She interpreted her doctors restriction to be weight lifted in the gym setting. We both recognized the inconsistency here and she agreed to follow my recommendation of a progressive strength training regimen if her physician would allow her to do so. After arranging a time for a call with her physician, her doctor agreed and released her to my care as long as her strength training was done under my supervision and safe progression guidelines were followed. One year later this client, at the age of 73, could lift 130 pounds with relative ease and good form. And she was functionally able to perform all of her daily life activities (including carrying heavy bags of pet food).

In this story, the solution to restrict loads of what can be lifted was the problem in the context of preventing future injury. Had this particular person not trained her body with progressive resistance the chances of re-injury were greater as a result of her exposure to “unsafe load limits” in her activities of daily living.

I see this time and again programming industrial and occupational injury prevention solutions. Braces to restrict motion and stretching programs to alleviate tight/painful muscles only provide a temporary answer to a recurring problem: poor quality movement, instability, dynamic weakness, and poor overall cardiovascular response to activity resulting in acute and chronic injury. The current solutions are temporary and are the problem when looking for a long range solution. The good news is, there is hope. We can fix this problem.

We are now blessed with the benefits of inexpensive technology that allows for a comprehensive approach to injury prevention which mirrors what one might expect to see professional athletes use. Treating an active work force with a sports medicine model is a “no-brainer” and offers a better solution to the traditional problem of work related injuries.

Too often in the occupational setting, the approach to reduce injury is too myopic and focused solely on the task rather then the person(s) performing the task. For the future of better employee health, less job related injury, and better overall care in the occupational health space I challenge health and safety managers, operations managers, and allied health professionals to try a new way that we know works! It’s the right thing to do and the workforce of America deserves more from us.

I plan to share more of my thoughts on how to help solve the problem of work-related injuries using the models below. Please follow and join me on this journey.

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