Data, Fit for the Industrial Athlete

From performance in life, to performance on the field, and now performance in the workplace I’ve spent my career focused on the health, safety, and performance of individuals on all types of playing fields. The latter of which is my latest focus. The Industrial athlete. 

Industrial athletes are the essential, frontline workers of the world who put their bodies on the line to perform a critical job function that positively impacts lives beyond their own. They are nurses, ramp workers, grocery stockers, mail carriers, truck drivers, warehouse pickers, and more that make up the bulk of all jobs around the world. 

Just like the professional sports athletes I’ve worked with; industrial athletes use their physical abilities to perform a task or a job. And like sports athletes, industrial athletes can also sustain injuries. They lift, bend, push, and move in identical ways that a typical sports athlete would, and most times for longer hours.

This makes them vulnerable to musculoskeletal (MSK) physical injuries, especially strains and sprains of the shoulder and knee, which are the most common joints injured on the job. 

According to global labor statistics, nearly 39,000 Industrial athletes are injured on the job every hour worldwide. 

When a member of any team is injured, it can overwork and slow down the remaining members, which in turn, decreases production.

Just like in any sport; if one person on your team is injured, you are forced to play without them. It puts an extreme amount of extra work and stress on the team to keep up.

Avoiding injury is a big key to a steady flow of production and quality of performance.

Just like in professional sports, conducting physical capability assessments is the first step to preventing that next injury. Organizations that add these types of assessments historically experience less injuries and foster a healthier and safer culture for their athletes.