Preparing your Body for a Return to Work
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by Rob Haddow, RMT, Dip.SIT
I should clarify. I’m not asking about business planning, or PPE, but physical preparation.
Massage therapy is very physically demanding, and returning to any physically demanding activity from extended time off carries risk.
How to prepare?
In order to try to minimize the risk of work related injuries, we have to prepare. Physical preparation doesn't mean “stretch more”.
General conditioning is a good start, going for regular walks and the like helps as we do need endurance to make it through the day, but we can do more than that. For today’s blog, my goal is to present some of the components of a simple daily routine we can use to gradually prepare ourselves for an eventual return to work, in whatever capacity that may be.
Wrists and hands:
We use our hands a lot, so we should train them. Seems obvious enough.
Resistance training is obvious, mobility is obvious, but what about compression and shear?
The following links will demonstrate some basic movements and exercises you can use to address general range and resistance through the wrists, and forearms, as well as compression and shear for the carpals.
You could also become a part time baker and knead the dough by hand - that’ll cover most of what you need, and it tastes pretty good too.
Dynamic Towel Twisters and Isometric Towel Twisters are simple exercises to play with over time, the materials are accessible, and in all honesty they can cover the vast majority of what we want to address here. To round it out, resistance training with a Wrist Roll Up type of exercise and general End Range Conditioning can be beneficial.
Shoulders and Neck:
Consider your body mechanics when you work. How many of us work in a protracted state of head forward positioning with shoulder depression? There’s nothing inherently wrong with that posture, but it does require preparation to hold for long periods. Luckily training for that is incredibly simple if you have a few feet of floor space, and don’t mind multitasking while you watch TV.
Exercises like General Shoulder Depression use a simple isometric approach to challenge the entire upper kinetic chain and core, while adding a Press from 90/90 includes that off-axis core strength we use when we lean forward to get into forearm work.
Hips and Back:
One of the earliest lessons I learned in school with regard to career longevity revolved around safe body mechanics. By and large, we want to use our legs and hips to let gravity help us work, rather than just working with our hands and arms. This means basic mobility and resistance. The approach is simple, and effective.
The 90/90 or Camel/Cats with a twist for mobility is a great place to start while Cossack Squat Transitions cover the vast majority of what we need for resistance. If you want to get fancy, you can add Intrinsic Foot Control drills to round out the lower kinetic chain.
In closing:
Preparing for return to work is a contentious topic right now. Although we have the draft guidance from the CMTO, there’s a lot we still don’t know, especially about what a return to work will actually be like for us day-to-day. One thing that certainly can’t hurt is putting some time and effort into making sure that when we do go back, we’re physically capable of doing so. For everything listed above, the key is to respect where you’re at right now, and then build to a point that meets your needs.
Go slow, and be safe.