It is summertime across the U.S. and Canada and a time we enjoy the benefits of warmer and longer days.
Since we were children, summertime always denoted fun, vacation and outdoor activities. Personally, I am looking very much forward to this summer because last summer I discovered for the first time in my life what chronic physical pain can do to one's mind and spirit.
In 1992, I founded FIT with the goal of informing as many people as possible on how to work and live their lives without having to experience the life altering pain of back, shoulder and ergonomic injuries.
As a child, I knew what it was like to see a parent in chronic pain due to a back injury. However, until last summer I had never personally experienced severe chronic pain before.
For some unknown reason I contracted Polymyalgia Rheumatica (PMR). It got to a point where I couldn't move a muscle without dire pain. I got extremely weak and lost 20 pounds. I suddenly had subjective reality on what it was like living in chronic pain. Instead of popping up out of a chair to go do something, it became a mental chain of thought, i.e. do I really need to get up? How can I best position my body to rise that would cause the least amount of pain? And how can I do this without my family having to see me in so much pain?
This was a far cry from deciding whether I should go for a swim at the beach, go to the gym, or get some yard work done.
In time, the bout with PMR passed and I am back to 100% good health. I am fortunate that there were no long term repercussions. It came, gave me insight into what chronic pain does to one's life and spirit, and left. I am fortunate for sure. Back injuries are another story. We are told by those that have had back injury events that the pain is incapacitating; that the fear of a relapse is omnipresent and that, for some, their lives will never be the same.
I only had a glimpse of this lifestyle, albeit a rather intense glimpse at that. I realized that the big part of what makes us happy, the times we sit and ponder fun things to do today, tomorrow, in the future, and with whom, was squelched like a lit match hitting a puddle.
Pain is a great deterrent to living life. We all know this and intuitively strive for fun and pleasure and to steer clear of pain whenever possible. However, as a society, we have never been taught how to use our bodies correctly to prevent back injuries. Think about this for a moment. You know more about your car than you do your back. Here is a quick confirmation of that fact: How many cylinders does your vehicle have? Is it front wheel drive or rear wheel drive? Most of you will know the answers to one or both of those questions. But I am betting that not one person reading this will know the answer to this question: How many bones (vertebrae) make up your spine?
80% of our population will have a back injury incident in their lifetime. Yet no one is teaching your employees (or children for that matter) how to "operate" their bodies correctly to prevent an insidious accumulation of micro-trauma that may lead to a life altering injury.
Over the last 20 years
Backsafe® and
Sittingsafe® on-site practical injury prevention workshops have saved organizations millions of dollars on workers' comp costs. Our training programs and our nationwide (and Canada) corps of Injury Prevention Specialists, however, have done more than that; we have saved lifestyles. After training over 1-million employees we know how to prevent back and shoulder injuries and how to help the "silent sufferers", those office workers that live every day in some degree of discomfort.
Your employees will spend more waking hours with co-workers than with their families. Backsafe and Sittingsafe are wellness based workplace injury prevention programs that prevent painful sprain/strain claims.
Recently, before a Backsafe training in Baton Rouge, LA a man wrote "I am 50 years old with a lot of aches and pains. I sure hope this training helps." Soon after the training he enthusiastically told our trainer he was going home to share the Backsafe rules and stretches with his wife. Yes, two more people that will continue to contemplate fun things to do with their family instead of the painful alternatives.
Please visit our website at
www.backsafe.com. We can help you to help your employees and lower your workers' comp costs, and help
you to feel better this summer and for many summers to come.
Sincerely,
Dennis Downing
[email protected]
QUIZ ANSWER - There are 24 vertebrae that make up your "backbone".
