Safety 3rd!

In all my years as a Registered Kinesiologist specialising in Ergonomics, it still makes me wonder,

“Why do I always and only get called when the worker is at a Stage 3 chronic musculoskeletal dis-order?”. It still boggles my mind here in 2020, as I have been working with this passion for many decades.

These days, I still get to go visit a workplace either in person with full hazmat Covid19 PPE or virtually from the comfort of my home office. Upon arrival this wounded person is so happy to see me (bonus) as they have been suffering for years trying to find help, no judging, when finally an ergonomic risk assessment is now being performed.

I can honestly say the majority of the root causes of strains and sprains (micro tearing of tissue) happens at work… 8-12 hours/day for 25-35 years!

I love to problem solve and put the whole puzzle together (workplace, employer, employee, environment etc.) to come up with solutions, to reduce pain, enhance quality of life and save companies thousands of dollars. I am fortunate as I never get bored. Some days it feels like the ERGO ER as I am called as the last resort and reducing the root cause of pain.

I realise there are so many factual reasons as to why this scenario keeps me in motion. Corporation vision, budgets, assets, bottom-line and awareness. We know strains and sprains are not sexy, health is not sexy and don’t always make the stock exchange.

Makes cognitive sense but not heart sense to me. So Jo Hurd Safety 3rd has many meanings now,

Health 1st, Happiness 2nd, Safety 3rd, 3rd degree strain and sprain?

My intention is to always lower the movement risks, for the employer and employee.

Thanks for reading my blog. Please “like” if you feel it.

Take good care,

Jo Hurd

#WorkShouldntHurt #biomechanics #ONKin #kinesiology #health #hurdabouthealth #consulting #professional #businesssense #corporate #workplaces #ergonomics #healthandsafety #dissabilitymanagement #humanresources #painsandstrains

Virtual Surgery 10 - Urban Pole Walking

Hi there

In keeping with the increased walkinbg as a positive to this pandemic, I have discovered the beauty and effectiveness of urban pole walking. Yes, you may have seen me sauntering with my MRC green urban poles. I often hear people call out, “Where is the snow Jo?” . I am thinking these peeps a cross country skiers.

Healing 3 bulging discs (Faith, Hope and Grace) and because I am a forever Registered Geek Kinesiologist (who loves to learn) I re-learned the functional strengthening technique of the lower and upper back called the “Sling” method. This method involves functional strengthening of the very powerful QL (quadratus lumborum) muscle of the low and mid-back. By walking and reaching forward with the urban poles, opposite arm to opposite leg, we engage the full upper, lower back as well as our shoulders. This is how the human body was built and designed to move.

I also discovered that urban pole walking during covid19 has really helped with physical and social distancing lol. Even before covid19, walking with my poles seemed to spark a kinder and more mindful greeting from people on the street. Maybe they thought I had a visual impairment as well. I really can’t read minds but it certainly was a nice change and vibe, kind of felt like a pre-covid19 human behaviour training.

Even if you haven’t had a low back event, walking this way, truly keeps us strong and moving with ease. I have had a lot of lovely people stop and ask me about my new sports equipment. I enjoy teaching anyone about this biomechanical workout, and now I see more people walking with urban poles! How fun is that?

I hope to see you out there, urban pole walking is finally here in North Bay. Psst, Europe has been rocking this for decades.

Stay healthy!

Jo

#urbanpolewalking #walking #biomechanics #strenthgtraining #motorcontrollearning #brain #cognitivehealth #ONKin #kinesiology #health #hurdabouthealth #consulting #professional #business

Virtual Surgery 9 - Water Walking

It’s a process, not an event.

After healing my new back, i soon discovered that my walking pattern or gait, needed to reboot as well. I have always been a avid urban walker, one that just walks out of my home and walks, saunters to where my body takes me. No agenda, kinda like living in the moment. There is so much good in the hood.

Gravity seemed to make my new walking difficult, so I headed to the beach. This beach has the perfect depth of many sandbars to choose from (Lake Nipissing). Sandy. no weeds and waves, perfect combinations for water walking training. I just started walking slowly and for short durations at first. One step at a time, rebuilding the nerves and motor pathways (muscle) to feed my legs, back and brain. The goal every day was to walk as long as my body wanted to. The first few days were a quality 5 minutes! WooHoo, i was so happy. As the summer progressed i needed to buy a waterproof watch, ah i love my new retro pink Timex watch. My dear friends joined me for my beach walks, and life suddenly got more fun socially and felt so normal.

This was the best exercise therapy i could have picked. Not only did I learn to walk again, but I started going to the beach again. So good, so simple. Two years later I still head to one of our beautiful lakes to do my more powerful water walks, happier, healthier and so strong.

Stay tuned, more healthy habits to share,

Jo

#thereislifeafterMSDS #health #walking #HurdAboutHealth #ONKin #MSDs