Common injuries in the warehouse

Warehouse work can be lucrative, provide a great deal of stability, and often require little in terms of education or trade skills. However, that attractiveness comes the risk of many injuries that you cannot ignore, such as:

Lifting injuries

In a warehouse, the primary job is to move products to and from delivery vehicles. While forklifts and other lift-assist technologies are common, there are always moments when a person must move something manually. Depending on how well-equipped the warehouse is, this might be the default.

Lifting causes a host of vulnerabilities, but often the most significant risk is to the lower back. Strains in the lower back from poor lifting form are excessively painful and often become chronic issues.

Squatting injuries

Proper form when lifting requires squatting. In a proper squat, your legs, arms, and hips work together to minimize the strain on your back. The problem is that squatting too deeply or without the proper stance can strain your knees or cause you to over-compensate.

Overcompensating in one area when lifting and squatting often leads to…

Overuse injuries

Also known as cumulative injuries or repetitive motion injuries, these injuries result from using the same muscles and motions in the same way repeatedly. Every minor sore that you work through, every pang of pain ignored, adds up. They can become debilitating sources of pain, requiring extensive treatment and rest to resolve.

Falling injuries

Even if you’ve used proper form and avoided any long-term injury problems, you still may end up injured. Warehouses must maximize space used, and many warehouse workers spend a lot of time on ladders or high above the work floor. Sometimes product falls onto workers. Sometimes workers fall from great heights.

Falling injuries can lead to broken bones, concussions or even more grievous results.

Careful working is no guarantee

More and more, companies prefer to use language like “industrial athlete” to promote a level of physical preparation that employees must maintain to work at a high level. However, professional athletes end up injured all the time. No amount of preparation or branding will stop an injury, which is why workers’ compensation benefits are available to injured workers.