Latest / Buying Local Podcast / Reducing Injuries Through Ergonomics with Catamount Consulting | Buying Local S3E56
Transcript
- 0:00All right. Welcome everyone to Buying
- 0:02Local. I'm your host, Mike Nelson from
- 0:035 Towers Media, joined today by none other than Alicia Turner
- 0:09from Catamount Consulting. Hi.
- 0:10Hi. Thanks for having me.
- 0:12Yeah. Thanks for jumping on.
- 0:15So we're here to talk about some of the fun things that you're
- 0:18doing with Catamount Consulting, specifically on the ergonomics
- 0:23segment of the service offerings.
- 0:25But I guess you know, before we get into that though, Alicia
- 0:27may, it might just be helpful for any of our listeners or
- 0:29readers just to kind of, you know, give a quick overview of
- 0:34Catamount Consulting and what they do.
- 0:36And you know, based out of Warrensburg, NY, but obviously
- 0:40some coverage all over the kind of the the Eastern seaboard, I
- 0:44guess we could say, right so. Yeah, absolutely.
- 0:47Well, Catamount's an awesome team.
- 0:49I've been with them for a little over a year now.
- 0:51And so they provide, they do a lot.
- 0:54So we do safety training on site for companies that need that
- 0:57presence. We do mobile hearing and drug
- 1:00testing, provide leadership trainings and you know, kind of
- 1:04mindset motivational things. We're getting into the keynote
- 1:08speaking where we we speak at conferences all over the
- 1:10country. And then what I do with
- 1:13Catamount is ergonomics. And so we've launched of this
- 1:16more ergonomics arm wear, we're already partnered with work
- 1:19sites, we're already working with safety and with thought
- 1:22processes and, and something catamount, you know, prides
- 1:26itself on and we pride ourselves on as we're, we're on the kind
- 1:29of the cutting edge of things, right?
- 1:30So we're not trying to be reactive.
- 1:32We're trying to anticipate, we're trying to continually
- 1:35evolve and learn and apply, you know, the latest neuroscience,
- 1:38you know, the latest techniques, the latest technology to what we
- 1:41do. And so we're already at these
- 1:43work sites, we're already on the ground doing safety.
- 1:45And so we've partnered together with the ergonomics component
- 1:49where I actually can go out and we have another colleague, Dr.
- 1:51Matt Jeffs, who does the same thing that I do.
- 1:54And we're able to go out and say, hey, these are risks and
- 1:57kind of preemptively address some of these things or, or
- 2:00input custom stretch and flex programs.
- 2:02And, and actually one of the things we do that no one else is
- 2:05doing is we're quantifying risk. And so we're actually able,
- 2:08because one of the hardest things in ergonomics is to say,
- 2:11you know, give people a number and that quantitative data,
- 2:14right? It's like this is bad and this
- 2:16idea is better, but we're able to leverage some technology to
- 2:19say, hey, listen, this is a risk of X and we're going to improve
- 2:23it through this intervention by X.
- 2:25And so we're able to give people some things they can take to
- 2:27upper management and that they can use to justify some of our
- 2:30suggestions and our intervention.
- 2:32So kind of broadly and yes, we're all over the East Coast,
- 2:35some work in the Midwest, some work up in the Northwest, all
- 2:39over the country is kind of the reach of of Catamount and I'm
- 2:42the headquarters of their North Carolina office here in Central
- 2:44North Carolina. Very nice.
- 2:47Yeah. So, you know, I, I feel like we
- 2:50should probably, well, actually before I actually ask this
- 2:54question, one of the things like as you talk about all those
- 2:59different services that Catamount offers, I think, you
- 3:04know, originally, obviously they started with a lot of the safety
- 3:06training like MSHA and OSHA certifications and
- 3:10recertifications and trainings. And so obviously that applies to
- 3:14the, you know, we'll say the blue collar world, right, as far
- 3:18as contractors and mining and you know, they cover a lot of
- 3:22construction and trades. And are are you guys working
- 3:26with other fields outside of that or is that still just the
- 3:28primary focus? No, we're working with all sorts
- 3:31of I would say primarily the top ones we work with are
- 3:34construction and mining, you know, but we're branching into
- 3:38the mindset and branching into the ergonomic space.
- 3:40We're in general industry, we're in logistics, we're in
- 3:43manufacturing. And so we're really branching
- 3:45into a lot of these different places, you know, as well as
- 3:48being able to work with the white collar, you know,
- 3:51workforce in mindset training and even in some of the
- 3:54ergonomic space and some of the speaking things.
- 3:56So we're, I would say the heart of cat about is always going to
- 3:59be the blue collar, right? It's going to be the the men and
- 4:02women who are the industry leaders, you know, the ones who
- 4:05are keeping the backbone of America built and safe and
- 4:07thriving. But we're really spreading into
- 4:09a lot of different spaces, so. OK, Yeah, because that, you
- 4:12know, obviously from working with you guys, I know a little
- 4:15bit about the the ergonomics and learning more everyday.
- 4:19And so, you know, ergonomics obviously.
- 4:22Yeah, if you're in the construction field and you're,
- 4:25you know, on your feet all day and moving and different things,
- 4:28or if you're in manufacturing and you have repetitive moments
- 4:31or movements, I'm sorry. But also like, you know,
- 4:34healthcare workers that aren't really considered trades and and
- 4:37blue collar, but still they're on their feet all day.
- 4:40They're some of them, you know, some of these hospitals are
- 4:42massive and they're walking miles and miles every single
- 4:46day. And that can lead to a lot of
- 4:48issues. You know what, what I was going
- 4:51to say before was, you know, we should probably put some
- 4:55definition on ergonomics, right? Just because like, you know, my,
- 5:00if you weren't in it, you would hear ergonomics and you might
- 5:03think like the, the Doctor Scholl's pads that you put in
- 5:06your shoes or something along those lines.
- 5:08And, and this is so much more than orthotics or, or those
- 5:12kinds of things. So can you kind of just give us
- 5:15a, an overview of what you mean by ergonomics and, and, and
- 5:19specifically in the workplace? Absolutely.
- 5:21I love that question because you're right, it can mean many
- 5:24different things. So many different people.
- 5:25Some people here ergonomics who think of insoles, others think
- 5:28it's just stretching. Other, others think it's, you
- 5:31know, I'm going to get laid off because they're going to replace
- 5:33me with a robot, right? Like it, it means a lot of
- 5:35things. But really at its base, all
- 5:37ergonomics is, is it's the science of matching the
- 5:40workplace to the worker. And so anyone, whether I'm
- 5:44working remotely at my computer, it matters how I'm sitting, it
- 5:48matters how I'm focusing on what I'm doing.
- 5:49Ergonomics is important to me here.
- 5:51And just like you said, the hospital worker, the CNA that's
- 5:54moving patients and having to get people out of bed and roll
- 5:57them around and walking miles and miles, it matters a ton to
- 5:59them. And they may be at different
- 6:01risks than a remote office worker.
- 6:03But ergonomics it it's broadest is it's just matching the
- 6:08workplace to the human body. And so I like to say it's like
- 6:12sitting in a folding chair, like it technically holds you, right?
- 6:15It's kind of fit to the body. But a chair with armrests and a
- 6:19headrests and a lumbar support and a footrest, that is an
- 6:22ergonomic chair because it's made to fit the human body
- 6:25rather than me folding myself into a folding chair, if that
- 6:28kind of makes sense. And so, and then another part of
- 6:31ergonomics, this is something that Doctor Jeff says, I love
- 6:36how he's put the put words to this and had kind of as creative
- 6:39framework. And we use it at Catamount.
- 6:40So it's our cope framework. So when we think of ergonomics,
- 6:44you know, we're thinking about it in the context of injuries,
- 6:47right? So it's physical, right?
- 6:49It's all about the body. And we think of ergonomic
- 6:51solutions all having to do with the body, right?
- 6:53So we're really focused in on that P of cope.
- 6:56So the C in COPE stands for cognitive, our mind, our focus,
- 7:00our distraction. The O is for organizational
- 7:03ergonomics, you know, policies and procedures, things that the
- 7:07company is doing, communication. P is the physical ergonomics,
- 7:10which most of us are more familiar with.
- 7:12And then E is that environmental ergonomics?
- 7:14Because it's a whole different story if I'm doing a lifting
- 7:17task in a climate controlled warehouse versus in the middle
- 7:20of July, I'm driving a truck and I'm doing deliveries in Florida,
- 7:24right? Or I've been in the -20° freezer
- 7:27where they're packing and stocking pallets in that kind of
- 7:30a cold place, right? We're going to run into
- 7:32different things based on the environment.
- 7:34And so when we're coming in and we're doing these assessments,
- 7:37we're not just looking at the physical.
- 7:38Of course, that's part of it. And our interventions are not
- 7:41all aimed at the physical, right?
- 7:42Because what do so many of us have?
- 7:44Well, you can't see it in our pockets, these little devices
- 7:47that are taking our attention spans and eroding them.
- 7:49And so they're actually creating entire new injury categories.
- 7:53The struck by object or equipment is now labeled as a
- 7:57distraction injury. So that has nothing to do with
- 7:59my body or the fact that I didn't stretch and flex.
- 8:01If I'm distracted and I step out in front of a forklift or I am
- 8:05not paying attention and I stick my hand into a pinch point.
- 8:07So we're seeing a huge number of work related injuries actually
- 8:11coming from cognitive issues and distraction.
- 8:14And so when we're coming in, we're looking comprehensively
- 8:17and holistically at the job to make sure we're addressing each
- 8:20of those 4 ergonomic components. And you know, I'm just curious,
- 8:25how did you get into ergonomics? I mean, I know that you, you
- 8:28have a little bit of training, right, A little bit of.
- 8:31Yeah, so though that's a good question too, cuz it's so I am a
- 8:35physical therapist by training. I had my got my doctor of
- 8:37physical therapy degree from UNC Chapel Hill.
- 8:40And you know, when I was in school, we have to do these
- 8:43clinical affiliations where we get, you know, hands on on the
- 8:45job training. And on my last affiliation down
- 8:48in Charlotte, I was working with this excellent physical
- 8:50therapist, Susan Novak, who loved ergonomics.
- 8:53And so I actually as a student went with her to an industrial
- 8:56site that one of her patients worked at.
- 8:58Cuz she's like, I need to know what you do.
- 9:00Like this is just, if you think this is an outpatient physical
- 9:03therapist too of her own time, just went with him to work
- 9:06because she wanted to know better how to treat.
- 9:07I mean, she's just excellent. And so I was like, wait a
- 9:10minute, we can leave the clinic so we can do this.
- 9:13I didn't even know that was possible.
- 9:15And so I was able back in 2014, I had an opportunity through
- 9:20Martin Marietta to be able to go out into their quarries and do
- 9:23some prevention, some education and some assessments.
- 9:26And so that's what really got me into the world was number one, I
- 9:30was exposed to it as a student. And then I worked in the clinic
- 9:33for years and I worked with a lot of workers compensation
- 9:36patients who had had, you know, their rotator cuff repair, their
- 9:39total hip, total shoulder, total knee.
- 9:41And I was rehabbing them back to their jobs and I started talking
- 9:44to him and I was like, oh man, you know, we can't avoid like
- 9:47the car accident or the acute trauma is something heavy falls
- 9:50on you, right? We're going to need to to rehab
- 9:52that. But there's so many of these
- 9:54chronic injuries that over time we're having micro trauma, micro
- 9:57trauma, micro trauma. And one day we have the last
- 10:00piece of straw and they're putting on their sock in the
- 10:01morning, right? And they hear a pop in their
- 10:03back and they have to have surgery.
- 10:05And so I was so frustrated at how I was handcuffed working
- 10:09downstream with someone on back surgery #3 and I thought, if I
- 10:13could have only gotten to you 20 years ago and showed you how to
- 10:16do a hip hinge, if only I could have gone in and your company
- 10:20could have spent $200 to raise this thing to waist tight.
- 10:23So you're not bending for seven hours a day, right?
- 10:24Tiny, tiny things that would make such a huge difference.
- 10:28And so when that's the opportunity came, I thought, Oh
- 10:30my goodness, it was the meeting kind of my passions because I, I
- 10:33got into PT because I want to help people.
- 10:35I want to help people function at their best capability, their
- 10:39top tier function, whether they're at work or home or
- 10:41hobbies or whatever it is. And so being able to be, you
- 10:45know, upstream, as I call it, you know, most traditional
- 10:47physical therapy is downstream. You're, you're getting people
- 10:49after they're hurt and it's just a slog uphill all the time.
- 10:53Now I have the opportunity to get in to new hires the day that
- 10:57they're trained that, you know, and to come in and say, hey,
- 10:59here's how you bend 18 year old guy, like here's how you
- 11:03activate your glutes. And what I'm able to do then is
- 11:0640 years down the line, those people aren't going to be on
- 11:08back surgery #5 so that's kind of how I was able to get plugged
- 11:11into the ergonomics world. Very cool.
- 11:15It's really fascinating how much you guys with ergonomics and
- 11:19just as a company in general, how focused you are on really
- 11:24focusing on being proactive and, and future forward and, and
- 11:28trying to really instill ways to prevent injury, increase safety
- 11:36by all these measures, you know, upstream as you're, you're
- 11:38calling it, right? Like so, so as you look at what
- 11:44you're doing with Catamount, what, how are you guys bringing
- 11:47ergonomics to your clients? Like what does that look like
- 11:49right now? Yeah, so the fun thing and kind
- 11:53of the hard thing about what we do is it can look so many
- 11:56different ways. And so it's it's really unique.
- 11:59One thing we don't do is the cookie cutter approach when I
- 12:01don't just have a package thing that I hand them or oh, here's
- 12:03their stretch and flex. Here's this, here's what I would
- 12:06do because every single work site, every single job is really
- 12:09going to be different. And so we have a lot of options.
- 12:13One of the big things is people are wanting, you know, ergonomic
- 12:16assessments to come in and say, Hey, look at these jobs.
- 12:19Tell us what you think, What could we change?
- 12:21And so that's one Ave. and we, this is where we use computer
- 12:26vision. So kind of like an AI powered
- 12:28tool to be able to do some 3D or some motion capture where we're
- 12:32able to overlay a pretty cool. There's examples of it on our
- 12:35website, but a little 3D skeleton that's going to turn
- 12:37red, orange or yellow based on how the joints are impacted.
- 12:40So we're able to assess, Hey, here's where we think the strain
- 12:43is on your joints. We have a proprietary Catamount
- 12:47fatigue index where they'll just get a number because so many
- 12:50ergonomic assessments, you know, they say high risk and danger
- 12:53and there's that nocebo language, you know, that we've
- 12:55talked about before, right? Or if I believe in negative
- 12:58thought, it's going to have negative outcomes, right?
- 13:01So we try to avoid that at all costs.
- 13:03And so when the reason that I created this was because I was
- 13:07so sick of handing someone a Reba or a RULA.
- 13:11And just to define for the listeners, there's some gold
- 13:14standard ergonomic assessment tools.
- 13:16They're from the 80s. They're not the best, but it's
- 13:18what kind of the best we've got right now.
- 13:20But the Reba is the rapid entire body assessment and it's scored
- 13:24out of 15 points and it's based on a posture during a task.
- 13:27And there's the RULA, the rapid upper limb assessment scored out
- 13:30of seven. Also, it's more focused on the
- 13:32upper extremity, but you're basically look at the worst
- 13:35posture someone assumes during a task and you calculate the
- 13:38score. OK.
- 13:38So again, it's it's all posture. We don't take the C, the O or
- 13:41the E into consideration. It's purely P, but it's at least
- 13:44somewhere to start. But what we get is you get this
- 13:47dark red, you're high risk. This is a immediate action
- 13:51level. And what it does is it makes
- 13:52people think my, is my job super unsafe, right?
- 13:56And the companies are very not happy with me for coming in and
- 13:59instilling fear. And then also, if a worker
- 14:02knows, hold on a second, they know my job is high risk and
- 14:04they're not doing anything right?
- 14:05It just breeds, it breeds ickiness.
- 14:08And then if I know that the company knows and they're not
- 14:10going to do anything, a moral conundrum for me there as well.
- 14:14You know, So what we came up with with the Catamount fatigue
- 14:17Index is we still take the Reba, we take the RULA, we take that
- 14:19Nyash lifting equation, but we factor them all in and we come
- 14:23up with just a percentage and we say, hey, listen, this is your
- 14:26relative risk of fatigue. Here's the main joints impacted.
- 14:30So look, I looked at this task and we've got an you're an 8.6
- 14:32out of 10 on the fatigue index. OK, So I'm not saying, Oh my
- 14:36gosh, you're absolutely going to get a shoulder injury from this.
- 14:39No, but there's going to be some fatigue and tiredness in that
- 14:41shoulder. There's going to be some fatigue
- 14:42in the low back. I'm coming in with this
- 14:44recommendation and I can tell you it's going to reduce this
- 14:47risk, this relative risk, this fatigue index by 20%, right?
- 14:51So we're able, when we come into the jobs, that's what we're
- 14:53giving them. So we're saying, I'm not just
- 14:55slapping high risk on it and walking away.
- 14:57And I'm not handing you, this is what I did way back when I got
- 15:00started. I would hand them these big
- 15:02thick packets with like a million ideas and just be like,
- 15:05and it's so overwhelming to everybody, right?
- 15:07So we're able to streamline and prioritize and say, hey, let's
- 15:10take our highest fatigue areas, let's look at the cost, here's
- 15:13your ROI on my recommendations, trying to those things matter.
- 15:17And so we're doing that. But what I've noticed is if I
- 15:19just come in and I make my recommendations and I do the
- 15:23assessments, I know they're true and they're right and they're
- 15:25good. And sometimes management knows,
- 15:28but it does not translate to the frontline.
- 15:31And So what I found that is so essential and it's something
- 15:33that is in Catamount's blood is that education.
- 15:36So if I come in, I'm not just coming in and saying here's how
- 15:39you do it. Go bye, go do this.
- 15:41I'm telling them why I'm getting in front of the workers.
- 15:44If train the trainer is an option to do too, where we we
- 15:47try to equip the trainers. If as much as I can get in front
- 15:49of the front line workers, I'm like, hey guys, here's a picture
- 15:52of your spine. Here's what happens to your disc
- 15:55when you're bending all the time.
- 15:56And here's why we recommend extension because to get a room
- 15:59full of blue collar workers to put their hands on their hips
- 16:01and lean back, it's difficult. But once they see what happens
- 16:04to their disc when they do it, they're all they're all about
- 16:07it, right? They're all about leaning back
- 16:08because they understand the why. And so that's my huge passion.
- 16:12I get excited and I talk real fast, but when I see that light
- 16:15bulb come on for people and they get the why, they're going to be
- 16:18all over it. They're going to do these things
- 16:20because they understand the impact it's having and it
- 16:22catamount we are all all about the why.
- 16:25We're not just coming in and saying do this thing because I
- 16:28said so or do this or do that. You know, no, we need to win
- 16:31people over by motivating them and telling them about the why.
- 16:34And so that that's really kind of our heart behind all of it.
- 16:37But to answer your question, better trainings, ergonomic
- 16:41assessments, custom stretch and flex programs, interventions,
- 16:45new hire training, kind of you name it.
- 16:46We're able to go from basic to a, you know, white glove type
- 16:49service for an ergonomics program.
- 16:51Yeah. Now I so tell me about the
- 16:54stretch and flex, 'cause I know that's obviously that's
- 16:56something that we've talked about quite a bit.
- 16:57And I know it's something that as a company, Catamount talks
- 17:00about a lot and it sounds like it's something that is
- 17:05accessible. We'll say, yeah, so, so give us
- 17:08give us the rundown on the stretch and flex.
- 17:10Absolutely. So I love stretch and flexes and
- 17:15catamounts is unique because we've done it in like a three
- 17:18tiered system. So it kind of got a beginner
- 17:21intermediate in advance because there's nothing worse than
- 17:23you're just having to do the same exact thing every single
- 17:26morning. And then it becomes habit, it
- 17:28becomes routine. And so you know, theirs are
- 17:30based on a lot of different, you know, yoga type poses.
- 17:33We're incorporating multiple muscle groups, but what we've
- 17:35also done is we've incorporated breath work to help with that
- 17:39mind body connection, to help with that cognitive ergonomics
- 17:42to get us focused. We've incorporated balance
- 17:44because that's a huge area that's left unaddressed in
- 17:47almost every safety program. Yet balance deficiencies are a
- 17:52huge cause of slip strips and falls of different kinds of
- 17:54injuries. And so we incorporate balance in
- 17:57there as well. And so we're trying to, if I get
- 17:5910 to 15 minutes with your employees in the morning, I'm
- 18:02going to try to hit as many places as I can.
- 18:04And we also with the stretch and flex, we're trying to do more
- 18:06dynamic movements, you know, so there's a static stretch, right?
- 18:09Hold for 15 seconds, hold for 15 seconds, Sure.
- 18:13But if I can incorporate some active movements and you know,
- 18:16do some, some neural releases, do do a median nerve glide in
- 18:20there to get the nerves moving, get that brain body connection
- 18:24firing, tighten the glutes, tighten my transverse abdominis,
- 18:27all of those deep stabilizers, getting them activated in the
- 18:30mornings. We're doing a whole lot more
- 18:32than just a stretch and flex, right?
- 18:33I don't really love the term stretch and flex as we're really
- 18:36doing a whole body activation from the brain to the feet,
- 18:40right, for balance. And so that's what we're doing
- 18:42when we come in with companies and there is kind of a standard
- 18:46flow that they've used before with companies.
- 18:48But what we're doing more and more is we're creating custom.
- 18:51Because if I'm working with a group of office worker ladies,
- 18:55right, who are mostly in their 40s to 50s, I'm going to have
- 18:58them doing a very different set than if I'm with a group of
- 19:01construction workers ranging from 20 to 60 that work outside
- 19:04predominantly, right? So we're trying to create these
- 19:06custom programs that, that are progressive.
- 19:09So that's kind of our in a nutshell.
- 19:12Yeah, I, you know, I'm just curious.
- 19:15It's funny because I'm thinking about this and I'm like, man,
- 19:17I've been on my fair share of job sites over the last 25 years
- 19:22and I don't think I've ever seen any of those men or women
- 19:24warming up before starting to do their job for the day.
- 19:28So I is, is that kind of like what you're suggesting and
- 19:32recommending though, is that when people are, are, are they
- 19:36doing it before they start their shift?
- 19:38Are they doing it throughout their shift?
- 19:40Like how does it work from that standpoint?
- 19:42Yes, yes, all of it. All.
- 19:46Of it all of it. So that's another thing is I so
- 19:50like you said, most job sites are doing nothing so I am never
- 19:53going to say like you're only doing stretch and flex in the
- 19:56mornings that's still great. But the very best thing is I
- 19:59stretch for 15 minutes and then I go sit in a loader for four
- 20:03hours and then I have lunch and then I get back in my loader.
- 20:06Do you think my stretches from 7637 AM are doing anything right
- 20:10now? No, my recommendation and this
- 20:13is something else that when I come in and I do the education,
- 20:15we add in these micro. Breaks where you take 60
- 20:19seconds, anyone can do it. And we have you know, special
- 20:22stuff for equipment operators where hey, every two hours I
- 20:24want you to get out of your loader and I want you to walk
- 20:26three times around it, do 3 back bends, do 3 stretches and climb
- 20:29right back in it. And what that does is it's just
- 20:32enough to get blood flow to these stagnant places.
- 20:34It's going to turn muscles on that we're off.
- 20:36And so it's, it's are the favorite PT answer.
- 20:39You know, we joke is it depends, right?
- 20:41But for the most part, I, I think doing it as much as
- 20:45possible. If your job isn't crazy
- 20:47repetitive and you're moving all differently, like you're a
- 20:50mechanic, right? And you're going to be in one
- 20:52position. My big thing I teach people is,
- 20:54you know, we're not in a perfect world where we can stop every
- 20:59awkward posture, right? Because awkward postures are a
- 21:01risk factor for muscular skeletal disorder.
- 21:03But what I can teach you is to reverse your posture.
- 21:06So we might have the stretch influx in the morning to wake
- 21:08everything up, and then we're going to do it again after
- 21:09lunch. But throughout your day with
- 21:12this education component, I know that if I'm in an awkward
- 21:15posture where I am crouched on my knees, leaning to the left,
- 21:18twisting my head to the right, and I'm working on something
- 21:20that the minute I come up from that, I'm going to turn my head
- 21:23to the left, right. I'm going to, I'm going to lean
- 21:26the opposite direction. I'm going to stand up, I'm going
- 21:28to stretch my knees out and I'm going to go into lumbar
- 21:30extension. So now I'm reversing those
- 21:33movements rather than just I'm going to stand up straight after
- 21:36I do it, I'm actually going to go the other way to kind of
- 21:39reset, get the blood flowing, get the muscle length back to
- 21:42normal. Because what we see so much is,
- 21:45you know, people bend and bend and bend and then they stand up
- 21:47straight or they're gripping this tool.
- 21:49And what happens is we move into an anaerobic environment, a lack
- 21:53of oxygen when our muscle is just clenched and clenched and
- 21:56clenched without a break. And so just unclenching it isn't
- 22:00always enough. We actually need to move into
- 22:02some extension. We need to do some contract
- 22:04relaxed behavior to flush out the waste products of that
- 22:08anaerobic process, get oxygen rich, blood flowing back in
- 22:13there. Because what we see so much is
- 22:15things like carpal tunnel, you know, some rotator cuff issues,
- 22:18they're caused by prolonged deprivations are a lack of blood
- 22:22flow. So the more we can keep the
- 22:25blood flowing and there's many ways to do that, the better to
- 22:28prevent injury. So it's, I know these are very
- 22:31long answers to very short questions, but that's kind of,
- 22:34you know, we're trying. And I, I try to teach people 10
- 22:37different ways to skin the cat, right?
- 22:39Because I'm somebody that the reason I love ergonomics.
- 22:42And you know, I got to the point where I was dreading going into
- 22:45the clinic every day because I'm like, it's the same thing.
- 22:48It's the same thing every day. I mean, I loved it and I loved
- 22:50helping people, but as I learn more about how I'm wired, I like
- 22:53to bounce around from thing to thing and project to project and
- 22:56have, you know, new things. So I tried to approach, you
- 23:01know, jobs the same way, say, hey, if you want to kind of
- 23:03bounce, here's some ways you can squeeze.
- 23:05Here's a few stretches you can do, here's a few activations you
- 23:08can do, here's some breathing. And it's all going to accomplish
- 23:11the same thing, which is making sure my brain and body are
- 23:14connected. I'm focused, I'm present where I
- 23:16am. I'm not in automatic mode
- 23:18mentally. I am in my, you know, the good
- 23:21part of my focused brain and I've got blood flowing
- 23:24throughout my whole body and I we, I teach them ways, You know,
- 23:27it's going to be different for someone that operates equipment
- 23:29and grips the controls that controls and sits versus
- 23:32somebody who's welding and, you know, standing and holding that
- 23:35that device so. Yeah, and listen for the record
- 23:39on podcasts. We love long answers.
- 23:41OK, well, there you go. It's your lucky day.
- 23:44You know, it it, it makes my job way easier as an interviewer if
- 23:48you're given long answers. So it's, it's really
- 23:53interesting. The whole thing about the
- 23:54stretch and flex is kind of interesting to me just because,
- 23:57you know, I don't know, I don't know if it's like humans as a
- 24:01species or our culture, but we're, we're so reactive and
- 24:05it's usually we, we, we wait until we have a pain so awful
- 24:10that we, we can't do what we normally do, like sit, like use
- 24:13the example sitting in the loader.
- 24:15You know, it's like I, I'm not going to do anything about any
- 24:18of this until it hurts me all day every day to be sitting in
- 24:21the lower and in, in the loader and, and 'cause I got lower back
- 24:25pain or 'cause my, you know, my hip flexors are tight or
- 24:28whatever it is. And it's just, I do you, do you
- 24:32find that, is that a challenge with what you guys do is trying
- 24:35to get people to be more proactive and like, hey, don't
- 24:38wait until you're sitting in the loader for 8 hours a day in
- 24:40pain. Like we can just avoid that
- 24:42whole situation altogether. No, that's, that's a really
- 24:45great question. And yes, absolutely we run up
- 24:47into that. But so a phrase that I love,
- 24:50it's not mine, but like motion is lotion, right?
- 24:52And we think about motion, any kind of movement, you know, your
- 24:56best posture is your next posture.
- 24:58The best thing you can do is move.
- 25:00I try to drill these things into people's heads And yes, we do
- 25:03run into that a lot where there's, there's also company
- 25:06cultures of grin and bear it. This is part of it.
- 25:10This is deal with it. You're, you're weak.
- 25:13Are you really going to sit here and complain about pain?
- 25:15Some people hide stuff. A study actually just came out
- 25:17from it was a national study on musculoskeletal disorders.
- 25:22I can't remember the, the name of the organization.
- 25:24It's a huge thing, but 30% of people in pain at work don't
- 25:29report it. That is huge.
- 25:32And so the productivity, that's a big number.
- 25:35So if you think about the productivity that we have no
- 25:38idea that is being lost out there of 30% of people are not
- 25:42reporting it. I think it's the National Safety
- 25:44Council that just came out with it.
- 25:46But what what happened to me is when I went out onto job sites
- 25:49and this is companies that have excellent safety, there is safe
- 25:52place for people to report, right?
- 25:53It's not, there's no punitive stuff if you report an injury.
- 25:57And I'd be out there with the safety manager and people would
- 25:59come up to me and say like, my knee is killing, my shoulder's
- 26:02killing me, my neck is killing me, my back is killing me.
- 26:04And the safety guy's jaw is hanging.
- 26:05He's like, we had no idea. And I was like, half of your
- 26:08people are in agony. And they're like, what?
- 26:10They'd have no clue about it, you know?
- 26:12But I'm kind of the safe. And I'm like, well, I can't, I
- 26:15can't assess and treat you because then we're getting into
- 26:17recordable, reportable territory.
- 26:18But here are some generic stretches.
- 26:20So I think educating the management that hey, giving them
- 26:24these numbers, telling them these facts and then having a
- 26:28culture that says, you know, 'cause like I talked about
- 26:31before, chronic injuries are far and above and away the most, you
- 26:36know, high cause of musculoskeletals and days away
- 26:38from work, work related musculoskeletal disorders,
- 26:40right? Like there's the acute accidents
- 26:42and then really the most of it is chronic micro trauma.
- 26:45So there's something that we say, you know, in the PT world,
- 26:48you are sub symptomatic. Damage is occurring, problems
- 26:53are stacking up, but our bodies are phenomenal at compensation.
- 26:56Okay, they it'll shift load and it'll do this and it'll do that.
- 27:00But then we talked about that straw that breaks the camels
- 27:03back that all of a sudden one day, 9 out of 10, I am
- 27:06symptomatic. And not just symptomatic, I'm
- 27:08disabled, I can't work, I cannot do my job.
- 27:11And so I'm out of work. I'm in a surgery, I'm in rehab
- 27:14for 6 to 8 weeks. And so nobody wants to go
- 27:18through all of that. And so I think it's that
- 27:19communicating upfront that, hey, listen, I'm not here to have
- 27:23workers comp cases suddenly go driven through the woodwork.
- 27:26But I want to encourage you guys to know this.
- 27:30These are the risk factors for WMS, DS, work related
- 27:34musculoskeletal disorders. These are, you know, repetition,
- 27:36contact, stress, forced vibration and awkward postures.
- 27:39You know, those are the physical ones.
- 27:41And how can we in each of these areas educate the workforce to
- 27:46reduce those risks, to be aware because shoot, I would always
- 27:50tell people 75% of my job is done.
- 27:52If you can look around with a fresh set of eyes and think,
- 27:56huh, could we store those here? We have racks where we store
- 27:59that over here. I went to this site and they had
- 28:01this. Can we get that right?
- 28:03I so many of my ideas come from the guys and gals that are doing
- 28:08it 8/10/12 hours a day. I have such a huge respect for
- 28:11the man. Just the, the work ethic and the
- 28:14grit in these men and women. And I learned from them.
- 28:18What have they tried? What's worked, you know, what
- 28:20hasn't worked? Suggestions.
- 28:22And so, you know, really being collaborative and able to come
- 28:25up with solutions. And I think too, when they see
- 28:27me out there, you know, I have climbed a ladder at a rock
- 28:31quarry in Nova Scotia in the middle of winter.
- 28:34I have been in the freezer. I've been out in the heat in
- 28:37South Florida pouring sweat, carrying lumbar supports.
- 28:40And but you know, I've, I've been strapped into the buddy
- 28:42seat of a haul truck bouncing along.
- 28:44I've, you know, I've, I've gotten out there and I think
- 28:46there's some respects where I can speak there like language
- 28:48and say like, I've not, I'm not just coming from an ivory tower
- 28:51issuing mandates from on high of, of a perfect universe,
- 28:54right? No, I've, I've done it.
- 28:56I'm involved in research with the University of Florida.
- 28:58We're on doing all sorts of ergonomics research and
- 29:00preventing low back pain. And so I'm trying, you know, as
- 29:03much as I can, I'm trying to equip myself to be able to speak
- 29:07their language, but then translate it into the language
- 29:10for the C-Suite and translate it into the language for the
- 29:13researchers that are coming up with the the studies that are
- 29:15going to affect in 10 years what we're doing right now.
- 29:18And so that's kind of how we are coming at things with with
- 29:22everybody. And so there are still going to
- 29:24be people who don't get on board.
- 29:25But that's the other reason that the employer can say, oh, well,
- 29:29I don't care if you don't want to do it, you're going to do it.
- 29:31And another thing I like to try is I like to have a different
- 29:35person lead it every week because that forces ownership.
- 29:39You have to, you know, I want them, I, I talk to them.
- 29:41I want you to correct the stretches.
- 29:42You know, I leave a book with descriptions.
- 29:45I make sure I say, hey, if someone's having pain here,
- 29:47here's modifications you can make with this stretch.
- 29:49Or, you know, here's what we red flags, right?
- 29:52If you ever have you do a neck movement and numbness shoots
- 29:54them into your hand. Like don't, don't do that.
- 29:56We're not wanting to increase pain.
- 29:57But I, I've found that about having people kind of take
- 30:00ownership and they tease each other and they have fun with it.
- 30:04I've seen buy in from people you would have never, never thought.
- 30:10And I have a exercise called the hip hinge that I would do.
- 30:13It's like a sciatic nerve glide where I'd have people squat in a
- 30:15hinge with their hands out in front of them.
- 30:17So they all started calling it the Harley rider, you know, And
- 30:20so they would have so much they like get in your Harley stands
- 30:23and they'd be hysterical and they'd be laughing.
- 30:25And you know, what it does too, is it starts off the day with
- 30:29camaraderie. It starts off the day with a
- 30:32focus on safety. Even if you're not saying it,
- 30:34the very fact that the company has set aside time, carved it
- 30:37out to give you guys time to do these warmups.
- 30:39And then what it also does is it fosters a sense of community
- 30:42because a lot of time, you know, you go to work and you're,
- 30:45you're off to your separate workstations, right?
- 30:47Equipment operators and the, the guys inside the plant might
- 30:50never intermingle, right? Or the guys that are in, in the
- 30:53distribution center, right, they're going to go to their
- 30:55part and the other guys are going to go to packaging and
- 30:57some are in shipping. So it brings everybody together.
- 31:00And that's another really cool thing is, you know, the more
- 31:02that we can foster that community and that
- 31:04communication, it, it has an impact on the culture.
- 31:07And that's an intangible that is worth its weight in gold, right?
- 31:11To have a safety culture and a high morale and an organization
- 31:14and a stretch and flex program is something that does raise
- 31:18morale. It just does.
- 31:20Yeah, that it, it's well, and I, I, I have to assume that there's
- 31:24a, you know, of course these are these are all businesses.
- 31:27And so the bottom line is, is always, you know, in our mind's
- 31:31eye as far as what we're doing and what we're having team
- 31:34members doing. And I have to assume that there
- 31:37is a way for you guys to show like, hey, here's what workers
- 31:42comp and employee injury and these things cost you.
- 31:46And yes, there is a cost associated with paying your team
- 31:50members to do these stretch. And you know, like, I just think
- 31:53about like, yeah, I've got 10 employees doing this.
- 31:55They're making 25 bucks an hour. That means I'm paying 250 bucks
- 31:59an hour for people to to, to stretch and flex.
- 32:02But on the other side of it, there's a really a cost savings
- 32:05as well as it's just good for your employees so that you know,
- 32:09you want to take care of your team.
- 32:10Is it, is that fair? Is, I mean, is there a, is there
- 32:12a way for you guys to be able to show that benefit?
- 32:15Yeah, absolutely. And that you can get, we can get
- 32:17into the weeds with it too. But you know, with an injury,
- 32:19there's direct costs and then there's indirect costs.
- 32:22So the direct costs are really easy to calculate, right.
- 32:24What are the actual scans and doctor's visits and you know,
- 32:28time away from work and you know, the sickness and absence
- 32:31leave pay, all those things are the direct cost.
- 32:33But then the indirect costs are having to train someone else,
- 32:36right? And a loss of productivity and a
- 32:38decrease in morale. And you know, all there's, they
- 32:40say that, you know, indirect costs are often 200% or 250% of
- 32:45direct cost. So one number that's staggering.
- 32:47And this is true. One muscle strain on average has
- 32:52a direct and indirect cost of $21,000.
- 32:56This is a strain, like a back strain, right?
- 32:58This isn't surgery. This isn't, but like one strain
- 33:01is what that's what it adds up to.
- 33:03So that's a really easy number to come in and say hello.
- 33:06If doing this program can prevent one back sprain, your
- 33:10ROI is automatically, you know, 400% or whatever, you know,
- 33:14whatever. It depends on what we're coming
- 33:15in to do. But that's also how we calculate
- 33:18and we're giving people, hey, this is going to be your return
- 33:20on investment. Like the actual hard numbers and
- 33:25one thing that we've run into and this is probably the worst
- 33:29companies that I've had a relationship with are, you know,
- 33:33a lot of times like more middle management brings me in, right,
- 33:35like AEH and S or safety manager HR, that kind of thing.
- 33:39They see they're they are intimate with the front lines.
- 33:42A lot of them came from the front lines.
- 33:44So they know what these guys and gals are doing every single day.
- 33:47So they bring me in and we create these programs, but then
- 33:49we've got the upper management who is unfortunately very
- 33:53removed from the day-to-day. They're staring at the red,
- 33:55they're staring at the black. That's all they can see.
- 33:58You know, So there was one company I worked for who it was
- 34:02just atrocious what was going on.
- 34:03They were having 46% turnover. They were paying $17 million a
- 34:09year in new hire training, right?
- 34:11And they were just hemorrhaging and then that then they were
- 34:13having injuries just, and they had, unfortunately, they were
- 34:16set up to be so successful. There were so many good and
- 34:19possible things. And so they brought me in and I,
- 34:21I spent a long time, I came in and did a full observation and I
- 34:24said, hey, you guys, I could put this program together for you.
- 34:27And we'd roll it out over the course of the next 18 months,
- 34:30you know, and I think it had like a $35,000 price tag.
- 34:33But this is a plant with 1700 employees, right?
- 34:34This was a massive, massive undertaking.
- 34:37And it was also an 8 hour drive away from me.
- 34:40So I was like, listen, I will come in and we will.
- 34:42And we addressed every barrier. We were going to do everything
- 34:45and they were writing $17 million checks and I was like,
- 34:48we will spread out 35 grand over a year and a half to do this for
- 34:52you. And they're like too expensive
- 34:54now, you know, So they are so disconnected.
- 34:57And I knew what the results would have because one thing is
- 35:00when I, when they bring me in to walk around and just do like a
- 35:04tour, people are like, who is that?
- 35:06Who's that Lady? What's she doing?
- 35:07And I'm like, hi, I introduce myself and this is nothing
- 35:09punitive. I'm here.
- 35:10They brought me in as an ergonomic specialist to come in
- 35:12and try to make your job safer. You should see people's faces.
- 35:17I mean, I love it. I they're like, are you serious?
- 35:19They would pay to bring you in and there's gratitude.
- 35:22And so I kid you not, there was, this is, this isn't that same
- 35:25facility I was describing to you.
- 35:27I was there for like 2 days. It was so big.
- 35:29I would try to tour multiple shifts.
- 35:31And I had walked by this area that was just like really
- 35:33cluttered. It was a trip hazard.
- 35:34It wasn't good. You know, I was taking pictures
- 35:36all over the place. And when I came back the next
- 35:38day, they flagged me down and they said, hey, we look, we
- 35:41clean this up and we reorganized this whole area to make it
- 35:43ergonomically safer. This was me on a tour.
- 35:46So that just shows the power of bringing somebody in and saying,
- 35:51hey, we're caring about this and we're putting eyes on this.
- 35:53They're they're taking their own initiative to make something
- 35:56safer. And they created a great
- 35:57solution. And I was like, Yep, that is
- 36:00amazing. And now we've not only we're not
- 36:02just reducing it, we've eliminated there is no more slip
- 36:04and trip hazard because you've gotten these things up off the
- 36:06floor. You know, So what I have found
- 36:08is it's absolutely crucial to have that white to Gray to blue
- 36:13collar communication stream open because if these guys know what
- 36:18these guys are doing and this one can effectively go back and
- 36:20forth, we're going to have so much greater success in it.
- 36:24And what we've found is by using some of these numbers because
- 36:28that's what speaks, right? That's the common language we
- 36:30all share are the numbers are those hard data?
- 36:33So when we can come in and show them, hey, this is what your
- 36:36risk is. These this is what is happening.
- 36:39And I'm coming in and I'm making a, this would cost $750 to buy
- 36:43this little thing, but it will reduce your risk by 80%.
- 36:46You know, then they're way more likely to say, holy moly, OK,
- 36:50and have those numbers in front of them.
- 36:51And they're not perfect, but it, it really does bridge some of
- 36:55those communication barriers and gaps between, you know, that the
- 36:58people who are on the front lines, the people who aren't.
- 37:01Yeah, I know we're getting short on time, but I, you had
- 37:05mentioned breath work before and I'm a real geek for breath work.
- 37:10And I know that it I know that you guys are kind of bringing it
- 37:14in into a few different areas of Catamount.
- 37:17But it, it obviously you know, that mind body connection, it
- 37:20plays directly in with what you're doing with ergonomics.
- 37:23And I'm just, you know, it's, it's, it's interesting because I
- 37:26know I saw Scott and Stacy do a talk the other day and they were
- 37:31talking about breath work. And it was in my mind, I was
- 37:35like, uh oh, they're, they're going to the woo side of things
- 37:38here, you know, and they're talking about breath work, you
- 37:41know, and I was like, I wonder how this is going to be received
- 37:43by this crew. And it was, it was cool because
- 37:47like I saw a lot of people start taking notes and like be very
- 37:50interested in the breath, breath work side of things, which is
- 37:53very refreshing to, to see and to, to witness.
- 37:58Tell me a little bit about how you guys are bringing that in
- 38:01and, and kind of making it more, you know, real world.
- 38:05Like, you know, like up up until the last few years, I feel like
- 38:09breath work was something that only people at yoga studios and
- 38:11that burned a lot of incense really talked about.
- 38:14And, you know, now it's, it's becoming more and more relevant.
- 38:18The military's adopting things like box breathing.
- 38:21You know, there's a lot more science and studies coming out
- 38:24about about breathwork, so give me a little bit about how you
- 38:28guys are implementing that and how you're getting it to be
- 38:30accepted. I think is interesting as well.
- 38:33No, absolutely. And you're very right.
- 38:35And it has always been woo and it's really about how we frame
- 38:38it. And so framing it as this is
- 38:41neuroscience, right? So, I mean, different crowds,
- 38:44we're going to frame it differently.
- 38:45You know, one thing we we've joked about is, you know, when
- 38:47you're in these blue collar, you're not wanting to talk
- 38:50about, well, the breath and the the connection of your butt.
- 38:53No, but. Hey this.
- 38:54This is the thing done in martial arts, right?
- 38:57This is the way to control. This is the way to harness,
- 38:59increase strength. This is the way to kind of
- 39:02hijack the brain systems. And it's a biohack, right?
- 39:05Or a neurohack. People really respond to those
- 39:08kind of things and it when we talk about how we connect a
- 39:11distraction to being run over or, or having these injuries and
- 39:15we say, you know, everyone can relate to smartphones and
- 39:18everyone can relate to degraded attention spans and Ding, Ding,
- 39:21Ding, right. So when we say, hey, what this
- 39:23does is we have an automatic, you know, kind of that robot
- 39:27part of our brain. And then we have our salient
- 39:29part of our brain where we're we're present and we're focused
- 39:31and we're grounded and breath work is a vehicle to get us out
- 39:34of 1 into the other. Or we've actually have studies
- 39:37where pain is reduced when we do this box breathing.
- 39:41We're actually able to reduce anxiety, we're able to bring our
- 39:45blood pressure down by doing some of these things.
- 39:49And so communicating again, not just how we breathe, but why,
- 39:53What is it doing in our mind? What is it doing in our body and
- 39:56how does it tie in exact? Why would a loader operator care
- 40:00whatsoever? But if he's been to the doctor
- 40:02and he's got a 2 pack a day habit and four mountain Dews a
- 40:05day and they've been talking to him about his blood pressure,
- 40:07you know, we're going to be able to say, hey, OK, well we need to
- 40:10stop that. We need to get some better
- 40:11vending machines and we need to address cardiovascular fitness,
- 40:14which we do all of that, but at the same time.
- 40:16Hey, do you get stressed? You know, is this a stressful
- 40:19work environment? And do you find yourself making
- 40:21decisions you wouldn't ordinarily make or, or
- 40:24forgetting things? Here's a way to prevent that.
- 40:26And when I say I just have people, I say, hey, just try it.
- 40:29Would you just try it one time for me?
- 40:30And people are like, oh, I feel better, I feel calmer.
- 40:34And so I think experience always beats an explanation, it beats
- 40:39education. So making it experiential,
- 40:42having them feel it, having them experience it, you know, that's
- 40:45worth me talking for two hours, right?
- 40:47If we can just all do it together.
- 40:48So that's kind of, that's at least my approach.
- 40:50I know Scott and Stacy might have a little bit of a
- 40:52different, you know, how they approach it with more of the
- 40:54mindset mastery and the leadership type skills.
- 40:56But that's how I tie it into the the cognitive.
- 41:00We tie it into the organizational by making us do
- 41:02it as a group. It's of course physical by its
- 41:04very nature. And then we're going to do it a
- 41:05little different based on the environment we're in.
- 41:08Amazing. I love it.
- 41:09Yeah, I, I think, I don't think I mean, I know that like breath
- 41:15work is it's like the it's how you hack your nervous system,
- 41:18right. Exactly.
- 41:20So many different things just by breathing in a different way
- 41:23that can give you a benefit depending on the situation,
- 41:26whether you're trying to excite your nervous system or calm it
- 41:28down or, you know, it's, there's a lot of cool, cool things about
- 41:32breathing that I just feel like most people don't know.
- 41:35And about, you know, the fact that every time you inhale, your
- 41:38heart rate increases. Every time you exhale, your
- 41:40heart rate decreases. And just those two things, you
- 41:43can modify them to have real effect on your, on your
- 41:45Physiology. It's really cool stuff.
- 41:47So it is really cool. And not only that, but one of
- 41:50the big things I hammer in I, I like to talk about breath work,
- 41:53but also how are you breathing? So one of the things I do every
- 41:57single time I do an education course is I tell people, put one
- 41:59hand on your chest and one hand on your belly and I want you to
- 42:01take a deep breath for me. And then they do it.
- 42:04So I see this a lot and I say, hey, if you felt your shoulders
- 42:09go up towards your ears when you take the breath, what you're
- 42:11doing is you're not. Your diaphragm is compromised
- 42:15and you are breathing with secondary muscles because you
- 42:16know this mic after you complete a run.
- 42:18And we need to get air in and out of those lungs.
- 42:20We need to get oxygen in and out fast.
- 42:22We've got our scalenes, we've got our upper trapezius, we've
- 42:24got these accessory muscles that elevate our first ribbon.
- 42:28We get that air in and out because our our bodies need it.
- 42:31But what happens is when we sit and we collapse, I know you guys
- 42:34can't really see, but our diaphragm runs underneath our
- 42:36rib cage and when we put pressure on a muscle, it tells
- 42:40it to turn off. You know, so just like you ever
- 42:43get a crazy muscle spasm and our instinct is to squeeze it, our
- 42:47instinct is to grab it and put pressure into it.
- 42:49So I tease people a lot. Now, this isn't directly related
- 42:52to breath, but we're not built to sit.
- 42:54Our bodies were not designed to sit in a chair all day long.
- 42:58We were designed to kind of squat and we were designed to
- 43:01run and to walk, but not to sit like we do.
- 43:03So our glutes are arguably the most important muscles that
- 43:08protect our low backs. So right now, what are your
- 43:12glutes and my glutes hearing? They're hearing turn off, turn
- 43:15off, turn off, turn off. So when I go to stand up and
- 43:18lift something, I'm going to be recruiting my low back muscles.
- 43:21I'm going to be recruiting my hamstrings.
- 43:22My glutes are OK. So I teach people, Yeah, I call
- 43:26it dead butt syndrome, right? To make people don't laugh.
- 43:28It's not a real thing. But so many of us can't isolate
- 43:31our glutes. So for the diaphragm, it's the
- 43:33same thing. When I sit in a caved forward
- 43:35position all day and I'm not doing anything ever to activate
- 43:38my diaphragm muscle, I'm not able to get up under there.
- 43:40I don't know how to do it with my fingers.
- 43:42I don't know how to do activations with my hands.
- 43:44And I'm breathing all day long like this.
- 43:47And So what that leads to is a rounding of the upper back that
- 43:50leads to that forward head posture.
- 43:51It leads to tightness through the traps and upper back.
- 43:54It leads to more of a rounding of that thoracic spine.
- 43:56And then guess what? My diaphragm is hearing even
- 43:58more of turn off, turn off, turn off.
- 44:00So it's this vicious cycle. So I am all, if you can't tell,
- 44:04I'm all about extension and reversing and opening those
- 44:07things up. But we get people and there's
- 44:09exercises that I take them through.
- 44:10But when you take a deep breath in, this hand should not move.
- 44:14It should be, it should be my belly expanding 360° as a
- 44:20diaphragmatic breath and that is going to increase the quality of
- 44:24each breath. It's going to conserve energy in
- 44:26my body and I'm going to be more productive at work just based on
- 44:30the way I change my breathing. So those are the other things we
- 44:33can talk to people about it. I forgot to mention that a
- 44:35minute ago that we are increasing productivity.
- 44:38If I take 15 minutes to stretch in the morning, we're actually
- 44:41having a workforce that's probably being an hour's worth
- 44:44more productive right throughout the day.
- 44:45So we're actually seeing an increased impact.
- 44:48But unfortunately we can't quantify those are intangibles.
- 44:50But when people are feeling better and they're not having
- 44:5330% of your crew is in hidden pain, we're going to see better
- 44:57work. OK.
- 44:57So that's kind of that's kind of how I I like the breath work
- 45:01that I start with the found because what I found is most
- 45:04people aren't breathing right, let alone we need to head into
- 45:08the breath work. So I like to do that
- 45:09foundational. How are you taking a breath
- 45:11first? Yeah.
- 45:12Or they're holding their breath. Or they're holding their breath.
- 45:15Or they're holding their. Oh my God, I had so many people.
- 45:17I know I talked about this and, and I'll and in the
- 45:20conversation, I'll watch them do it.
- 45:21They start holding their breath. I'm like, do you realize you're
- 45:23not even breathing right now? But people do it.
- 45:26They don't even know they're not breathing.
- 45:27They're just holding their breath.
- 45:29Absolutely. And then again, that's bringing
- 45:30awareness to it. They're gonna be like, wait, I'm
- 45:32doing what? Right.
- 45:33And then we could get into the conversation about what's your
- 45:35resting tongue posture and what's the straight, Are you a
- 45:37mouth breather? Are you snoring?
- 45:38Cuz all of those things are gonna have an impact on all of
- 45:41it. So.
- 45:42Yeah. Tape the mouth, breathe through
- 45:44the nose, Activate. Different mouth tape.
- 45:46Yeah, yeah. Yeah, I know.
- 45:48We don't want to get we. Don't want to get too crazy, but
- 45:52then your workers won't complain if you tape all their mouths
- 45:55shut. Either I can't I can't wear
- 45:56mouth tape my beard. It it just doesn't it doesn't
- 46:00doesn't work doesn't work. I see you can just.
- 46:03Shave like a an Oval. How funny would that be?
- 46:06I would look ridiculous, but it would be all for the mouth tape.
- 46:09I'm doing it for the breath work guys.
- 46:10That's right. You're you're, you're practicing
- 46:13what you preach. Alicia, I, I don't want to keep
- 46:17you on here all day, so I, I really appreciate your time
- 46:20coming on, especially with such short notice.
- 46:22If people want to learn more about you, about Catamount,
- 46:25about how they you guys are helping companies, where can
- 46:28they find you? Our website's probably the best
- 46:31place to go. Has explanations for everything
- 46:32we do. It's
- 46:33www.catamountconsultingllc.com so that's probably the quickest,
- 46:38easiest way it links you to. Our Facebook and.
- 46:40Instagram. And you got, yeah, you got the
- 46:42socials going on, the Facebooks, the Instagrams, the Linkedins,
- 46:45all the stuff. So, well, thank you so much for
- 46:47joining and coming on and and talking to us about ergonomics.
- 46:51Really appreciate it. Absolutely appreciate you having
- 46:53me. Yeah, absolutely, of course.
- 46:56Thanks everybody for listening. You know, check us out buying
- 46:58local dot US is our media site. You can find all of our news
- 47:01articles, our podcasts, check out our other podcasts.
- 47:05We have, of course, Blue Collar Startup, which is one of our
- 47:08more popular podcasts. We also got a newer podcast with
- 47:11Steven Zabala from Green Fork and that is called Food for
- 47:15Thought. Definitely check that out.
- 47:16That focuses a lot on health and Wellness, a lot of the kind of
- 47:18stuff that we're talking about today.
- 47:20And of course, Apple, Spotify, Rumble and YouTube is where you
- 47:24can watch and listen to all of our episodes.
- 47:26So thanks everybody for listening and you'll hear from
- 47:28us next week.