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Digital EditionNational Comp 2026: Ergonomic Training for Today’s Workforce
Sprains, strains, and tears consistently account for roughly one-third of all workplace injuries, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. For safety professionals, risk managers, and employers, that statistic represents more than a line item on a loss run — it reflects workers who are hurting, jobs that go uncovered, and workers’ compensation claims that pile up year after year.
At a Sept. 29 National Comp session in Las Vegas, attendees learned that the path to reducing those injuries doesn’t always require expensive engineering overhauls. More often, it starts with how workers are trained to use their bodies on the job.
“As adults, we learn differently now than we did in our youth,” said Katie McCabe, an occupational therapist and ergonomics analyst for the Mayo Clinic Health System. “The information we need to learn has to be relevant right now. Why are you giving me this information? How is it going to impact me?”
McCabe, who spent her first decade in outpatient rehabilitation before moving into on-site ergonomics work, told the room that the most meaningful injury-reduction gains come from meeting workers where they are — on the floor, in the plant, at the desk — and showing them how subtle shifts in technique produce big results.
The Hidden Culprit Behind Most Ergonomic Injuries
When McCabe evaluates a worker experiencing discomfort, she categorizes the root cause into one of two “mismatches”: technique or design.
“Eighty percent of the time, when I’m working with someone who’s fatiguing or has discomfort, it’s from a technique mismatch,” McCabe said. “That’s habits and choices. The other 20% is design — too high, too far, too low, too heavy, or the wrong piece of equipment.”
Horizontal reach, she said, is the single greatest risk factor for injury across virtually every industry she works in. To illustrate, McCabe asked an attendee to hold a gallon of milk — just eight pounds — close to her body, then extend her arms forward. What feels effortless at the torso becomes 72 pounds of force at the elbows and 96 pounds at the shoulders when extended out in front.
That principle plays out everywhere: a maintenance worker reaching across a pallet to grab a 20-pound part, an office employee leaning forward to pull a tissue from a Kleenex box, a healthcare worker reaching over a patient to help them stand. McCabe recalled one worker named Matt who re-injured his back doing exactly that — reaching for a tissue.
“As soon as you go nose over toes, whatever is out in front of you, your low back is loaded with 40% of your body weight plus the weight of the item,” McCabe said.
She also pointed to what she calls “fighting the five” — five common wrist and hand positions that quietly rob workers of strength. Bending the wrist down during a gripping task, for example, can cut grip strength by 40 to 45%. Ulnar deviation, like hammering with a bent wrist, cuts another 20 to 25%. Pressure at the base of the palm, restriction from tight hairbands or PPE, and carrying objects in a supinated position all add up to tendons and nerves working harder than they should.
Simple Techniques Workers Can Learn and Apply
McCabe teaches two rules that she said apply equally to work, home, and leisure: keep it close, and keep the curves.
“Keep it close” means working with loads, tools, and tasks as near to the body as possible. “Keep the curves” means maintaining the spine’s natural inward curve at the neck, outward curve at the upper back, and inward curve at the low back — what McCabe calls the body’s “position of strength.”
To demonstrate, McCabe uses a tug-of-war exercise during her trainings. When handed an imaginary rope, nearly every worker instinctively drops into the same posture: head over shoulders, elbows bent close to 90 degrees, wrists neutral, staggered stance, slight bend at the hips and knees.
“Any one of us could play tug of war and set ourselves up the same way,” McCabe said. “I like to say that technique is less demanding — because it’s all about language, too, when we’re talking to people.”
Language matters, McCabe emphasized. She avoids words like “pain,” “bad,” “wrong,” and “faster,” which shut workers down or shift blame to equipment or coworkers. Instead, she uses “fatigue and discomfort,” “more demanding” versus “less demanding,” and “safe speed.”
She also recommends four compensation techniques when workers can’t fully keep it close and keep the curves: delegate, buddy up, use material-handling equipment, and stretch. On stretching, McCabe offered a rule of thumb: because most work happens out in front of the body, the best stretches move the body in the opposite direction. Chin tucks, hamstring stretches, backward shoulder circles, and scapular squeezes — pushing the shoulder blades “into your back pocket” — target the muscles that take the most abuse during a shift.
Turning Training Into Results on the Floor
Classroom training alone, McCabe said, rarely moves the needle. Adults learn best through a kinesthetic approach — small snippets of information applied immediately on the job, with the worker experiencing the difference firsthand.
“Once we include employees and they participate with us and can feel the difference, now they have ownership,” McCabe said. “That’s where buy-in comes into play.”
She recalled a 600-employee manufacturer that had paid out roughly $1 million in workers’ compensation claims over four to five years. Over 12 to 18 months, McCabe’s team delivered training to all leadership and every line worker, then went out on the floor to help each employee apply the techniques to their specific job. Eighteen months after the team finished, the company paid out just $600 in workers’ comp.
One of those workers was a woman named Terri Ann, who had been cutting hoses by hand for 30 years and had battled tennis elbow for 20 of them. Using a dynamometer, McCabe measured that Terri Ann was generating 80 to 90 pounds of force with every cut, all day long. The fix wasn’t technique — it was design. A battery-operated cutter solved the problem.
“That was the one design change we did out of 600 people,” McCabe said. “Terri Ann doesn’t have to go see anyone for tennis elbow anymore.”
For employers looking to reduce ergonomic injuries, McCabe’s advice is to rethink what training looks like. Lectures and PowerPoints produce limited retention. Hands-on examples, relevant demonstrations, and worker participation produce lasting behavior change — and the right language keeps workers engaged rather than defensive.
“Einstein said insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting the same results,” McCabe said. “So I ask: do we offer training, or do we give a different output that ends in learning?”
