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If you’re a tradie, you need your body to be in great shape so you can do your job. You’re always on the move, lifting, hammering, drilling, tiling, roofing, or fitting pipes.

About 30% of Australia’s workforce are tradies.

That’s a bit less than a third, yet more than half (58%) of serious claims for workers’ compensation come from this group. Workplace injuries are three times more likely to happen to tradies than to other workers.

Have you been injured at work, either in an accident or through repeatedly straining your body?

At The Brisbane Spine Clinic, we commonly look after tradies who are experiencing work-related pain, strain, and injuries. With early intervention, physiotherapy can help you build strength and flexibility to recover from injury and reduce the risk of further problems.

You wouldn’t ignore a warning light on your ute. Pain is your body’s warning system. Don’t ignore it.

Here we talk about work injury prevention as well as what you can do if you already have pain. We highlight four common workplace injuries we treat at The Brisbane Spine Clinic and provide some exercises you might like to try. We also give you an idea of what to expect from an appointment with one of our physios.

Work injury prevention

Want to know how to prevent injuries at work?

You probably take great care of your tools. But, if you’re like most tradies, you tend to neglect your body.

Booking in with a physiotherapist before you have a problem, may help safeguard against injury.

Injuries are more likely to happen when you’re rushing or distracted. So, when you arrive at a job, pause and think about your safety. Do you have the right tools, the right approach, and the right help available?

Make sure you’re concentrating on your work. If your mind isn’t on the job, you’re more likely to hurt yourself or someone else. We all know distraction is dangerous!

Lastly, and very importantly, warm up before you start a job. A few stretches will improve your flexibility and reduce your risk of injury.

Aim to stretch your legs, shoulders, chest, forearms, and neck at the beginning of every shift.

Already experiencing pain? Here’s how to prevent further injury

Physical jobs and repetitive tasks can, in time, cause wear and tear, resulting in aches and pains.

Try as we might to avoid injury, sometimes, it catches up to us anyway.

At the Brisbane Spine Clinic, we often see tradies who’ve been pressing on despite niggling pains until the problem becomes so big, they can’t ignore it anymore.

If you’re already experiencing pain, the best thing you can do is get it seen to. A physiotherapist at The Brisbane Spine Clinic can assess and treat your injury, as well as create an exercise program specific to you, to help you recover and protect against further injury.

Your physiotherapist can also give you practical advice on how you could continue to work without making your injury worse. If you already have pain.

Remember, your body is the most important and valuable tool you have.

Now let’s discuss the most common injuries we see.

Back Pain

Back pain is the most common injury tradies experience.

You use your back for almost everything you do, especially in a physically demanding job. All that lifting, pushing, pulling and twisting can strain the muscles in your lower back.

Your back is a complex structure. Over-the-counter painkillers can ease the initial pain in your back, but if the pain returns, you should see your doctor or physio.

A physio can assess your movements, manipulate your spine, and teach you some stretches or exercises to strengthen your back.

Here’s how to prevent back injuries at work:

Stay fit, flexible, and strong.
Warm up before every shift.
Don’t lift too much – get a mate to help or use lifting equipment.
Maintain the natural curves of your spine.
Try to avoid lifting above your head or below your waist.

Exercise for back pain

Arthritis Australia advises that exercise is one of the most effective ways to relieve back pain and build strength in your back and core. Exercise helps you recover from back injury and prevent further injury.

One common exercise for back pain is called ‘The Dead Bug’ (but don’t let that put you off, it’s nothing like the ones you clean off your windscreen).

This exercise is great for rehabbing your back as it keeps your spine in a safe, neutral position while helping to build core strength and stability.

Lay on your back with your arms straight up, fingers pointing to the sky. Lift your legs so that your thighs are parallel with your arms and bend your knees. This is the starting position.
Keeping your left arm straight, lower it towards the floor by your left ear. At the same time, extend your right leg out straight. Hover both your arm and leg just above the ground for a few seconds.
Return to the starting position and repeat on the other side.

Neck Pain

Your neck is a delicate structure to support a load as heavy as your head.

Ideally, you’d spend most of your time in a neutral posture with your ears over your shoulders, your chest open, and your shoulders back. This minimises stress on your neck by balancing your head’s weight on your neck.

But, you probably don’t spend most of your time like that.

As a tradie, you might be craning your neck to work above you, twisting to fit into a confined space, or looking backwards at the load on your vehicle.

And when you get home at the end of a demanding day, you might slouch on the couch.

The end result? Neck pain.

You can apply a heat pack to a sore neck, get a neck massage or do some neck stretches regularly.

You should also sit in a better position on your sofa and adjust your sleeping position and pillows to support your neck.

At work, try to take regular breaks and focus on bringing your neck back into a good position. Another option is to mix up your tasks so that you combine neck-straining tasks with other work.

Exercise for Neck Pain

A great way to help prevent neck pain is to keep your neck strong. You could perform these exercises before starting your workday to both improve neck strength and warm up your neck, helping to avoid injury.

Back and Forward Tilts

Start in a neutral position, with your back and neck straight, looking forward.
Slowly and gently lower your chin to your chest. Hold it there for 15 seconds before lifting it back up to a neutral position.
Tilt your chin up towards the sky. Hold for 15 seconds before returning to a neutral position.
Repeat.

Side Tilts

Start in a neutral position, with your back and neck straight, looking forward.
Slowly and gently lower your head to the left side. Try to touch your ear to your shoulder without lifting your shoulder.
Stop when you feel the stretch and hold for 15 seconds before returning to neutral.
Repeat on the other side.

Elbow Pain

You probably never think about your elbows and yet you use them constantly.

Each time you grip, lift, or use a tool, you’re using your elbows.

The most common cause of elbow pain is inflammation of the tendons. This is called tendinitis and is often the result of overuse.

To reduce elbow pain, try to rest your elbow if you can. If it’s hard to change what you do at work, then at least rest your elbow at home.

Heat can help to soothe your inflamed tendons so warm up a heat pack and set your elbow on it.

Your doctor or physio may also recommend an elbow brace or suggest stretching your elbow. To do this, hold your arm out with your palm facing the floor. Use your other hand to pull your fingers back towards you. Then stretch it the other way by pulling your fingers under your arm towards your wrist.

You could also incorporate bicep curls into your daily exercise routine to strengthen your upper arm. This can help to take some of the load off your elbows.

Also, your physio may be able to suggest better ways of gripping or holding tools to protect your elbow.

Exercises for Elbow Pain

Improving the strength of the muscles that support and stabilise your elbow will help you to recover from elbow pain and prevent it from coming back.

Here is an exercise you could try.

Wrist Turns

Bend your elbow at a right angle with your hand palm up.
Turn your wrist slowly until your palm is facing down.
Hold for 5 seconds then turn back. Repeat.
- As you build up strength you could add a light weight to your hand. Anything will do, you might hold your hammer or a water bottle.

Knee Pain

You think you’re on your feet all day, but you’d be surprised how much time you spend on your knees. That’s especially true if you’re fitting a carpet, laying pavers, or crawling into a tight spot.

When you spend a lot of time kneeling, you can irritate the small fluid-filled sac (bursa) in front of your kneecap. This is called prepatellar bursitis, but it’s commonly known as housemaid’s knee. Your knee may be sore, tender, and swollen.

Over-the-counter medicines can be used to relieve pain and a heat pack may help.

Your physio can show you some exercises. If the problem persists, your doctor may use a needle to remove the fluid or inject an anti-inflammatory medicine.

If you’re kneeling a lot or have already had an episode of tradie’s knee (as we should probably call it now), then it’s time to use a thick foam cushion or some knee pads.

Exercise for Knee Pain

If you’re experiencing knee pain, this exercise might help by loosening the tendons and muscles around your knee joint.

Standing Quad Stretch

Holding a chair for balance, stand on one foot with the opposite knee bent.
Hold the ankle of the leg you are stretching behind you and very gently pull it towards your bottom until you can feel the stretch along the front of your thigh.
Hold for 30 seconds then swap sides.

How Can the Brisbane Spine Clinic Help?

If you’re a tradie, you need a good physio.

We aim to support your recovery from injury and to reduce the risk of being injured again.

We work with you to keep your body as fit, healthy, and well as possible, keeping you on the tools for as long as you want to be there.

But how do we do all of that you ask?

Here’s what your physiotherapist might do at your appointment:

Test your flexibility, fitness, and muscle strength to create an exercise program that’s individual to you, your body, and your needs.
Hands-on manual therapy, to carefully move tissues and joints to restore movement, improve strength, balance and relieve pain.
Work with you to activate your stabilising muscles so that you can lift weight and perform other physical tasks safely and more efficiently.
Assess and correct your posture.
Provide advice on work modifications where necessary.

And how do we do all of that?

Some of the techniques we might use include:

Massage
Manipulation
Mobilisation
Taping
Laser
Hydrotherapy
Heat treatment
Functional and rehabilitative exercise
Clinical Pilates

Come and see us

At The Brisbane Spine Clinic, we blend high-quality evidence-based treatment with common sense about what’s possible in your working environment.

That means we give you realistic advice, you can put into practice.

Whether you’re already experiencing pain, you want to prevent flare-ups of old injuries or you just can’t afford any more sickies, we can help.

Work long hours?

Fly in fly out?

Don’t worry if it’s a struggle to make it to appointments, we have 3 convenient locations are open 6 days a week and late nights.

We fit in with you!

Get in touch to book an appointment with one of our physiotherapists today.

* All information is general and is not intended to be a substitute for professional medical advice. The Brisbane Spine Clinic physiotherapists can consult with you to confirm if these exercises are right for you.