A great many Danes suffer from pain. And it’s not just painful. It also limits their ability to work and results in sick days. Professor Lars Andersen of the National Research Center for the Working Environment believes that we need to focus more on what can strengthen the body and how we can manage pain in the workplace if we are to be able to sustain a long working life.

Many people are in pain. Overall, one in three Danish employees has experienced pain in the past three months, and 5 percent have been limited in their work due to pain. And among employees over the age of 50, one in two experiences pain at least daily or weekly. Among those suffering from pain, 20 percent report that the pain limits their ability to work. This is according to figures from the National Research Center for the Working Environment (NFA). And according to Lars Andersen, a professor of occupational health and pain at the NFA, we need to take this seriously. “For the individual, severe pain reduces quality of life, but it also affects the economy and workplaces in the form of sick leave, so there will be significant benefits for everyone if we can reduce pain and become better at managing it,” he says. According to the professor, pain is a protective mechanism that has evolved to shield us from injury. It is the brain’s way of telling us that there is something we need to do differently. Pain is complex and stems from genetics and lifestyle factors such as smoking, alcohol, exercise, obesity, and stress. But it can also be caused by work. Especially physically demanding work increases the risk that the pain will limit one’s ability to perform the job, says Lars Andersen. A full day in an office chair can also be taxing on the body. – You can certainly get tired and sore in the neck and shoulders from sitting in front of a computer screen all day, especially if you’re going through a stressful period, says the professor, who is also concerned with what we can do to both prevent pain from occurring and manage it when it does. – Pain is a part of life and an important protective mechanism. But we must do what we can to prevent chronic pain, and we need to get better at managing pain in the workplace, says Lars Andersen. And according to the professor, this is about creating a better balance between the demands of the job and what we can handle as individuals. In addition to minimizing risk factors such as heavy lifting, twisting and bending the back, and repetitive, one-sided work, it’s also about getting used to thinking about what can strengthen us and prepare us for our work tasks, and about adapting our work as we get older if we are to be able to handle the work until retirement age. – Starting around age 40, we lose one to two percent of our muscle strength each year. We need to focus more on what can strengthen the body and make it stronger, while also improving the work environment. So there are several pieces to the puzzle of a healthy and safe working life, says Lars Andersen.

Exercise can significantly reduce pain

One of the areas Lars Andersen has researched extensively is exercise and pain. He holds a master’s degree in exercise physiology and, in his own words, was taught that pain must be trained away—as is customary for elite athletes—before he turned his attention to workplaces and began researching whether exercise also works for employees with pain. Together with his team, he has now tested whether exercise alleviates pain in a range of different occupational groups, including slaughterhouse workers, laboratory technicians, social and healthcare workers, office workers, construction workers, and nurses. The studies show that strength training targeting the muscles that are causing pain significantly reduces the pain. For those who did intensive strength training three times a week for twenty minutes each session, the pain was reduced by 80 percent. Those who performed a single exercise for two minutes a day saw their pain reduced by about one-third. “Of course, it’s a huge benefit not to be in so much pain. But it also means it’s easier to do your job, because the pain doesn’t hinder you to the same extent in performing your work, and it might help you avoid calling in sick,” he says. Lars Andersen is pleased that the proportion of Danish employees who have been offered light exercise activities—such as resistance band training or back exercises—through their workplace has risen from 15 percent in 2012 to 22 percent in 2018, according to the latest figures from the NFA. On the other hand, seven percent fewer employees are offered exercise activities or weekly exercise, so that in 2018, 31 percent received such an offer. “It’s positive that there’s an increase in small exercises, as they’re easy to implement at work as an active break with colleagues and the boss. But in any case, there are still many who aren’t offered exercise opportunities, and most need them because it can be hard to find the energy and time to go to the gym after work,” he says.

It's more effective to exercise at work

And the workplace is a good place to exercise, according to Lars Andersen’s research. Although the exercises can, in principle, be done anywhere, a 2018 study of social and healthcare workers and nurses shows that exercising at work is more effective. In the study, participants were divided into two groups, with one group exercising at home and the other with colleagues at work. The study shows that those who used resistance bands and lifted dumbbells at work exercised twice as much and experienced significantly less soreness than those who exercised at home. “It’s just easier to get it done when a colleague drags you along, and it becomes a regular routine where you also get to see your colleagues. It’s harder after the kids are in bed and you’re tired after a day at work,” says Lars Andersen. And it’s best of all if exercise becomes part of the workplace culture. – If the workplace just provides resistance bands or a gym, and it’s up to the individual to use them, most people will only do so once they’re already in pain. That’s when we’re most motivated, according to one of our studies. But if you make exercise an integral part of the workplace culture, over time you’ll be able to get more and more people on board, including those who aren’t in pain, says Lars Andersen, whose research also shows that exercising with colleagues strengthens collaborative relationships. In some places, you can even integrate exercise and movement at work with your job tasks. – We see this, for example, in some daycare centers, where the teachers get to move around during the day through the activities they do with the children. You can imagine the same thing at a nursing home. Here, the staff might exercise together with the residents. The elderly can move their arms without resistance or using a very light resistance band, while the staff can use stiffer bands or weights. That way, a frail 90-year-old can easily exercise with a fit 20-year-old, says Lars Andersen. In other workplaces, it will be necessary to set aside time for exercise and incorporate active breaks. – We have demonstrated across job groups that it is possible to perform strength training during the workday together with colleagues. And it will benefit the workplace to prioritize this, because it will create a better balance between the demands of the job and the employees’ physical capacity, says Lars Andersen. And several workplaces are already doing this. For example, the City of Copenhagen has introduced exercise during work hours for employees in elder care as a workplace health initiative and a form of physical skill development. The goal of the initiative is to improve and extend employees’ working lives. Lars Andersen himself sometimes works out with colleagues from his research team in the gym at NFA. For example, they take turns doing pull-ups. This is an exercise for the back and arms where you use your arms to lift your body up. Every now and then, they also lift some weights. – We don’t follow a set strength training program. Just whenever we feel like it. After all, we’re a bunch of exercise physiologists and physical therapists, and it’s not like my team lacks motivation to go to the gym. But we’ve made it a regular routine to take a quick walk and talk after lunch to discuss matters big and small, while doing something good for our bodies and our team spirit,” says Lars Andersen.

Social Inequality in Workplace Training

When looking at who is offered exercise during work hours, there is a social disparity. The SeniorArbejdsLiv study shows that it is more common for people with higher education and sedentary jobs to be offered exercise than for those with less education and manual labor. For employees over 50, 17 percent of those with sedentary jobs are offered exercise at work, while only 8 percent of those with physically demanding jobs are. “It’s a paradox, because people with physically demanding jobs need exercise even more, since there’s a greater imbalance between the body’s capacity and the physical demands of the job, especially as you get older and lose some muscle strength,” says Lars Andersen. At the same time, pain has greater consequences for employees with physically demanding jobs. “If you have pain and a physically demanding job, you’ll have a harder time managing the work than if you have pain and a job that isn’t as physically demanding. But you could say that everyone should generally exercise to prevent pain.” Reference